Wednesday, 29 September 2021

bilingual teaching today

You can learn anything through English or any other language:

Content and language integrated learning - Wikipedia

CLIL has come a long way over the last decade:

Jay Doubleyou: clil: content and language integrated learning

If you google 'clil' today, most of the news pieces are in languages other than English:

clil - Google Search

It is of great interest all over the world - and an issue for great debate: 

Bilingual Taiwan By 2030 – Doable? Necessary?

Under the push of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), the three hours of English class per week would extend learning English through other subjects, calling into question whether or not students could absorb comprehensive knowledge – of the subject matter being taught – through the language being used.

Bilingual Taiwan By 2030 - Doable? Necessary? - The Taiwan Times

Language experts and teachers in primary and secondary schools discuss the pros and cons of a system that many feel has failed to provide the desired skills

In recent years, an educational trend has gained new traction, one that holds that a pure British accent – the Queen’s English – no longer has to be the one that prevails when teaching, learning or using English to communicate. This trend, known as ELF (English as a lingua franca), favors a more neutral pronunciation where the goal is to get the message across.
“The important thing now is being able to communicate; the purity of the accent is a thing of the past,” holds María Luisa Pérez, a professor of English studies at Jaén University and a leading researcher on this issue.
This line of thinking bears a relationship to the debate on whether the bilingual Spanish-English education model used in some public schools in Spain is really up to par, considering that some regions – which have devolved powers over education – ask teachers for a B2 level, indicating fluency but not proficiency as defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). Other regions require teachers to prove a C1 level, for proficient users of the language.
In recent years, nearly 90 centers have dropped out of the bilingual education system, viewing it as ineffective. But Pérez, just like other experts, warns that many people simply have the wrong idea of what a bilingual model really does. “It’s a mistake to think that children will end up speaking English just like they speak Spanish; the goal is for them to achieve a functional level that will let them communicate and work in the future,” she explains...

Learning English: Defenders of bilingual education in Spain: ‘It’s a mistake to think that students will speak English like they do Spanish’ | Society | EL PAÍS English Edition

More US schools teach in English and Spanish, but not enough to help Latino kids

Classes taught in both languages help students from various backgrounds, but many districts have fought to keep Spanish out of schools.

The programs can be tough to implement. Hurdles include a debate over the best way to teach English learners, public hostility against those who speak a native language other than English, shortages of bilingual teachers and even the fact that dual-language programs often grow fastest in areas where upper-income parents ask for them. That's good for children who participate, but it worries advocates who want to see language-minority students have equal access.

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