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Language in education

Educational success through bilingual education

By June 17, 2015July 19th, 201780 Comments4 min read10,170 views
Children in a bilingual program in Hamburg (Source: AlsterKind)

Children in a bilingual program in Hamburg (Source: AlsterKind)

It is a key finding of contemporary educational research that the children of migrants experience educational disadvantage vis-à-vis their native-born peers. The educational disadvantage of bilingual children has been documented in education systems as diverse as those of Britain, Germany, Japan and the USA. The discrepancy between the home language and the language of the school has been found to play a central role in educational disadvantage: while educational institutions continue to maintain a monolingual habitus, migrant children bring to school the experience of multilingualism.

Throughout the world, schools have been extremely slow to adapt to the realities of linguistic diversity; and the obsession of educational systems with linguistic homogeneity constitutes one of the great paradoxes of our time. While the benefits of bilingual education have been documented in a substantial body of research spanning a number of decades, the implementation of bilingual programs has been relatively slow, small-scale, discontinuous and often politically controversial. That is why academic monitoring of bilingual programs and dissemination of knowledge about bilingual programs continues to be important.

Much of the research about bilingual education for migrant students has been dominated by Spanish programs in the USA, and research in other contexts continues to be relatively scarce. A 2011 article by Joana Duarte about a six-year-monitoring project of bilingual elementary schools in the Northern German port city of Hamburg offers a fascinating exception.

Since the early 2000s, Hamburg has been offering bilingual programs in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish. These programs have been designed as dual-immersion programs and the aim is to enroll children whose stronger language is German or the target language in roughly equal numbers. Over a six-year period, the bilingual programs were monitored by researchers from the University of Hamburg, and Duarte’s article focusses particularly on the Portuguese program.

Like many dual-language immersion programs, the bilingual programs under examination have three key aims:

  • Development of high-level bilingual proficiencies in German and Portuguese, including the ability to read and write in both languages (biliteracy)
  • Achievement in content areas such as mathematics, sciences and social studies at or above grade level
  • Development of intercultural competences

In order to achieve these goals about half of the curriculum is taught bilingually: German and Portuguese language classes are taught contrastively and with a strong focus on linguistic form. Social Studies are taught through a team-teaching approach by a German- and a Portuguese-speaking teacher, and Music and parts of Mathematics are taught by a bilingual teacher who uses both languages.

Didactically, there is a strong focus on explicit and contrastive language instruction, and explicit grammar and form-focused instruction is an important feature of all instruction, including subject instruction.

So, how does this kind of program work for the students? The researchers conducted a three-way comparison of students in the program with Portuguese bilingual migrant students and native German monolingual students at a ‘regular’ German elementary school, and also with native Portuguese monolingual students studying in Portugal.

To begin with, the students in the bilingual program significantly outperformed their Portuguese-speaking peers in a ‘regular’ German elementary school on assessments of academic language proficiency and subject content. Their gains were such that, over the six years of elementary school, the initial condition of linguistic heterogeneity disappeared and their performance was equal to that of monolingual German children after controlling for socio-economic background and individual student cognitive ability.

This means that bilingual education in a dual-immersion program can completely erase the educational disadvantage of migrant students.

Comparison with Portuguese students in Portugal showed an additional bonus: Portuguese-speaking migrant children in the program in Hamburg reached proficiency levels in Portuguese that are comparable to those of monolingual Portuguese children in Portugal.

Migrant children are disadvantaged in monolingual schools because they face the double task of learning a new language and new subject content simultaneously and they do so in the presence of native-born monolingual students, for whom the educational system is designed, and who thus ‘only’ face the task of content learning. Where schools level the playing field through the provision of bilingual education, as the Hamburg programs described here do, they not only overcome language-based educational disadvantage but also enable migrants to accumulate cultural capital by institutionalizing and certifying bilingual proficiency.

