BILINGUAL EDUCATION

An international research perspective

Richard Johnstone

El Escorial: July 2010

OVERVIEW

1. Introduction2. Outcomes3. Concerns4. Processes5. Some concluding thoughts

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PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1. The variable picture of Bilingual Education success across the world

2. Two frameworks to organise one’s thinking1. Factors and outcomes2. Models of Languages Education at school

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTIONVariable success of Bilingual Education across the world

• Many successes based on good research evidence, as this presentation will show

• But ……• In some parts of the world it has been abandoned, or

considerably reduced, or has been hotly contested, for many reasons, e.g.o Rushing ahead too quickly before adequately staffedo Inadequate support for teachers (e.g. in L2 and in L2 teaching methodology)o Inadequate information for parentso Strong political or ideological or media oppositiono …………………………….. others

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Factors and Outcomes in Bilingual Education: A few examples only

Societal Factors Extent of L2 exposure Political will

Parental pressure Influence of media

Provision factors Teacher supply, training & development

National/regional support, development and evaluation

Time & Intensity Continuity primary to secondary Information Networks

Process factors Understanding & expressing L2 meanings (words/concepts …)

Internalising forms Explaining Interacting

Learning & Using Strategies Diagnosing Managing Consulting Informing

Individual factors Age, Aptitudes & interests Prior attainments & experience Prior language(s) Socio-economic status

Geographical location Ethnicity Gender Attitudes & Motivation

Outcomes (Inter)national) examination attainments

L1, L2, L3 … proficiency

Citizenship Intercultural competence Generic skills

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PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Models of languages Education at school

1. TL as subject Only a few minutes per day. Variable starting points. Limited time/intensity

2. TL as subjectEmbedded

Teacher periodically embeds the ML in the teaching of other subject matter, e.g. primary school science, geography. Limited time/intensity

3. Language Awareness

Students are introduced to a range of languages, in order to develop a broader awareness of language, as a precursor to learning one particular language.

4. Subject + As for 1. above, but with more time per day. Sometimes called ‘low immersion’

5. ExtendedCBLT/CLIL

As for 1. above but with 1 or 2 subjects, in part at least, taught through the TL, possibly from Grade 4 onwards, hence more time and intensity than for 3. above

6. Intensive As for 1. above but with occasional ‘intensive’ additional periods, e.g. weekends or summer courses or a whole term

7. ImmersionPartial

Children learn part of their curriculum, usually for a minimum of 40% of curricular time, through the medium of the TL. May be early partial, delayed partial or late partial

8. Immersion Total

Children learn all or most of their curriculum through the medium of the ML. may be early total, delayed total or late total. 7

PART TWO

OUTCOMES

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PART TWO: OUTCOMES Overview

• General outcomes• Model 4 outcomes:

o Subject + (More time per day)

• Model 5 outcomeso Intensive (Occasional intensive periods)

• Model 6 outcomeso Extended (CBLT / CLIL)

• Model 7 outcomeso Partial immersion

• Model 8 outcomeso Total immersion

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PART 2 OUTCOMES General outcomes

• Carleton Board (Canada, 1994)• All French Immersion models (EFI, MFI and LFI) produce

functional proficiency in Immersion French in all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.o These go well beyond what is achieved in the more limited Core French

programme (i.e. in French as a school subject). o Moreover, EFI learners consistently outperform MFI learners who in turn

outperform LFI learners.

PART 2 OUTCOMES General outcomes

• Genesee review of published research (1987)o Early Immersion superior to Middle Immersion superior to Late Immersion

but all forms of Immersion superior to conventional model of ML as school subject

o EFI children lagged behind mainstream counterparts in L2 reading, spelling and written vocabulary in Grades 1-3, but they caught up thereafter.

o Standardised tests of mathematics, science and English Language Arts showed that elementary schooling EFI had no negative effects in these areas

PART 2 OUTCOMES General outcomes

• Lapkin, Hart & Swain (1991)• Compared Early with Middle Immersion in metropolitan

Toronto across 4 boards and 26 classeso Early Immersion outperformed Middle Immersion in L, S, R , W Frencho EI were nearer to Native Speakers on all four measureso By Grade 8 the differences between the two groups were so significant that it

would not be appropriate for the two groups to be merged.

