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As research on peer teaching in bilingual settings has generally focussed on adult structured peer tutoring relationships, little is known about the nature of peer collaboration in the naturally occurring events of bilingual classrooms. In this study1 the instructional episodes engaged in by bilingual children of different English language proficiencies were observed in two types of first grade classrooms over the course of one year. It was found that peer instruc tional episodes were relatively common and that proficiency in English was not a determining factor in the language choices made by individual students. In addition, language mixing as an instructional strategy was not as common as suggested by studies of bilingual peer tutoring and linguistic related content was scarce. Much of the research on classroom interaction in bilingual settings has focused on the nature of the input provided to learners by adults. This is understandable as the is seen as both the source of academic knowledge and the principal language model for chil dren who are non-native speakers of English. There is, however, a growing awareness among researchers that children use one another as resources in attempting to learn. Such use of fellow students as sources of information would seem to be especially important in class rooms made up of language minority students, where proficiency in the target language may determine a child's access to the teacher. However, the extent to which peer learning ex changes take place in the naturally occurring events of bilingual classrooms and the nature of such exchanges among children of different language proficiencies remain largely unstudied. Recent work on children's social interaction in monolingual classrooms has begun to ex amine the nature of students' interactions with one another. Cooper and her colleagues (1982a), in a cross-sectional analysis of developmental trends in peer learning exchanges, identified seven types of instructional episodes (teaching bid, learning bid, pacing, manage ment, self-evaluation, joining and collaborative) as basic in the interactions of both kindergarten and second grade children. They found, however, that the frequency with which these episodes occurred and the structure of successful bids differed by age and that certain children within each age group to assume the role of teacher. A related study directed by the same author (1982b) reported that in an experimental setting where teaching roles and situations were assigned by the researchers, the strategies used by kindergarteners in successful instructional episodes differed significantly from those employed by second graders. The authors further suggest that the spontaneous nomination of peer teachers in naturally occurring classroom activities may be more related to children's social networks than to the ability level of individual children. Additional evidence for the effectiveness of certain types of discourse strategies among young children is provided by Wilkinson and Calculator (1982). These researchers, investigating peer communication of first graders dur ing reading groups, found that the types of requests employed by individual children influ This content downloaded from 157.55.39.114 on Mon, 25 Apr 2016 05:25:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SPONTANEOUS PEER TEACHING 199 enced their ability to gain information from peers. These works provide important data on micro-level interactions which may affect students' opportunities for developing both social and academic competence. However, as they usually have been limited to a specific context such as a small group activity, they have not allowed for a systematic investigation of the general extent of peer collaboration in children's classroom discourse. Students of peer interaction have also examined the nature of tutoring relationships by pairing a child-teacher with a less proficient classmate. Cazden et al. (1977) and Steinberg and Cazden (1979), using such techniques as naturalistic observation, audio and videotaping and in-depth analysis of transcripts, have documented that children exhibit varying degrees of expertise in dealing with the information transfer and interpersonal aspects of the teach ing role. Mehan (1979), employing a similar methodology, showed that, although the in structional strategies used by children and by adults differed, children could be effective teachers. Using a more traditional product approach to the study of peer interaction, Allen (1976) presents evidence for the effectiveness of peer tutoring programs. While such studies offer insights into the process and product of child-given instruction, the external structuring of the episodes which predetermined both the content and teaching role limits their usefulness in examining children's teaching behavior in spontaneous interactions with peers. In bilingual classrooms, peer relations have been investigated principally with respect to the effects of children's social interaction on their acquisition of a second language. Fillmore (1980), for example, has examined the relative use of English by teachers and students in a monolingual and a bilingual classroom where Chinese-speaking students predominated. From her observations of a single subject child in each classroom, she suggests that a balance of English and NES children in bilingual classrooms is necessary for non-native speakers of English to learn to speak the second language. In a subsequent study (Fillmore, 1982), she reaffirms that in situations where teachers use child-centered activities which promote in teraction among peers, English-speaking children can serve as an important resource in their classmates' second language acquisition. Case studies of Spanish-speaking pre-schoolers lend empirical support to Fillmore's contentions. Research undertaken by Barrows Chester field et al. (1982) indicates consistently high correlations between the use of English with peers and increased English language proficiency. The relationship between peer interaction and language proficiency, however, may be moderated by the linguistic composition of the class (Chesterfield et al., 1983). These studies point out the importance of classroom en vironment in determining the learning situations available to bilingual children. They also hint at children's potential role as teachers in bilingual classrooms. An investigation of the actual teaching behaviors engaged in by children was, however, beyond the scope of each. Sociolinguists and classroom ethnographers describing the discourse patterns of native English-speaking and bilingual children paired with non-English-speaking children in tutor ing or play relationships have begun to provide evidence of specific teaching behaviors. Fillmore (1976), in examining the conditions that facilitated or inhibited the learning of English among five Spanish-speaking subjects paired with English speakers, states that at least one young English-speaking child, despite her inability to speak the native language of her playmate, spontaneously tended to play teacher (p. 702). The girl provided words when her playmate could not find appropriate ones, answered questions and modelled for repetition. Carrasco et al. (1981), in a case study of a bilingual Chicana student designated as a peer-teacher, found that, although the student's proficiency in English was limited, she could successfully carry out a teaching task in Spanish which had been given to her in English by the teacher. In a similar study, that same author (Carrasco, 1981) suggests that code switching may be an important teaching strategy among bilingual peer teachers. Olmedo Williams (1983), studying the discourse of a bilingual Puerto Rican child fluent in both This content downloaded from 157.55.39.114 on Mon, 25 Apr 2016 05:25:30 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 200 CHESTERFIELD AND CHESTERFIELD English and Spanish, found that the child used codeswitching extensively to clarify instruc tions, provide stylistic markers, focus attention, model, and translate when tutoring less pro ficient peers. These studies suggest that while students in bilingual situations are able teachers, the strategies they employ may vary with both their own proficiency in the second language and that of their pupils. A systematic investigation of such relationships with a relatively large sample of children, however, has yet to be made. In this study we are concerned with the form and function of peer teaching among native Spanish-speaking children in the naturally occurring contexts of first grade classrooms. The extent to which peer collaboration is engaged in by individual children is investigated and differences in the strategies employed by students of varying English language proficiency in two types of first grade classrooms are explored.
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