ResearchBlogging.orgDuarte, J. (2011). Migrants’ educational success through innovation: The case of the Hamburg bilingual schools. International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l’Education, 57(5/6), 631-649. doi: 10.2307/41480148 (available for download from academia.edu)

Ingrid Piller

Author Ingrid Piller

Dr Ingrid Piller, FAHA, is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research expertise is in bilingual education, intercultural communication, language learning, and multilingualism in the context of migration and globalization.

More posts by Ingrid Piller

Join the discussion 80 Comments

  • Romeo Paul Rozario says:

    This article is quite fascinating as it demonstrates how bilingual education benefits students’ academic progress, particularly those who are migrants who must simultaneously acquire a new language and new subject material in monolingual classrooms. Despite the advantages of bilingual education, it has been implemented slowly, on a small scale, irregularly, and frequently for political reasons. Reviewing the policies and procedures for bilingual education and adding regular conversations in a second language to the curriculum could both be beneficial.

  • Agatha Emocling says:

    Very insightful article! I think it’s very interesting to see that students from the dual immersion program ‘outperformed’ their peers in monolingual programs—perhaps this strengthens the notion that exposure not only to the language structures but regular use of the target language are key aspects in acquiring and learning an L2. Based on the data presented in Duarte’s study, it might be worthwhile to re-examine the policies and systems that are set in place for bilingual education, in that everyday conversational use of an L2 might become part of the curriculum. Additionally, the insights from this write-up prompted me to reflect on the experiences of my siblings who are migrant (Filipino) students in Ghana, albeit being enrolled in an international school (with peers coming from Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia). It might be interesting to see how international school systems navigate these gaps in terms of linguistic and cultural backgrounds as most of the international institutions that I know of are rarely attended by members of the host community/country. So, the fact that third-culture kids from various ethnic, national, and cultural backgrounds interact with one another in an international school setting AND interact with the host community’s language and culture simultaneously might be an interesting discussion in terms of the policies that are set in place for bilingual (or perhaps, multilingual) education.

  • Jeremy C. says:

    Thank you for this insightful article, Dr. Piller! It really made me realize how crucial bilingual education is since it allows individuals to delve deeper into different cultural backgrounds. Besides learning the languages themselves, it is very important to take note of cultural diversity that should be visible in various learning environments. Bilingual education also provides many different opportunities for students, especially in preparation for whatever career they choose. Based on my experience, I have encountered many people who were not accustomed to using more than one language in their daily lives and it was solely because of the lack of bilingual education when they were still in school. Because of this, they were also lacking in knowledge when it comes to many cultures as well. This goes to show that bilingual education should be further developed and implemented in order to further educate people on a level that is more than just language.

  • Red Kernstin Leongson says:

    I agree that the formation of bilingual education resulted in a positive outcome according to an article. As for me, I really hope that bilingual education should be implemented in my country, the Philippines, as we are a multilingual country. In fact, our country has been practicing Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) in early education and I’ve seen the pros and cons of that movement such as it has been practiced that the specific Mother Tongue of an area is used to teach lessons for pre-school up to the 3rd-grade. However, there are subjects or lessons which are intended to be taught in English that are in fact being taught in the Mother Tongue and it was difficult as some key concepts or jargon cannot be translated into the language. With this, I want to strongly advocate for the implementation of bilingual education as the formation of English as it was being taught in the early years should also be considered. This is also a great start to being able to practice biliteracy instead of just focusing on one. With the said goals and outcomes in the article, I hope this can also mirror the effect once it can be practiced in my country, the Philippines, as we are also a country where English is used as a second language.

  • Kassandra Salanguit says:

    This article gave an in-depth look at how bilingual education can help in the educational success of students. I believe that bilingual education has the ability to spread cultural awareness as students interact with their classmates with different cultural backgrounds. This enables students to explore and understand the language and culture of their classmates as well as to gain a better understanding of what cultural diversity is. With this awareness and understanding of cultural differences inside the classroom, students will be able to effectively form and maintain relationships with individuals from distinct cultural backgrounds. Moreover, I also believe that students can achieve greater heights through bilingual education as it creates opportunities for them.

