ROSWITA DRESSLERUNIVERSITY OF CALGARYRAHDRESS@UCALGARY.CA

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Increasing the Effectiveness of Website Promotion for Heritage

Language Bilingual School Programs

Canada’s bilingual programs

Provincial legislation in western Canada allows bilingual programs in which 50% of instruction is conducted in the non-official language

Most programs are found in urban centersLanguages - e.g., Arabic, German, Hebrew,

Mandarin, Spanish and Ukrainian

Curriculum design

• “The continuous, concurrent development of first and second language skills, or skills in additional languages, is fostered in bilingual programming. Opportunities for linguistic knowledge and skill development in both languages are maximized.” (Alberta Education, 1999, p. 11)

Bilingual education

Swain (2000) points out that bilingual education seeks to make “’students proficient in the second language while, at the same time, maintaining and developing their proficiency in the first language and fully guaranteeing their educational development” (Stern, 1972, in Swain, 2000, p. 199)

Promoting to Anglophones

“The levels presented are designed to represent the progression of knowledge, skills and attitudes expected of students who have had no prior exposure to the specific language upon entry into Kindergarten.” (Alberta Education, 1999, p. 13)

Benefits of Bilingual Education

Students with four or more years of language study score higher on language sections of the SAT: meta-linguistic awareness, higher analogical reasoning and visual spatial skills.

Promoting to HLLs

• “However, students with prior exposure to the specific language can be challenged within this Framework.” (Alberta Education, 1999, p. 13)

• “Well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and subject matter knowledge in the minority language without any negative effects on the child’s development of the majority language.” (Cummins, 2003, p. 63)

First language skills

• When HLLs enter the school system, they require continued input in their first language in order for their linguistic skills in this language to develop further (Cho, Shin, & Krashen, 2004)

First language literacy is a predictor of second or majority language development (Cummins, 2003)

Recognizing linguistic diversity

In the last decade we have had to let go of the assumption that early immersion classes would be full of homogeneous young Anglophones” (Swain & Lapkin, 2005, 174).

Genesee & Gándara (1999) assert that Canada’s Immersion/Bilingual model is “largely ethnocentric” (p. 670), ignoring the reality of linguistic and ethnic diversity in its school population

Minority language mainenance

• The maintenance and development of minority language linguistic skills is highly influenced by schooling choices (Tse, 2001)

• Some parents, often under the advice of teachers, choose to concentrate on their children acquiring the dominant societal (majority) language (Cummins, 2003),

• With reduced input, native speakers of a minority language can struggle to maintain their linguistic skills, as manifested by a reduction in oral fluency (performance) (Lynch, 2003) or gaps in acquisition (Montrul, 2002).

Website promotion

Sarah Elaine Eaton in 101 ways to market your language program: A practical guide for language schools and programs includes:

#28 Create an outstanding website“a website is an essential marketing tool. . .

This is your sales pitch to the world!” (Eaton, 2002, p. 37)

Research questions

1. How do Bilingual School Programs market to Anglophones through their websites?

2. How do Bilingual School Programs market to HLLs through their websites?

3. What features do exemplary Bilingual School Program websites have in common?

10 Western Canadian programs

Province School District Schools

Manitoba 2 3

Saskatchewan 2 2

Alberta 2 4

British Columbia 1 1

Map of Canada

Manitoba

School School District Language

Website

Springfield Heights

River East Transcona SD

Ukranian

http://www.sh.retsd.mb.ca/programs/prog_main.html

Brock Corydon School

Winnipeg School Division Hebrew

http://www.wsd1.org/brockcorydon/

Princess Margaret School

River East Transcona SD German

http://schools.retsd.mb.ca/pm/Pages/Welcome.aspx

Springfield Heights School, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Brock Corydon School, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Princess Margaret School, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Saskatchewan

School School District Language

Website

Confederation Park Saskatoon Public Schools Cree

http://www.spsd.sk.ca/schoolsPrograms/elementaryschools/confederationPark/about.html

Athabasca School Regina Public Schools Ukranian

http://athabasca.rbe.sk.ca/

Confederation Park School, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Athabasca School, Regina, Saskatchewan

Alberta

School School District

Language

Website

Malmo SchoolEdmonton Public Schools Arabic

http://malmo.epsb.ca/

Talmud Torah

Edmonton Public Schools

Hebrew

http://www.talmudtorahsociety.com/

Delwood Elementary School

Edmonton Public Schools

Ukranian

http://delwood.epsb.ca/

Bowcroft Elementary School

Calgary Board of Education German

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b111/

Malmo School, Edmonton, Alberta

.

