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| George Bunch |
Bunch said the goal of the study is to better understand the language-related challenges facing students from language minority backgrounds in academic settings. Such knowledge can inform educators in their efforts to create the most effective means of preparing students, both in K-12 schools and in community colleges, for college-level academic work.
Bunch is one of 20 recipients of the 2010 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowships that provide $55,000 for up to two years to pursue research in education.
"This is one of the most prestigious fellowships in the field of education," said Kip Téllez, chair of the Education Department at UC Santa Cruz. "We're very proud of George." The fellowship will allow Bunch to build on his past research on how to improve educational conditions for English learners, Téllez said.
Bunch said he plans to document the language demands of programs aimed at preparing students for professional degrees or certificates, such as those in nursing, X-ray technology or early childhood education, as well as programs in the liberal arts, social sciences and engineering that prepare students to transfer to four-year colleges and universities.
"There is widespread agreement that college-level work in English presents challenges for students from immigrant and language minority backgrounds," Bunch said, "yet there is very little research that actually documents what those challenges are in specific academic contexts."
He is concentrating his research on what educators and researchers call "Generation 1.5 students," college students who arrived in the United States during their K-12 school years. Their backgrounds and language characteristics fit neither the profile of newer immigrants and international students nor of monolingual English speakers, Bunch said.
"It could be that many of the challenges facing U.S.-educated language minority students are similar to those encountered by native English speakers in community colleges, and others may be unique to that population." Bunch said. "Because they have attended U.S. schools for a number of years, these are clearly not the adult immigrant population and international students that most community college English as a Second Language (ESL) programs were initially designed to serve."
He is focusing on community college students because groups identified as underrepresented at four-year universities and colleges typically begin their academic careers at community colleges.
Bunch is currently completing a three-year project, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, focusing on the testing and placement of U.S.-educated language minority students in California community colleges.
Bunch, who joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in 2004, holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a Ph.D. in education from Stanford.