  • Kiara says:

    This article showed a comprehensive discussion on bilingual education. Intercultural communication and diversity can be achieved through bilingual education such as dual immersion programs. The program teaches students academic subjects in two different languages and helps students in developing academic and linguistic competency at the same time. I think that this program is effective because they encourage students to learn a second language, for example, English, and at the same time develop their linguistic skills in their native language. It also helps the student achieve academic success while supporting their culture. Bilingual education enables students to reach their full potential in multilingual and intercultural capabilities by creating school environments that recognize, value, and encourage cultural and linguistic diversity is important. Cultural stereotypes can be avoided and educational opportunities for everyone can be achieved through bilingual education.

  • Kiara says:

    This article showed a comprehensive discussion on bilingual education. Intercultural communication and diversity can be achieved through bilingual education such as dual immersion programs. The program teaches students academic subjects in two different languages and helps students in developing academic and linguistic competency at the same time. I think that this program is effective because they encourage students to learn a second language, for example, English, and at the same time develop their linguistic skills in their native language. It also helps the student achieve academic success while supporting their culture. Bilingual education enables students to reach their full potential in multilingual and intercultural capabilities by creating school environments that recognize, value, and encourage cultural and linguistic diversity is important. Cultural stereotypes can also be avoided and educational opportunities for everyone can be achieved through bilingual education.

  • KyKy says:

    This dual language approach is based on research showing that many concepts are best learned in the language that the learner understands. This approach would make a significant difference in the lives of children in multicultural communities. All children, irrespective of their location, should have teachers who understand their language and culture and thus can improve their learning. The language a child speaks at home is often a crucial element of personal identity and group attachment

  • Ngoc Hiep Nguyen says:

    This bilingual elementary school project in the Northern German port city of Hamburg is taught bilingually and contrastively with a great focus on linguistic form. It seems to me that this is one methodological element that helps this program be successful. Actually there have been many other bilingual programs being carried out for the migrant students but few achievements have been recorded.
    The important reason for success is that the students’ socio-economic background and personal cognitive ability are in control. This greatly contributes to lifting the migrant students’ pressure and allowing them to get rid of the explicit disadvantages vis-à-vis their native-born peers at schools.

  • Xinyue Ji says:

    The experiment’s result shows that providing bilingual courses can eliminate the educational disadvantages of immigrant students. I believe that this research is valuable and I also think that developing the ability of across culture is important. However, in some countries it also needs a long period to achieve the goal. For instance, like China, due to the national conditions and policies, to a large extent providing a bilingual education is impossible. The twelve educational years is a preparation for a person’s college life.

  • B says:

    This article is very interesting and useful. I think other countries which have many immigrants should use this model to be an example. As teaching bilingual are benefit to both immigrants and natives, they can learn second language by lessons in class and with their peers. Moreover, many migrants are not proficiency in their second language, they are more likely to be joking by the native, todo this it may help deducting the gap between migrants students and native students. In the world now a day, knowing many languages will help students to have more opportunities than knowing just one language.

  • Nidhi says:

    Undoubtedly migrant students can achieve language proficiency with the help of bilingual educational mode. Bilingual learners always get an opportunity to enjoy diverse culture. They not only become creative and intellectual also the chances to get job are higher for them as compare to monolingual person. I have studies through bilingual system and I consider it an advantage since I got a chance to compare nature of different language as similarity and differences.

  • Rain says:

    12. The fact that students in the bilingual program outperformed their Portuguese-speaking peers in both language and subject contents results that bilingual programs do help migrant children overcome the difficulties in their study in the new country. In Vietnam, there are some certain international schools teaching students in two languages (Vietnamese and another language), too. And it makes me wonder that whether they will outperform their Vietnamese-speaking peers in case these children study abroad in countries where people speak the same language with which they are instructed in at school.

