Expanding Definitions of Giftedness: The Case of Young Interpreters From Immigrant Communities

by Valdés, Guadalupe; Valdes, Guadalupe; Angelelli, Claudia; Brookes, Heather

• ISBN13: 9780805840506
• ISBN10: 0805840508
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-01
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbau

Summary

This book is about bilingual young people who have been selected by their families to carry out the hard work of interpreting and translating to mediate communication between themselves and the outside world--between minority and majority communities. It examines the experiences of these young interpreters and the skills they develop in order to fulfill this role. The authors' purpose in this volume is to contribute to extending current definitions of giftedand talented,by proposing and offering evidence that the young people who are selected to serve as family interpreters perform at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, and environment, and should thus clearly be included in the 1993 U.S. federal definition of giftedness. They maintain that not only are these capabilities currently overlooked by existing assessment procedures, but also that there is little understanding of the ways in which the unique talents of young interpreters might be nurtured and developed in academic settings. A strong case is made that in order for such students to be identified as gifted on the basis of their bilingual abilities, the field of gifted and talented education must embrace the concept that bilingualism is a strength. The field must also make developing bilingualism a focus of programs designed to meet the needs of the increasingly multilingual student population in the United States. The research this book reports--part of a larger five-year study of giftedness through linguistic and cultural lenses, funded by OERI through the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented--was conducted by researchers whose background is very much outside the field of gifted education. Rather, their focus is on language, working within the traditions of qualitative sociolinguistics. Thus, this book offers a unique approach to the exploration of giftedness. It asks researchers and practitioners ordinarily accustomed to working with quantitative data to examine and make sense of detailed and rich analyses of students' linguistic performance, and argues that it is only by understanding the challenges of such bilingual interactions that the field of gifted and talented education can expand and reframe its vision of giftedness.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xvii
In Search of Giftedness: The Case of Latino Immigrant Children	p. 1
Latino Immigrant Children	p. 1
Latino Immigrant Students and the Identification of Giftedness	p. 2
Gifted Education	p. 5
Defining Giftedness	p. 7
Current Definitions of Giftedness
Identifying Giftedness in Minority Children
Programs for the Gifted
Conceptions of Giftedness	p. 14
Discussion of Three Conceptions of Giftedness and Intelligence	p. 18
Sternberg's Triarchic Model of Intelligence
The Componential Subtheory
The Experiential Subtheory
The Contextual Subtheory
Interactive Nature of Components
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences
The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness
Bilingual Language Abilities in Current Conceptualizations of Giftedness
Bilinguals and Bilingualism	p. 25
Professional Interpreters: The Case of Highly Skilled Bilingual Individuals	p. 25
Translators and Interpreters
Characteristics of Interpreters and Potential Interpreters
Translation/Interpretation as a Process
The Abilities of Novice Interpreters/Translators
Ethnographic Studies of Young Intepreters
The Study of Bilingualism	p. 35
Types of Bilingual Individuals
Privileged Child Bilinguals
Majority-Group Children Schooled in a Minority Language
Minority Children Schooled in a Majority Language
Three Types of Child Bilinguals: A Summary
The Problem of the Monolingual Perspective
Bilinguals and the Concept of the Native Speaker
The Question of Access
Language in Bilingual Communities: The Case of Mexican-Origin Bilinguals
The Appropriateness of the Monolingual Norm
The Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism	p. 50
Early Work on Bilingualism and Intellectual Development
Research on Bilingualism and Cognitive Functions After 1960
Research on Disadvantaged Immigrant Children
Concerns About the Research on the Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism	p. 59
A Performance Team: Young Interpreters and Their Parents	p. 63
Young Interpreters in Latino Immigrant Communities	p. 63
Interviews with Parents of Young Interpreters	p. 67
Coming to Stay
English-Language Proficiency
Situations in Which Interpreters Are Needed
Children Chosen to Interpret for Adult Parents
Child Characteristics
Evaluation of Good Interpretations
Characteristics of Good Interpreters in General
Parents and Child Interpreters: A Summary
Young Interpreters' View of Themselves	p. 84
Situations in Which Youngsters Were Asked to Interpret
The Act of Interpreting/Translating Remembered
Reasons for Selection of Young Interpreters
Evaluating Their Performance as Interpreters
Successful and Unsuccessful Experiences
Young Interpreters: A Summary
Using Young Interpreters: Family Strategies for Survival
The Study of Young Interpreters: Methods, Materials, and Analytical Challenges	p. 99
The Development of a Simulated Interpretation Task	p. 99
The Development of the Script for the Interpretation Task	p. 100
Subjects	p. 102
Procedures	p. 107
Analytical Challenges	p. 108
Assessing Quality of Interpretation
Quality Assessment and Community interpreting
Analyzing the Performance of Young Interpreters	p. 110
The Process of Data Analysis
The Performance of the Young Interpreters on the Scripted Task	p. 119
The Analysis of Students' Performance	p. 119
The Transmission of Original Information	p. 121
Transmission of Essential Communicative Actions
Transmission of Essential Communicative Actions
Strategies Utilized in Transmitting Original Information
Zero-Renditions
Nonrenditions
Strategies Used in Transmitting Original Information
Conveying Tone and Stance	p. 139
Conveying Tone and Stance: Summary
Keeping Up with Communication Demands	p. 144
Monitoring and Compensating for Linguistic Limitations
Responding to Lexical Challenges
Responding to Lexical Challenges: A Summary
Communicating Using Flawed Language	p. 155
English-Language Disfluencies
Spanish-Language Disfluencies
Summary: The Performance of Young Interpreters	p. 161
Metalinguistic Awareness and Academic Potential	p. 162
The Gifts and Talents of Young Interpreters: Implications for Researchers and Practitioners	p. 165
The Performance of Young Interpreters: A Summary	p. 165
The High Performance Capacity of Young Interpreters	p. 166
Young Interpreters: The Perspective of Conceptions of Giftedness	p. 166
Jackson and Butterfield's Explicit Conception of Giftedness
The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences
The Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness
The Everyday Giftedness of Young Interpreters	p. 171
The Cognitive Competence of Young Bilinguals	p. 172
Implications for Researchers: Bilingual Students and Monolingual Bias	p. 173
Developing the Talents of Latino Immigrant Children: Challenges, Questions, and Opportunities	p. 179
Barriers and Challenges: Conceptions of Giftedness and Gifted Education	p. 179
Latino Immigrant Children in American Schools	p. 183
Latino Immigrant Students and Explanations of School Failure
The National Challenge: Educating English-Language Learners
Keep Up Versus Catch Up
Gifted Education and Latino Immigrant Children
The Establishment of Gifted Education Programs for Latino Immigrant Students	p. 187
The Question of High Capacity and High Levels of Accomplishment	p. 188
Categories and Areas of Giftedness	p. 192
Arguing for an Expanded Definition
Using Existing Categories to Classify the Giftedness of Young Interpreters
The Question of Assessment and Identification	p. 194
Opportunities: Establishing Programs to Nurture the Abilities of Latino Immigrant Youth	p. 196
List of Tables and Figures	p. 199
Notes	p. 201
References	p. 205
Author Index	p. 219
Subject Index	p. 225
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.