Brief description

This module considers the `what?, `why? and `how? of bilingual education. In the first part of the module, the `what? question opens up the range of educational policy responses to linguistic and cultural diversity in different national and regional contexts. The `why? question then shifts the focus to the reasons for the differences in the nature and outcomes of different types of policies and educational programmes. In the final part of the module, the `how? question focuses attention on the ways in which policies are translated into everyday practice in bilingual and multilingual schools and classrooms.

Aims of the module

• To provide an overview of the types of bilingual education developed in different national and regional contexts

• To consider the discourses about linguistic and cultural difference underpinning different types of bilingual education

• To examine the impact of bilingual education policy on patterns of communication in schools and classrooms;

• To show how the educational experience of individual bilinguals is embedded in and shaped by wider policy shifts.

Syllabus

The lectures will be based on the following topics:

• The development of educational responses to linguistic and cultural difference in various national and regional educational systems
• Local debates over the implementation and development of different forms of educational provision for bilingual learners
• Second language teaching (e.g. the teaching of English as a Second Language)
• Transitional bilingual education
• Maintenance and two-way bilingual programmes
• Immersion education
• Teaching through the medium of an indigenous minority language or through a former colonial language
• Connections across specific political and historical locations, identifying commonalities and differences in language policies and forms of education provision
• The ways in which language policy-making is bound up with power relations between ethnolinguistic groups (at national and regional levels)
• The role of education in the construction of legitimacy and the shaping of linguistic and cultural values
• The views of bilingualism and literacy that underpin a good deal of educational practice in bilingual and multilingual settings
• The routines and communicative practices of day to day life in bilingual and multilingual schools and classrooms
• The ways in which teachers and learners negotiate classroom relationships in two (or more) languages
• The ways in which teachers and learners draw on the languages available to them in co-constructing knowledge, in talking about monolingual and/or bilingual texts and in negotiating different cultural worlds.

The seminars will provide opportunities for students to further explore and discuss themes that are introduced in the lectures.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Be able to critically evaluate different approaches to the study of bilingual education
• Demonstrate an ability to articulate and justify their own stance on public debates about the education of bilingual learners

Reading Lists