  • Nguyen Thien Duyen Ngo says:

    It is impressive and inspiring to know about the success of bilingual teaching. Because the children coming from CALD bakgrounds have more difficulties in their literacies studies due to the sociocultural differences, the language barriers, etc. This is an important step in the development of bilingual children’s development and literacy. Because that children’s literacy learning in their first language is beneficial to their second-language learning.

  • vu says:

    This article has demonstrated how bilingual projects can help migrant young kids to exceed expectations to accomplish high capability level in a dialect. In my stance, I lack experiences as I originate from monologue setting, I have not considered bilingual projects and how these projects can decidedly affect and make positive results for learning kids the language. As I read this article, Hamburg has given one of a kind endeavors to migrant children lastly acquired positive outcomes.

  • tting says:

    Bilingual teaching is a process of teaching students in two languages. Education workers usually combine the mother tongue with the second language according to the requirements of teaching plan and teaching mode and use the mother tongue and second language teaching in different degrees. Bilingual education programs are actually more expensive than English classes. Bilingual education seems to be the most effective way to teach students whose native language is not English. Another option for bilingual education is immersive education – research shows that immersive education isn’t cheap either. When students learn math, science, history, and other skills in a language they don’t understand, content learning is completely lost and meaningless progress is lost.

  • Kim says:

    Some schools seem to adapt slowly to the linguistic diversity among the students in a particular context, which may trigger another problem in their learning process. While this is true, the government as the gatekeeper of the country and an important stakeholder in education, on the other hand, may also need to be more pro-active in encountering the issue. Even though some schools might organize themselves and acquire a sort of freedom to innovate their programs and ensure their quality, there are certain occasions where the government must take part in such as creating the curriculum, providing supports of financial or materials for schools in need including teacher training programs and pioneering a professional development for the teachers.

  • Tamanna Habib says:

    This article has revealed the fact that bilingualism can assist migrant children to achieve high proficiency level in a language. I think bilingual programs can positively affect children’s education and create positive outcomes for learning children the language. Even bilingual children have more advantage in getting a good job than monolingual one. In my country, after Bengali, English is considered as second language. It is mandatory for every child to learn English. Other than English, we have many dialects which shows a individual’s ethnicity within the same country.

  • Rochelle says:

    I feel that it is always an advantage for an individual to learn and know more than one language. Being a bilingual and someone who comes from a multiculturism background, my friends who are monolingual are always fascinated by me knowing more than one language and also different dialects in Chinese. It will be a plus factor for employers to hire bilingual or multilingual as well as there is an expanding diversity in the world.

  • Shaher Mohammed Shaher Asiri says:

    Hello everyone,

    This article has shown how bilingual programs can assist migrant children to excel to achieve high proficiency level in a language. For me, I have no experience as I come from monologue context, I have not thought about bilingual programs and how these programs can positively impact and create positive outcomes for learning children the language. As I read this article, Hamburg has provided unique efforts for migrant children and finally obtained positive results.

  • Fern says:

    The positive effects of bilingualism are widely accepted due to the opportunities it offers for learners’ creativity, parental involvement and the empowerment of youth in gaining employment in multicultural societies such as Australia. And the methods used in the German school in Hamburg are not far fetched solutions considering the availability of qualified teachers in main subjects in a variety of predominant languages in Australia. Since the need is there ( evident in the presence and demand for community language schools) and the resources are available , what is preventing implementation of bilingual education could be nothing other than maintaining a ‘monolingual habitus’ which reflects a ‘hidden curriculum’ adhering to maintaining a decided social order in multicultural communities such Australia, Canada and the UK. This is a disadvantage to the migrating children and their parents and manifests against attempts at social inclusion.

