Bilingual Education

[kalpa]

Hello, I am an early years consultant working in Munich, I was wondering if introducing bilingual education as a must from an early age is welcome in Britain.

Hello, I am an early years consultant working in Munich, I was wondering if introducing bilingual education as a must from an early age is welcome in Britain.

Difficult to say as modern languages aren't a national 'priority' as it were.

Bilingual schools are very popular (and usually oversubscribed), as are bilingual childcare providers in target majority languages, but it's not something which crosses most people's minds. The additional problem is that they're virtually all private and thus the market is inherently limited.

I want to do a PhD in CLIL but I've been talking to potential supervisors and finding enough bilingual schools in England is going to be tough. Wales/Scotland have Welsh/Gaelic medium education so bilingual education is a lot more normal there.

What perspective exactly are you wondering from? What kind of bilingual education? And where exactly in Britain? Most schools, for example, are in London.

Hi, in general as in main land Europe it is very normal to speak more than one language. I have been brought to be trilingual and I really appreciate this special gift from parents.

Having four children of my own who can speak four languages, simply by learning through play. They really appreciate it that they can speak more than one language.

Working as an early years consultant in Munich, I meet many parents who would like their children to speak not just their native language but also other European language. This has very good impression on children in terms of understanding other cultures and religion. And be much more open with each other.

Britain is such a small country with many nationalities, it would be great to see introduction of French, Spanish or other languages introduced in kindergarten rather than in primary or secondary schools.

What do u think about this.

FWIW I totally agree with you but there's not, in general, the top-down drive to improve languages. There are also big staffing issues. Britain first needs to reprioritise languages before introducing bilingual ed on a national level. Then there's the question of which language...

There are massive differences between bringing children up bilingual, bilingual ed and introducing a foreign language early. The latter is most liky to succeed but won't produce fully mulitlingual children.

There are many bilingual children because their parents are raiding them that way, and a few more because they're in Welsh or Gaelic schools.

I'll see if I can find an old thread on whether languages are a must in primary. I think you'd find it interesting.

Personally, I think this works where you can draw on a large community on bilingual nursery teachers, which is going to be the case in cosmopolitan cities but not in say an English market town.

I grew up and went to school in Sweden, where this would certainly not have been possible- even most of my secondary school teachers were not really bilingual, but we still learnt foreign languages to a reasonably high standard, and without having to unlearn any bad pronunciation learnt from nursery teachers who did not really know the language.

I was brought up in London in the 70´s and gave birth to three children in Hertfordshire. They went through the English system in the nursery school as well as primary school in England. Due to my husband?s job, we are at present in Munich. My kids also went to the normal German educational school system, which is very different to the system that we know. For the past five years I have seen great improvement in the educational system, especially in kindergarten and primary school.

Most of the state kindergartens teach English, French or Spanish 2 times a week through play, singing and creative activities. I find this is good for children as the children become aware of different cultures through interactive activities. This helps them to understand the world that is not just their own, but also from far away places.

In UK, plenty of importance is on multiculturalism, but some how by experiencing both sides, I feel there is a gap in the system. I feel that we are still in a very close society compare to main land Europe.

My dd is now being taught French (in secondary) by a French teacher with such an awful accent and such a shaky grasp on the language that tbh I am beginning to wish the school had left things well alone: I am having to spend far too much time and energy getting dd to unlearn the things she learns at school. So I would say- if you can recruit competent staff, that's fine: if not, then leave it.

Where, I repeat, are you going to find enough trained kindergarten teachers who are bilingual in Spanish or French, to introduce this system in the UK? The sad truth is that most English people- particularly from the background from where nursery teachers are recruited- do not have foreign languages, so consequently cannot teach them.