October 6

Wordy Wednesday #11

I was having quite an interesting chat with my Upper-Intermediate adult group the other day about what they can hope to achieve in English.  We were talking about fluency and bilingualism, and one of them asked if I thought that bilingual education would produce bilingual students.

What do you think?  If a child attends a mono-cultural, bilingual school, will they become bilingual?

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Posted October 6, 2010 by Teresa Bestwick in category Wordy Wednesday

5 thoughts on “Wordy Wednesday #11

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  2. shadowfalcon

    Several relatives of mine (in Bangladesh) are bilingual because they went to school that used mainly English.

    So I agree with your student – I think attending a bilingual school would produce bilingual students.

    Reply
    1. Teresa Bestwick (Post author)

      Thanks for the comment, Rx. Is there access to a lot of English in Bangladesh – on television, in music, etc? I always wonder whether simply attending a bilingual school is enough, or if students need extra-curricular stimuli in order to get to a bilingual level.

      Reply
  3. Beccie

    Hi T, just saw this post. As you know I’m working in an International school in Italy, where the main language is English. Our international numbers are dropping which is having a negative effect on the standard of the Italian children’s English. However, after being at our school for a minimum of 5 years, they are pretty much bilingual. Obviously if they have international friends their grammar and pronunciation is much better, and they are more enthusiastic to watch TV in English, read English books etc etc. It is something we’re always questionning with our school, as our point isn’t to teach English, it’s the methodology and curriculum we teach THROUGH English. Therefore, I think that if English is taught in an interesting and fun way, the children will want to continue learning, and would (hopefully!) include English within their own extra-curricular activities.
    Sorry for the essay!!!

    Reply
    1. Teresa Bestwick (Post author)

      Thanks for the comment, Beccie. It’s interesting to hear your take, being an International School teacher. Here in Spain, some schools are adopting a bilingual stream in some subjects, but only private schools are fully bilingual. I think you’re right that students need to enjoy using the language in order to want to use it in their free time as well.

      Reply

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