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 4: Subject + (Some additional time)

CROATIA: Inputs to Model 4• An agreed official project. Well supported by research group at Zagreb

University (Djigunovich and Vilke, 2000)

• Timeo 45 minutes per day

• Teacher educationo Teachers trained to teach at PS and also trained in the ML (French or German or Italian

or English)

• Class-sizeo 15-20 per class

• Early Reading & Writingo Introduced almost from the start in Year 1 (aged 6)

• Conscious link made between first language and additional languageo Key grammatical concepts learned in L1 in year 1 and then systematically transferred

to learning Al in Year 3

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PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 4: Subject + (Some additional time)

CROATIA continued

• Fluent, confident, accurate & creative in their use of the AL– English / German / Italian /French

• Able to perform well in all four skills– L / S / R / W

• High motivation for learning and using their AL– Clear development in the nature of this motivation from Year 1 to

Year 3

• Teachers also highly motivated and gaining clear job-satisfaction

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 5: Extended (CBLT/CLIL ……)

FINLAND

• Grades 1-3 at school in Finland• CLIL students (25% in EFL) compared with mainstream non-

CLIL students– CLIL students language development was quicker– It was also different: After 1-word phase in Grades 1&2, suddenly

full-blown sentences in Grade 3– Mainstream pupils progressed through multi-word fragments but

failed to produce full-blown sentences by end of Grade 5

• Three years of CLIL needed (Grades 1-3) for completion of implicit L2 development, leading to fine-tuning activities from Grade 4 onwards. (Järvinen, H-J., 2008)

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 5: Extended (CBLT/CLIL ……)

FINLAND• CLIL & non-CLIL pupils compared in Grades 5&6• Mathematics and L1-Finnish

o Results did not support the conclusion that the development of one’s mother tongue could be negatively affected through the use of foreign languages

o But learning in CLIL can be so challenging that the maximal outcome of content learning is not always reached.

• Affective factors influence learning situations differently in CLIL than in non-CLIL classes. Pupils in CLIL had relatively low self concept in foreign languages. o CLIL teachers should be aware of the possibility of a weak self-concept in foreign

languages among CLIL pupils and pay attention to giving some positive feedback about the pupils’ knowledge of a foreign language (Seikkula-Leino , 2007)

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 5: Extended (CBLT/CLIL ……)

FINLAND continued• Implications for Teaching:• The CLIL classroom environment CAN trigger natural L2

acquisition• CLIL teachers need high level of L2 proficiency• Importance of:

o Focusing on language as well as on contento Supporting accuracy as well as fluency, and of exploring deep

meaning (e.g. content-specific concepts; higher-order thinking skills).o Challenging pupils’ comprehensiono Creating opportunities for pupils to produce fairly elaborate

stretches of expression, not simply 1or2-word responses.

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 6: Intensive

SCOTLAND

• Background context for ML in upper secondary school o Low motivation for ML learning among students of age (15-18)o Worrying level of ‘drop-out’ as soon as ML study became optionalo Even the highest level of attainments in national examinations did not

satisfy the students

• New Project: Virtual and Real Communitieso 29 Secondary Schools across three adjoining local authoritieso Special governmental funding o Aim to establish a ‘Virtual Languages Community’ + Real Communities of

learners, teachers, users, parents, local communitieso French / German /Spanish / Italian / Norwegian / Scottish Gaelic

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 6 (Intensive)

SCOTLAND continued• Residential film-making weekends

o Students made up their own dramaso Learnt how to make digitised films of the dramas which they had written and acted outo Students acquired ‘cool’ skillso Eventual trickle-down to younger classes

• Immersion visits abroad• Annual gala dinner

o Students, parents, staff and local and other guestso Film-presentations and awards

• Summer schoolso e.g. for Animation

• Language Zone websiteo Resources for Teaching and Learningo Information for students and also for parents and the publico Blogso Language Surgery (evenings)o Social networkingo Podcasting, e.g. Special listening texts; 25 difficult verbs

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 6 (Intensive)

• SCOTLAND continued • Higher levels of:

o performance in national examinationso uptake of foreign language learning in final years of secondary educationo motivation for maintaining study and use of their foreign language

• Students’ new sense of identity as members of three interlocking communities:

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The students’

school

Students in 29 Project

schoolsPartner schools abroad

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 7: Partial Immersion

USA• Thomas, Abbott & Collier (1994)• Fairfax County• Early Partial Immersion in Japanese / Spanish /French

o Grades 1-3o Compared with non-EPI pupils (carefully matched)o Mathematics and English Language Arts

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 7: Partial Immersion

USA continued• Mathematics Grades 1-3

o EPI children did as well as non-EPI in same schoolso Better than County average (which was higher than

national mean attainment)

• English Language Artso EPIs significantly outperformed the non-EPIs by end of

Grade 2

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 7: Partial Immersion

CHINA• State primary school o Teacher-pupil ratio: 1-50

• Teachers: NNS• Grades 1-3 o 96 boys, 87 girls

• Experimental Groupo Early partial immersion 50/50 English/Mandarin o English: Moral education, art, music, PE, science 14 hourso Mandarin: Chinese R & calligraphy 10 hours + 6 hours math

• Comparison Groupo Conventional Mandarin-language education

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 7: Partial Immersion

CHINA continued• RQ1: – Are there significant differences between the scores of

the immersion and non-immersion students on various measures of English literacy, vocabulary, and oral proficiency?

• RQ2: – Are there significant differences between the immersion

and non-immersion groups in Chinese character recognition?

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 7: Partial Immersion

CHINA continued• Research Question 1o The immersion students scored significantly higher than the non-

immersion students on the English word recognition, vocabulary, and oral language measures.

• Research Question 2o No significant differences between the two groups of children in their

ability to recognize Chinese characters.o Although the English immersion children studied Chinese characters

for the same amount of time as the non-immersion students, they were not exposed to the same amount of Mandarin as their non-immersion peers. (Knell et al: 2007)

PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 8: Total Immersion

SCOTLANDTypical model of Early Total Immersion in Scottish GaelicAlmost all children from English-speaking homesP7G G G E E E MFLP6G G G E E E MFLP5G G G G G E EP4G G G G G E EP3G G G G G G EP2G G G G G G GP1G G G G G G G

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PART 2 OUTCOMES Outcomes of Model 8: Total Immersion

Scottish Gaelic continued • National research commissioned by Scottish Government

o Compare attainments at the end of primary school of pupils receiving Gaelic Medium Education with those receiving English Medium Education

o That is: GME pupils compared with EME pupils in same schools and nationallyo Science; Mathematics; English

• GME pupils’ attainments:o Slightly behind in Scienceo Ahead in Mathematicso Well ahead in English

PART THREE

SOME CONCERNS ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCATION

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PART THREE: CONCERNS

• Concerns about early introduction of BE:o Will it undermine a child’s sense of national identity?o Will it interfere with their learning to read & write in their first/national

language?

• Concerns about key subject attainments in secondary schoolo In some contexts, lower than for examination performance in L1

• Concerns about command of L2 grammaro Fluent & confident, but lots of grammatical mistakes

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PART THREE: CONCERNSInitial weaknesses in form-meaning connections

• Harley (1991) o ‘It is clear that although immersion students demonstrate excellent understanding of

language in context, this cannot be taken as firm evidence that they have correctly identified all the form-meaning connections involved.

o They become adept at inferring global meaning, using clues in the surrounding discourse or in the external situation.

o One example of the discrepancy between global comprehension and oral production is in their use of conditional forms. Grade 1 early immersion student are readily able to comprehend conditional sentences and can translate them into English, but years later in Grade 10, we find some students still have trouble with conditionals in their oral production.’

• Dicks (1994) found major errors in immersion learners’ command of the perfect and imperfect tenses in oral communication

• Since then, much development and research has been focused on finding ways of helping immersion pupils to refine and gain greater control over their internalised language systems.

PART THREE: CONCERNSBrief responses

• Concerns about early introduction of BE:– Will it undermine a child’s sense of national identity?

• It will change it from what it would have been in a monolingual education, but the world is changing and our conceptions of what a child’s education is for ought to change also

• Example from 14-year-old Spanish boy on the BEP: Feels more Spanish, not less Spanish– Will it interfere with their learning to read & write in their first/national language?

• On the contrary, if R&W in both languages are properly introduced, it will enhance their bi-multi-literacy: e.g. BEP research in Spain, Gaelic research in Scotland …….