  • Natalie says:

    It is very interesting to read about the benefits of a bilingual education in a dual-immersion program. In my experience however, there is one potential downfall of the bilingual approach and that is the potential shortage of qualified educators for each language in a region. The reason I mention this is that while living in Mexico less than 20 years ago I worked for a short time in a bilingual primary school in Cuernavaca, a city south of Mexico City. I was employed without needing to provide evidence of any teaching qualification. The only requirement for securing the teaching position was that I spoke English as a first language. At this stage I had a Bachelor of Arts, however no teaching or TESOL qualification and as a result, understandably, found it quite challenging to teach a class of 30 12 year old Spanish speakers subjects such as Geography, Science and History, in English. Needless to say, I only lasted 3 months and whether the students progressed in those areas of study while I was their teacher is doubtful!

  • yym says:

    Bilingual education may create an opportunity for early diversity. It offers the opportunities for children to learn from the differences in culture. Learning specific content can be extremely difficult. However, for younger kids, learning specific content may be difficult. For example, different concepts will be taught at the same time. Learners accept the first language and second language synchronously,which may make the students struggle with the fundamental grammar. It is a negative impact on their education.

  • Yan Yan says:

    Double immersion bilingual education can eliminate the disadvantages of immigrant students. This gives us a new way to educate immigrant students about literacy. I hope that bilingual education in the future will help more immigrant students, but bilingual schools have higher requirements for teachers’ quality and teaching resources. It is still difficult to promote them comprehensively.

  • Luis TV says:

    The benefits of institutionalizing bilingual education are countless. To begin with, it gets rid of the disadvantageous perpetuity of monolingual schooling. Also, it largely collaborates, as Duarte’s study shows, with a much more productive adaptation period that migrant children have to go through. Moreover, this type of system demystifies that linguistic homogeneity is the right approach to take, especially when dealing with children who come from multilingual backgrounds. At the personal level, I can relate the scenarios described in the article with what my little niece is experiencing in Florida. She is 12 (currently in Middle school) and migrated to Florida last year. As the Florida Department of Education stipulates (http://www.fldoe.org/academics/eng-language-learners/rules-legislation.stml), students like my niece have to be placed to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs, which should ensure their being enrolled in classes appropriate to their English level and receive continuous support services. Now, in spite of my niece’s positive feedback to her schooling, this type of ‘submersion education’ perpetuates the monolingual habitus in a multilingual school, which allocates her in a disadvantageous position. As Piller (2006) points out, children in a similar situation as my niece’s have to overcome bigger challenges such as learning the content while acquiring the language.

    Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic diversity in education. In Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice: An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics (pp. 98-129). New York: Oxford University Press

  • Karly says:

    The article helps to support the fact that students studying in a non-native language are ultimately going to experience some level of difficulties in contrast to their peers that are native speaking. However, in a bilingual education system, the fact that they can be seen to erase the educational disadvantage of students studying in non-native languages is a very important finding as this approach can be used moving forward in certain educational systems where there is a strong mix of language diversity.

  • Nana says:

    The disadvantage that migrant students have is evident, and it is represented in terms of financial difficulties as well as academic aspects. In the case of many Latin-american migrant students in Australia, one disadvantage is related to the high cost of education programs in comparison with the costs for the native students, specially higher education. Referring to education educational disadvantages, migrants students found difficulties in many aspects independently of the age; while children,who come with their parents, have extra job learning the language of instruction as well as learning subjects’ contents, adults are required to learn the official language if they do not have it; they also need to demonstrate certain proficiency if they are studying and good communication skills to find a job. Sometimes they even have the responsibility of carrying with their families.

  • Lai Ng says:

    This reminds us that the importance of curriculum design on this matter. The example of German bilingual education in a dual-immersion program can completely erase the educational disadvantage of migrant students. It illustrates the advantages of bilingual programme under suitable supervision. Education system should adapt the context of community and the identity of learners. Sometimes people may worry that bilingualism would damage the harmony of community which is not true.

