Топольницька О.О. Appropriateness of the bilingual education in primary school: Austrian experience

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Топольницька О.О. – студентка Педагогічного інституту Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка, спеціальність «Початкова освіта», кафедра іноземних мов і методик їх навчання Київського університету імені Бориса Грінченка

Анотація: У статті аналізуються основні компоненти білінгвальної освіти, які використовуються у сучасних початкових школах Австрії. Подано детальний опис використання методу CLIL як найбільш ефективного методу білінгвального навчання. Досліджено роль білінгвального навчання для учнів.

Ключові слова: білінгвальної освіта, білінгвальне навчання, багатомовність, CLIL (Предметно-мовне інтегроване навчання), іноземна мова, друга мова.

Аннотация: В статье анализируются основные компоненты билингвального образования, которые использутся в современных начальных школах Австрии. Подано детальное описание использование метода CLIL как наиболее эффективная метода билингвального обучения. Исследована роль билингвального обучения для учащихся.

Ключевые слова: билингвальное образование, билингвальное обучение, многоязычие, CLIL (Предметно-языковое интегрированное обучение), иностранный язык, второй язык.

Annotation: The article analyzes the main components of bilingual education which is used in Austrian modern primary schools. The detailed description of using CLIL as the most effective method of bilingual teaching is given. The role of bilingual teaching for the pupils is investigated.

Key words: bilingual education, bilingual teaching, multilingualism, CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), foreign language, second language.

Problem setting

In the context of globalization and integration it’s becoming a necessity to learn foreign languages. Due to social and cultural demands raised by the growing international mobility and by the globalization of the human activities, the issue about multilingualism has become more and more relevant throughout Europe.

Bilingual education helps students to reach the ability of communicating with people of a different culture and language background. This is positively influence on the formation of intercultural competence. It is natural that this issue has firstly impacted at the educational level with lot of attention paid on foreign languages and many innovation efforts concentrated on this aspect. Thus, we can say that bilingual teaching should begins with primary school.

Analysis of recent achievements and publications

Today a lot of theoretical and experimental works of scholars are devoted to the problem of using new methods of bilingual teaching. Different aspects of bilingual education have been studied by many foreign and native researchers as C. Baker, J. Cummins, D. Lasagabaster, T. Skutnabb-Kangas, Y. Rudnik, O. Shyrin, T. Bondarchuk and other. World practice experience of bilingual schools covered in the works of I. Dmitriev, A. Korovina and M. Pevzner.

L. Zaitseva considered bilingualism as language and social phenomenon. She believes that European experience is very valuable for Ukraine. In European countries, the development of bilingual education is associated with the general trend to integration, desire for dialogue and intercultural communication [1].

The most influential work in the sphere of bilingual education is the work of J. Cummins. He believes that the concept of bilingual education is to use in learning two or more languages. Languages used as a teaching tool for learning all the time or some of its stages to master the academic subjects rather than to study language systems [2].

The objective of the article

Considering the practical needs of development of bilingual education in Ukraine and the lack of new relevant researches, it is advisable to apply the features of its functioning in other countries including Austria.

The aim of our research is to characterize the main components of bilingual education which is used in Austrian modern primary schools.

The statement of the fundamental material

A growing number of schools in Austria are now offering bilingual teaching. Bilingual teaching means that in one or more subjects the information is presented in a different language than usual. So, bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program mode [3]. In addition to German, most bilingual schools have English as teaching language.

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has become the most effective method of bilingual teaching [4]. As the name suggests, learners profit from CLIL in two ways: on the one hand they learn the content of a subject through the foreign language, serving as a medium, and on the other hand learners are confronted with an above-average immersion in the foreign language.

The main idea behind CLIL is that content is taught and studied in a language which is not the native language of the learners. This means bilingual learning is discovery learning, just like the learning of a foreign language. In a bilingual class, the learning process is therefore aided by the increased motivation of the learners. If the learners are interested in the new foreign language, which means that they are gradually “discovering” the language, they learn easier. As a result, the learners’ interest in the content increases their willingness to learn the language in which the teaching is done.

