An Understanding of the Concept and Conditions of Bilingualism: A Study in an EFL Setting
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper presents a study carried out at a private school that implemented a bilingual program more than a decade ago. The main aim of the project was to find out how the school community understands the concept of bilingualism and the conditions required to fulfill the goals of a bilingual curriculum at the school. Data were collected through surveys and focus groups made up of different members of the school community. The results showed that bilingualism is associated with a high intensification of English classes and the necessity of having English-speaking employees. Results also depict some theoretical issues about bilingualism and important conditions for implementing a bilingual program.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The authors of the manuscripts accepted for publication in HOW journal are required to sign a nonexclusive license agreement allowing ASOCOPI to reproduce the full text on the Internet or in any other available source. Authors retain copyright of their manuscripts with the following restrictions: first publication is granted to ASOCOPI; nonexclusive agreements with third parties can be established as long as the original publication in the HOW journal is properly acknowledged.
References
Cummins, J. (1990). The Academic, Intellectual, and Linguistic Benefits of Bilingualism. Canadian Parents for French. Retrieved from http://www.cpfcalEnglishlParentslbenefitsbilingualism.htm
Cummins, J. (1994). Knowledge, power and identity in teaching English as a second language. In Genesee, F. (Ed.), Educating second language children: The whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community. (pp. 33-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Delgado, J. & Gutiérrez. (1999). Métodos y técnicas cualitativas de investigación en ciencias sociales. Madrid: Síntesis Psicología. S.A.
De Mejía, A. (2002). Power prestige and bilingualism. International perspectives on elite bilingual education. Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Hakuta, K. (1998). Improving education for all children: Meeting the needs of language minority children. In D. Clark (ed.), Education and the Development of American Youth. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.
Hatch, E.; Flashner, V.; & Hunt, L. (1986). The experience model and language teaching. In R., Day (Ed.), Talking to learn (pp. 5-22). MA: Newbury House Publishers.
Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. New York: Pergamon Press.
Krueger, R. A. (1988) Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage Publications: CA
Lambert, W. (1973). Culture and language as factors in learning and education. [Adobe Digital Editions version]. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED096820.pdf
Siguan, M.(2001). Bilingüismo y lenguas en contacto. Madrid: Editorial Alianza.
Swain, M. (1985) Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In Gass, S. & Madden, C. (Eds.), Input in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 235-256). New York: Newbury House.
Trudell, B. (1993). Beyond the bilingual classroom: Literacy acquisition among Peruvian Amazon communities. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington
Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in contact: Findings and problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York.