  • xqx says:

    This article has presented a severe problem of the study environment of migrant children. It cannot be denied that migrant children often have more difficulties with the learning environment in monolingual schools because they are not only facing the challenge of new subjects but also a challenge of learning in a new language, China has been promoting bilingual learning in recent years, as a beneficiary myself, it has broadened my international perspective and also laid a root of learning abroad. Therefore, from my perspective, it has now become a pressing task to improve the bilingual learning environment and multicultural education.

  • AzPc says:

    My cousins were born in Sydney and they are all from the migration background, my eldest cousin who can speak both mother language and English, but he didn’t want to go to school and he thought the kids who are native speakers at school are not that nice than the migration children. He sometimes didn’t feel like he belongs to the classroom. However, the youngest cousin who can only speak a little bit mother tone and he speaks English for most of the time, he finds that he really like to go to school and people are nice there.

  • Adia says:

    This article reminds me of some case studies of multilingual or migrant students that were disadvantaged by the literacy practices and systems in their monolingual schools. It’s clear that the discrepancy between home language and language of school has influenced students’ academic achievement. It’ll be even more problematic when their parents are unable to dedicate their time to involve in school-promoted activities to support their children’s academic performance due to the language constraints (they don’t speak language that’s used at school) or their labour markets that require long working hours, so they don’t have time to assist and monitor their children. As the consequences, students can feel unmotivated and cannot perform better as they find it hard to keep up with the lesson because they don’t fully understand the language that is used as the medium of interaction. Therefore, I definitely agree that bilingual education is very effective to solve these issues faced by migrants or multilingual students. Besides, a strong cooperation among the influential agents such as policy makers, teachers, community and parents are very central too to create more favourable learning and education settings for students.

  • Cami says:

    I have been looking into bilingual education for my presentation and one of the things that struck me most is the lack of bilingual education in Australia. I found the following bilingual schools: German International School – Terrey Hills, Sydney Japanese International School – Terrey Hills, Lycee Condorcet – The International French School of Sydney – Maroubra, Galstaun College (Armenian) – Ingleside, Italian Bilingual School – Meadowbank and also a Chinese international school and also limited immersion programs from grades K-1 or 2 in Indonesian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese. Given the large number of immigrants in Australia it is shocking that there are not more bilingual schools. Many of my friends who have parents who do not speak English cannot communicate with their parents properly because they have not been supported in learning their home language, and this has impacted on family and community relations and self-esteem. My father is Dutch and I can speak Dutch but not to native-speaker proficiency and learning Dutch was the bridge that helped me to connect to my family and also my Dutch identity, however I feel that it would have been great to have had some support to help me rather than having to struggle through to try to learn on my own. I know many people who had similar experiences to me, however in other languages. I feel that it is not enough to know the language, it is also important to know the culture as even if you know the language if you don’t understand cultural norms, expectations and cultural knowledge it is hard to fit in. I hope that Australia will be able to implement more bilingual education programs so that children can be helped to know their mother tongue, culture and also understand more about their parent’s country of origin.

  • zhongliang lin says:

    In China, bilingual education refers to the use of a foreign language, rather than Chinese, as the main language in the classroom. Most of the bilingual education is English teaching in China. The implementation of bilingual programs has been relatively slow in China, mainly include two reasons: first, the lack of original English textbook. The original textbook of foreign languages is the necessary element for bilingual education. Another significant problem is the lack of bilingual teachers. There are not many teachers engaged in bilingual education. It could be hard for students to use a language they are not very skilled to accept completely new knowledge. It can only be contrary to the original intention of teaching.

  • Hasnahana Hasnahana says:

    Bilingual education is really an effective process than the monolingual as in the country where English is as L2, the beginner will not feel comfortable without the L1 instructions in many cases. When their will be spontaneous use of both L1 and L2 for a certain periods, then the learning will be easier and they will be familiar with the L2 instructions and adopt L2. So, at least up to primary stage, there should be usage of L1 and L2.