Due to Salis (Salzburg International Bilingual School) reasons to use CLIL for bilingual learning are:

• broadens the cultural horizon of learners;

• prepares students for a globalized world;

• provides advantages in English competence and also special skills;

• reforms learning in schools with its new approach;

• increases the motivation of learners;

• stimulates joined-up thinking;

• teaches active questioning of “knowledge”;

• leads to a prestigious, international school-leaving qualification.

In many Austrian schools, some of them are also state schools, all the information is presented in more than one language, usually in English. These schools also offer their students the possibility to take an international diploma (e.g. the IB diploma of the IBO, International Baccalaureate Organization) in addition to the Austrian school-leaving certificate, the Matura. In some subjects the teaching language might as well change from one lesson to the next [4].

Just recently, also primary schools have started to offer bilingual education. For example, the Vienna Board of Education has offered the pilot project - Vienna Bilingual Schooling (VBS) [5]. Which begins with primary school and continues through both lower and upper secondary schools. A further opportunity to enter a VBS school occurs again after a successful orientation talk, at the transfer from primary to lower secondary and into upper secondary school. In primary school, the main object of this pilot project is to impart a basic general education, according to the Austrian curriculum, in the first language of the child (German or English). As well as that, basic skills are acquired in the respective second language (German or English).

The acquisition of basic cultural techniques (especially German reading and writing or English reading and writing) takes place in the first or dominant language of the child (German or English). Acquisition of literacy skills in the second language begins from Year 1 on an individual basis.

VBS classes are divided into two language groups for the acquisition of literacy skills (German reading and writing or English reading and writing) in the first or dominant language, as well as in German or English as a second language lessons. The remaining lessons are devoted to bilingual teaching.

In the best case, 50% of the children in the bilingual class have English as mother language and 50% German. In both groups the children must have good previous knowledge in the other language. There are six regular classes which are conducted with English group per week. All teachers in class 3 and 4 are trained as "English Experts". In general, this school is committed to the European Framework of Reference for a competency-based language teaching. Classes 1 and 2 are designed for the gradual build-up of listening and speaking skills. The class has the project "Bewegtes Lernen" (Learning in motion) and another class take part in the project "Musikalischem Schwerpunkt" (Musical focus) [5].

Usually, the interest of parents/guardians and pupils in a bilingual school far outweighs the actual number of school places available. Due to the fact that the number of school places do not meet the high demand, it is necessary to have a special enrolment procedure for the VBS schools, which involves an orientation talk with the child. The orientation talk was developed, in co-operation with school psychologists of the Vienna Board of Education and external experts from the University of Graz, and incorporates the following aspects: social skills and emotional competence; communicative strategies (flexibility within the languages); communication skills in English and German.

In order to ensure the continued existence and assurance of quality within the VBS project, it is of utmost importance that there is a balance of dominant English speaking and dominant German speaking pupils in every class. Only then can a successful bilingual education take place.

The additional intellectual challenge of bilingual education has a positive effect on further mental development of the child. Recent studies have shown that the brain cells of bilingual and multilingual children are more extensively interlinked than those of monolingual children. As a result, bilingual children have a much more evolved and refined vocabulary range, as well as the ability to understand language in general and question it critically [4].

Conclusion and the prospects of the above research

Bilingual education can be the perfect solution for an expat pupil or for those who wants to learn foreign language and have high level of knowledge from the subjects. The sooner a child starts learning a second language, the better it will speak this language. If this language is English, the most widespread international language of business, medicine, science in general and, the better this child will perform in own life. We believe, further observance of the bilingual education in all its aspects should be investigated for making future primary school in Ukraine better.

References

1. Зайцева Л.С. Білінгвізм як мовне та соціальне явище. Режим доступу: http://www.rusnauka.com/6_NITSB_2010/Philologia/59619.doc.htm
2. Cummins J. Bilingualism and special education / J. Cummins. – San Diego: College Hill Press, 1984.
3. Bilingual education. – [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilingual_education
4. Bilingual teaching in a modern classroom. – [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу: http://salis.or.at/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Info-sheet-bilingual-learning.pdf
5. VIENNA BILINGUAL SCHOOLING – VBS.– [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу: https://scheibenberg.schule.wien.at/en/vbs-vienna-bilingual-schooling/