• Concerns about key subject attainments in secondary school– In some contexts, lower than for examination performance in L1

• This depends on having a teaching force that is confident and competent in the L2 and knowledgeable about how to teach intellectually challenging subject-matter in the L2.

• Also depends on the national examinations being properly aligned with the curriculum

• Concerns about command of L2 grammar– Fluent & confident, but lots of grammatical mistakes

• Recent research shows that this is a problem which can be overcome. See next slides.

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PART FOUR

PROCESSES

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PART FOUR: ProcessesThe nature of progression in language development

• Mitchell (2003) claims that second language learning iso not like climbing a ladder; but iso a complex and recursive process with multiple interconnections and backslidings, and o complex trade-offs between advances in fluency, accuracy and complexity.

• Pelzer-Karpf & Zangl (1997) found that children’s utterances seemed impressive in Years 1&2o but then in Year 3 went through a phase of ‘Systemturbulenz’ in which their grammar

control seemed to fall aparto when the cognitive demands of their tasks were raised to the point that temporarily

their grammar-systems could not fully copeo But by Year 4 it sorted itself out.

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PART FOUR: Processes Creativity and Accuracy

• How to help learners become both creative and accurate in their spontaneous spoken output?o Lyster (2004) studied ‘form-focused instruction’ (FFI) and ‘corrective feedback’ (CF)

with Grade 5 children.o FFI and CF were found to be more successful than an approach based on no-FFI and

no-CF but tending to use recasts as implicit correction e.g.o T: What did you do yesterdayo P: I go to the swimming poolo T: Oh, you went to the swimming pool …..

o He also found it useful to encourage pupils in ‘noticing’ particular formal features of the target language

o This helped them develop an awareness of language and to refine their internalised language systems as they progressed

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PART FOUR: Processes Recent developments in language-teaching pedagogy

THEN….1. Dependence on limited range of input in

the classroom, e.g. teacher, audio2. Assuming children will develop implicit,

intuitive knowledge of the additional language system

3. Initially Listening & Speaking before Reading & Writing

4. Lots of learning by heart, fun, songs, drama, games

5. Praise plus limited correction6. Progressing through successive stages of

a course

NOW ….1. Varied Input (including ICT) + interaction2. Processing input3. Monitoring one’s own spontaneous

output4. Transferring explicit knowledge of

language concepts from first language5. Early introduction reading & writing, to

complement listening & speaking6. Development of learner strategies, e.g.

diaries, portfolios7. Praise plus corrective feedback,

importance of ‘noticing’ forms

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PART FOUR: PROCESSESL1/L2 alternation

SWITZERLAND• Longitudinal study of CLIL in three Swiss primary schools in which

German-speaking pupils received some 50% of their curriculum, especially mathematics, through the medium of Italian or Romansh. (Serra, 2007)o Of particular interest is the use of L1/L2 alternation as a metalinguistic device which also

facilitates the processing of content. o Re-phrasings did not seem to interfere with learningo Children’s development of mathematics proceeded at the same pace and produced

results which did not suffer in comparison with those in monolingual classes.

PART FIVE

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

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PART FIVE: Concluding thoughtsBEP (Spain) Evaluation: Examples of Good Practice strategies

Examples of Good Classroom Practice from the BEP (Spain) evaluation• These were not conceived in the abstract but were

derived from the prior observation of successful classroom performance by students and their teachers.

GOOD GENERAL TEACHING STRATEGIES• Creates relaxed, focused and respectful

atmosphere• Adapts material to suit different student need• Requires class to ask probing questions about

peers’ presentations• Monitors progress sensitively• Steers students away from the anecdotal and

guides towards underlying principles• Provides clear explanations• Asks questions which guide thinking but still pose

a challenge• Prompts students to draw on their own latent

knowledge

• Encourages peer assessment & evaluation• Encourages students to work things out for

themselves• Helps students clarify the consequences of

particular processes• Constantly checks for understanding• Requires regular presentations by students to

whole class

WITH INTEGRATED LANGUAGE FOCUS• Helps develop initial drafting skills, e.g. What do

you need to take into account ……?• Expects high standards of pronunciation & spelling• Elicits precise use of language• Focuses on spelling distinctions, e.g. flour / flower• Helps students express particular relationships, e.g.