Talmud Torah School, Edmonton, Alberta

Delwood School, Edmonton, Alberta

Bowcroft School, Calgary, Alberta

British Columbia (BC)

School School District

Language Website

Dr. Annie B. Jamieson

Vancouver School Board

Mandarin http://jamieson.vsb.bc.ca/

Dr. Annie B. Jamieson

Jamieson School has the only Mandarin Bilingual Program in British Columbia.  Entry to the program commences in Grade 4. 

Discussion

Most school websites do little to promote their Bilingual Programs

Minority speakers of the target language are seldom addressed

Target language rarely appearsMost websites appear relatively staticWhat can we learn from exemplary websites?

Promote bilingualism

Explicitly address HL competence

“The Arabic Bilingual Program provides students with opportunities to acquire or maintain proficiency in both Arabic and English and to learn about related cultures.”

Programming begins in Kindergarten, although children may also enter Grade 1 without previous knowledge of the language. Later entry is determined on an individual basis.

Use the target language

Recognize linguistic diversity

“We are very fortunate to have teachers on our faculty who represent diverse cultures from throughout the Spanish speaking world. . . we have teachers from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. Our teachers are bilingual, trilingual, and in some cases quadra-lingual.”

Are updated regularly

Conclusion: 5 Essential Elements

1. Elaborate on the benefits of bilingual education

2. Promote the development of heritage language competence

3. Use the target language4. Recognize linguistic diversity 5. Update regularly

References

Alberta Education. (1999). Common curricular framework for bilingual programming in international languages, kindergarten to grade 12. Western Canada protocol for collaboration in basic education. Edmonton: Alberta Education.

Archibald, J. (2010). Multilingual minds and brains. Paper presented at the CBE Bilingual Teacher Professional Day.

Cho, G., Shin, F., & Krashen, S. (2004). What do we know about heritage languages? What do we need to know about them? Multicultural Education, 11(4), 23-26.

Corbeil, J.-P., & Blaser, C. (2008). The evolving linguistic portrait, 2006 Census: Sharp increase in population with a mother tongue other than English or French [Electronic Version], from http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/analysis/language/allophone.cfm

 Cummins, J. (2003). Bilingual education: Basic principles. In J.-M. Dewaele, A. Housen & L. Wei (Eds.), Bilingualism: Beyond basic principles (pp. 56-66). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (2005). A proposal for action: Strategies for recognizing heritage language competence as a learning resource within the mainstream classroom. Modern Language Journal, 89(05), 585-592.

Eaton, S. E. (2002). 101 ways to market your language program: A practical guide for language schools and programs. Calgary: Eaton International Consulting Inc.

Edwards, V., & Newcombe, L. P. (2006). Back to basics: Marketing the benefits of bilingualism to parents. In O. García, T. Skutnabb-Kangas & M. E. Torres-Guzmán (Eds.), Imagining multilingual schools: Languages in education and globalization (pp. 137-149). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Genesee, F. (2003). Rethinking bilingual acquisition. In J.-M. Dewaele, A. Housen & L. Wei (Eds.), Bilingualism: Beyond basic principles (pp. 204-228). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Genesee, F., & Gándara, P. (1999). Bilingual education programs: A cross-national perspective. Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 665-685.

Montecel, M. R. (2002). Successful bilingual education programs: Development and the dissemmination of criteria to identify promising and exemplary practices in bilingual education at the national level. . Bilingual Research Journal, 26(1), 1-21.

Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (2005). The evolving sociopolitical context of immersion education in Canada: Some implications for program development. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15(2), 169-186.

Tse, L. (2001). Resisting and reversing language shift: Heritage language resilience among U.S. native biliterates. Harvard Educational Review, 71(4), 676-708.