Bilingual education - advantages & disdvantages

As someone who teaches biology to English language learners, and who is in favour of inclusive science education, I am interested in the debate around the various advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education. 

One of the major obstacles when considering bilingual education starts with defining what actually constitutes bilingual education. Maria Brisk has defined bilingual education as the use of two languages as the media for instruction. However, within this broad definition lies a wide variety of approaches to bilingual education, especially in non-Western settings. For the purposes of this post I will focus mainly on English language learners in Thailand. (It should be noted that there are additional issues for speakers of minority dialects in Thailand - see, for example, Draper, 2012). 

Within Thailand there are a number of approaches taken to bilingual education, although ways to describe these are not well defined. Broadly speaking there are two types of English Program in Thailand: Mini English Programs, where students receive 8-14 hours per week of English medium classes, and English Programs, where students receive at least 15 hours per week of English medium classes (Keyuravong, 2008, cited in Bax, 2010). My school falls into the latter category. In addition to English Programs there are bilingual schools, which have more variety in the number of hours devoted to English-medium teaching.  

Advantages of bilingual education

In the past actual cognitive advantages of bilingual education were difficult to ascertain. In fact, at times the arguments around bilingual education tended to suggest there were cognitive disadvantages for learners. This argument has now shifted somewhat, with bilingual education no longer regarded as necessarily disadvantageous: 'Current studies that report no difference between groups present themselves as a challenge to claims of bilingual advantages rather than to claims of bilingual disadvantages...' 

Further evidence for the cognitive benefits of bilingualism come from neurological studies, for example bilingual learners may have better information processing skills. In science this may help these learners get to grips with scientific language more quickly, because they already have the skills with which to assimilate a new language. These neurological studies also suggest that bilingualism affords neurological benefits that extend beyond the fact of their being bilingual, for example bilingualism being protective against neural decline in older age. 

Other advantages that a bilingual education may confer are global competitiveness and global engagement. Being bilingual is highly likely to increase an individual's employment opportunities in today's globalized world. For example, the recent further integration of the ASEAN countries, of which Thailand is one, and that organization's adoption of English as its official working language, means that citizens of member states who are bilingual will have a competitive advantage. In addition, by pursuing a bilingual education, individuals may become more globally engaged, globally competent citizens. This could lead to them possibly becoming actively involved in human rights issues, or championing environmental issues, for example.

Disadvantages of bilingual education

If there are disadvantages to a bilingual education, these may be sociocultural rather than cognitive. Firstly, bilingual education may exacerbate social divisions, with only the wealthy elites able to access it, something that Hu (2008) argues is happening in China. Obviously, if only the wealthy can access bilingual education then this will have a negative impact on those learners who cannot. Secondly, bilingual education may privilege one language over a learner's first language, leading to a loss of cultural capital and a weakening of their first culture identity. This second disadvantage may then lead to poor learner outcomes by fostering a negative attitude to school and learning more generally.  

Summary

Clearly, the disadvantages of bilingual education are important factors that should be taken into consideration, but are not in and of themselves arguments against bilingual education - rather they are an argument for a more egalitarian approach to the way societies and their education systems are structured. Taking these disadvantages into account then, I continue to feel that the benefits offered by bilingual education outweigh the negatives. I would be interested to hear others' views on this topic. 

What do online discussion forums offer second-language learners?

In my last post I outlined how online asynchronous discussion forums (ADFs) fit into the SAMR model. This week I’m going to outline some of the additional benefits that ADFs can provide to English language learners (ELLs) specifically, and for learners more generally. This is something quite close to home for me as a teacher, since the learners I work with are Thai high school students. Their first language is obviously Thai, but at my school they receive the majority of their lessons in English.

Language plays a crucial role in learning, both for metacognitive awareness, or learning how to learn, and in the formation of higher mental processes (Murphy, 2008). ADFs afford learners the opportunity to practice their written language skills, and also provide those students who are less confident about speaking English the opportunity to prepare their answers before posting them.

In addition, by participating in an online debate, students have an opportunity to learn more than simply a list of decontextualised knowledge items – they also gain critical thinking, debating, English language, and scientific research skills. In other words, ADFs afford the development of critical literacy, which includes recognising multiple and contradictory patterns of thought, and engaging in moral/philosophical critique (Davies, 2008).

It has been noted that by using authentic situations, such as a debate about a topical area where science impacts society, English language skills and subject area skills can be improved simultaneously. The development and use of specific language functions, such as explaining and hypothesising, are seen as parallel to science learning processes (Stoddart et al., 2002), e.g. when ELLs participate in an online debate they are developing both language and science skills. Recent studies of a professional development intervention with elementary teachers, aimed at simultaneously improving both science and literacy skills of ELLs in multicultural settings, have shown achievement gains in both areas (Lee et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2009).

Finally, subject area literacy can be enhanced by engagement in culturally authentic activity. Debates around controversial topics, such as stem cell research or vaccine use, are an example of this, reflecting as they do real-world debates held both within the scientific community, and between the scientific community and the wider community at large. Learners are seen to be able to move along trajectories that are not discontinuous as they move from school social practices to more general social practices, also an important feature in the development of lifelong learning skills (Roth and Lee, 2008).

I personally feel that ADFs offer a variety of affordances that make them an invaluable tool for 21st Century learning. I would be interested to hear how other teachers use ADFs in their context!

References

Davies, B. (2008). Constructing and deconstructing masculinities through critical literacy, in Hall, K., Murphy, P., and Soler, J. (eds.). Pedagogy and Practice, London, Sage in association with The Open University

Lee, O., Maerten-Rivera, J., Penfield, R.D., LeRoy, K., and Secada, W.G. (2008). Science achievement of English language learners in urban elementary schools: Results of a first-year professional development intervention. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45, 1, pp.31-52

Lee, O., Mahotiere, M., Salinas, A., Penfield, R.D., and Maerten-Rivera, J. (2009). Science writing achievement among English language learners: Results of a three-year intervention in urban elementary schools. Bilingual Research Journal, 32, pp153-167

Murphy, P. (2008). Defining pedagogy, in Hall, K., Murphy, P., and Soler, J. (eds.). Pedagogy and Practice, London, Sage in association with The Open University

Roth, W.M. and Lee, S. (2008). Science education as/for participation in the community, in Murphy, P. and Hall, K. (eds.). Learning and Practice, London, Sage in association with The Open University

Stoddart, T., Pinal, A., Latzke, M. and Canaday, D. (2002). Integrating inquiry science and language development for English Language Learners. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 8, pp.664-687