The more …… the more ……; the less …… the less ……

Dr Dobson will go into the relationship between successful outcomes and good classroom practice in detail tomorrow (Tuesday), with reference to the BEP (Spain) evaluation findings

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PART FIVE: Concluding ThoughtsBEP (Spain) Key positive factors

SOCIETAL PROVISION PROCESS

Political will

Parental interest & demand

Widely held view that the BEP (Spain) in those regions in which it took place ought to involve Spanish-English, in view of Spanish as national language and global status of English

An early start (in some cases from age 3)

Substantial time for English (40%)

Leadership at national level from Ministry & British Council together

Supernumerary teachers fluent in English

Agreed continuity across primary and secondary education

Supportive national Guidelines on BEP curriculum

In-service courses for teachers

Highly reputable external international examination for students at age 16

General teaching strategies, articulated through English

Language-focused strategies, covering grammar and vocabulary, plus the discourse of different school subjects

Activities which offer students cognitive challenge, integrating their knowledge across subjects

Creation of community atmosphere in class, in which students collaborate

Use of assessment in support of learning

Management approach based on consultation and collaboration with teaching colleagues.

PART FIVE: Concluding thoughtsProfile of a successful learner

• Plans, practices, revises • Reviews, Self-assesses• Processes input, e.g. notices,

guesses, infers, predicts• Seeks opportunities to use the

additional language ‘for real’• Seeks feedback: negative as well

as positive• Relates learning & use of the

additional language to the learning of other things

• Uses reference material appropriately

• Interacts and negotiates meaning, e.g. probes, seeks clarification

• Offers help, seeks help• Takes personal responsibility

• Is aware of and manages different types of discourse

• Produces spontaneous as well as non-spontaneous output

• Focuses on form as well as on meaning, at different times

• Controls anxiety and uses this productively

• Feels confident, self-efficacious• Seeks underlying pattern• Pays attention, focuses attention,

sustains attention• Develops strategies, uses these

and reflects on / revises them• Self-motivates, self-rewards, is

curious and seeks challenges• …… Other?

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References

• Carleton Board of Education. (1994). French immersion update. Carleton Occasional papers, Series ii, Number 2. Ottowa: Carleton Board of Education.

• Genesee, F. (1987). Learning through two languages: studies of immersion and bilingual education. Cambridge MA: Newbury House.

• Järvinen, H-J. (2008). Research in CLIL. European Commission. Euro-clic: Bulletin 8• Johnstone, R. M. , W. Harlen, M. MacNeil, R. Stradling & G. Thorpe (2000) The attainments of pupils receiving Gaelic-

medium primary education in Scotland. Scottish CILT for Scottish Executive Education Department.• Johnstone, R. M. (2001). Immersion in a Second or Additional Language at School: evidence from international research.

Report for the Scottish Executive Education Department. University of Stirling: Scottish CILT.• Johnstone, R. M. & R. McKinstry (2008) Evaluation of Early partial Immersion in French at Walker Road Primary School,

Aberdeen. University of Stirling: Scottish CILT.• Lyster, R. (2004a). Differential effects of prompts and recasts in form-focused instruction. Studies in Second Language

Acquisition, 26, 399-432.• Knell, E., L. S.Siegel., Q. Haiyan., Z. Lun., P. Miao., Z. Wei & C. Yanping (2007). Early English literacy in Xi’an, China. The

Modern Language Journal 91.iii, 395–417.• Mitchell, R. (2003). Rethinking the concept of progression in the national curriculum for modern foreign languages: a

research perspective. Language Learning Journal, Winter 2003.• Peltzer-Karpf, A. & R. Zangl (1997). Vier Jahre Vienna Bilingual Schooling: Eine Langzeitstudie. Vienna; Bundesministerium für

Unterricht und kulturelle Angelegenheiten., Abteilung 1/1.• Seikkula-Leino, J. (2007). CLIL learning: Achievement levels and affective factors. Language & Education 21.4, 328–341. • Serra, C. (2007). Assessing CLIL at primary school: a longitudinal study. International Journal of Bilingual Education &

Bilingualism 10.5, 582–602.• Thomas, W. P., V. Collier & M. Abbott (1993). Academic achievement through Japanese, Spanish or French. The first two

years of partial immersion. The Modern Language Journal, 77, 2, 170-79