Bilingual education in context

Bilingual education in context

1. Cognitive dimension

   • The human brain can learn simultaneously different languages
     • Bilinguism can promote variety of associations and flexibiliity
       • “Communicative sensitivity”
         • deciding which language to speak according to the situation
       • People develop creative thinking to solve a subject in different ways
       • Bilinguals are aware not to let other languages interfere in speech
     • Both hemispheres of the brain work in language learning
       • Languages are not forgotten in accidents
       • Late bilinguals tended to use the right part of the brain for vocabulary
       • Early bilinguals used the left hemisphere for vocabulary
     • Simultaneous learning from birth
     • Sequential learning in different environments

2. Pedagogical dimension

   • Pegadogical approaches are successful when students have oppotunities to interact in L2
     • It's neccessary to expose the child to both languages on different occasions.
       • Bilingual people use to be smart and creative
         • People who acquire two or more languages search opportunities as globalized societies demand
     • When children are not using L2, they tend to forget it
   • In this context there are students of special educational needs
   • The grammar translate metod is bored to the students of this school
     • Use of educational and didactics resources promote their better understanding
       • According to my experience rural students use to be forgotten for the government and have less opportunities to be bilingual
         • Rural primary school teachers require more training and support to teach a second language
           • In this rural contexts appear doubts about the usefulness or ineffectiveness of learning languages
   • I work in a rural and primary school with students from preschool to fifth grade

3. Linguistic dimension

   • A second language is taught based on a set of codes and grammatical norms
   • The cultural background of a language and aspects such as traditions and customs are left aside.
   • Sometimes it is not taken into account that language expresses realities and is not limited to verbal codes.
   • The speaker's mother tongue is intended to be left aside when learning a language and this limits the background of learning.
     • It is neccessary to remember that it is in the interaction between the external named languages in society and internal mind of the speaker that language learning takes place.
   • Learning of a new language is a continuing and ever changing process of our interactions with the other human beings. (Ofelia García)
   • students in this context do not recognize the importance of learn English or other language, they focus on the agriculture and the productive sector
   • In this school we try to teach contents in English on the topics that attract their attention, such as vocabularies about the environment and nature.

4. Educational dimension

   • Only a few students learn a second lenguage but with effort and constanccy
   • The acquisition of a second language has two main motivations: societal and individual. Baker (2006)
     • Social
       • 1. The assimilation of a minority language by a mainstream one.
         • They assimilate the one of the dominant society subtracting the first one
           • for instance: Colombian people learning english leaving aside native languages
       • 2. People could learn a minority language so it is preserved or restored and does not disappear
         • The second language does not affect the first one.
           • For instance: children learning French and English in Canada produce political institutions to have an integrated view of the society.
     • Individual
       • Speaker wants to have better opportunities and get money with it
       • They want to get into the culture of another community to lower cultural barriers.
       • They hope obtain better self-confidence and social connections
       • They hope to have better career and employment opportunities
       • Immigrants move to other country to reduce the poverty in which they live
       • They want to fullfit wirh the political demands of gllobalization
     • Bilinguism and politics in Colombia
       • Government focus on the learning of a second language but It is English
       • The government uses the common European framework as a reference for learning English
       • MEN establishes exams or standardized tests to determine the English proficiency in teachers and students
         • Tests to certify English do not determine the real proficiency and in some cases teachers who communicate with this language lost their job
           • In the knowledge exams (SABER) , students performed poorly in English.
       • English predominates over the native languages of Colombia due to globalization and free trade agreements with other countries
         • The Talkativ-E strategy promotes the practice of English (MEN 2021) but this strategy do not arrive to our rural school
         • For instance in other headquarters from my school there are wiwa students but we do not have relation with them or their culltural experiences
       • Meshes, basic English learning rights and competency standards are used to determine the curricula of institutions.
         • There are no formal programs to promote the learning of Colombian indigenous languages.
         • The educational contents are established according to the basic learning rights
   • In this school we do not have materials from the Colombia Bilingüe program.
   • The parents are low-income and cannot buy books or educational texts.
   • there are not computers or internet to access to English contents
   • The new school model guides are used but there are no English versions