  • AN says:

    It is fascinating how evolved we are becoming (linguistically), with globalisation and amazing technological advances that have greatly contributed to the expansion of the linguistic landscape across the world. Availability of the option for bilingual education in educational institutions provides the means to make it possible for linguistically diverse children to achieve the same challenging academic standards required of all enrolled students. A well-designed program would be effective in promoting proficiencies in more than one language, as well as the competence within particular subject areas. This however may be of a challenge in countries/ institutions with limited availability of bilingually- educated teachers, or the resources needed to train those teachers.

    The education system in Malaysia ‘resembles’ that of bilingual programs, where the concept is not openly advocated, but the national educational system acts as a catalyst for bilingualism (i.e. an implicitly sanctioned language policy) (Shah & Ahmad, 2007). Although the main emphasis is given to language instructions in Bahasa Malaysia (i.e. in primary and secondary/high schools, especially in the areas of Mathematics and the Sciences), there are no particular restrictions to the use of other languages in classrooms (particularly English) as per the Malaysian constitution. This however may not translate to the effectiveness of the bilingual nature of our educational curriculum in the ‘long run’. In classrooms, the need to uphold the importance of Bahasa Malaysia as the national and official language often results in English being cast aside, and only used as language of instruction during English lessons. Students who do not commonly communicate in English, especially outside of classrooms, are often disadvantaged when pursuing tertiary education (where English is often the primary mode of instruction) and/ or seeking job opportunities where English is increasingly used as common language for communication.

    Shah, P. S. & Ahmad, F. (2007). A comparative account of the bilingual education programs in Malaysia and the United States. Online Journal of Language Studies, 7(2), 63- 76.

  • Gab says:

    I totally believe in the power bilingual education. Learning in an environment that equally welcomes the duality of languages present in the classroom does not only eliminate disadvantages for migrant students, as mentioned in the post, but also celebrates diversity which turns the disadvantages into benefits for all students. I think that bilingual education policies serve their ultimate purpose to help students learn regardless of their socio-political and cultural background.

  • Sirin says:

    I would consider myself a fairly strong bilingual. My mother tongue is Turkish but I grew up in Germany, learning both languages simultaneously and acquiring both languages as my first language. In comparison to other migrant children, I have been lucky with my upbringing, as my parents dedicated a lot of time and energy into teaching me my mother tongue. Other students in similar circumstances might not be as fortunate, therefore struggling in class, as the main language at home is different from the language of instruction at school. Additionally, migrant children often struggle with their mother tongue, not developing high levels of proficiency, which means they do not master any of the languages they are exposed to at a high level. Reading about these approaches to bilingual education makes me exited for future generations who could profit from such programs, as bilingual children would have equal chances to educational success.

  • Sarah says:

    This article is so inspiring in a way that can make people be more aware of the language learning environment for migrant children. It is really true that they must be able to supported by those educational institutions or system which can help them to develop both linguistic competence and cultural competence in order to survive in another society or country. I hope my country can be more opened to those who are bilingual or migrants in terms of the multicultural education or environment.

  • Luv says:

    Bilingual education seems to have more benefits than monolingual education according to research made in the area. I think it might have not been implemented because of a number of reasons, such as having prepared teachers, materials and needs from a specific country. In my home country, bilingual schools belong to the private sector and in public schools, there are rare cases of having bilingual programs in rural areas. Most of primary and secondary schools have another language as a subject but not used as a form of instruction of other subjects. Recently, English was added to the national curriculum for primary schools in my home country, thus, having bilingual schools might be difficult to achieve in a near future. In a country, like Australia, where there are multiple cultures, migrant children coming from different parts of the world, it might be difficult to have bilingual schools where there are a number of languages of instruction.

  • gab88 says:

    The immersion program in Hamburg is fascinating and intriguing. I’ve always thought and been told that Bilingual education is better, but here in Australia, despite being so multicultural there aren’t many, if any opportunities for such programs.
    After reading a lot of articles about how migrant children struggle in mainstream schools, it was wonderful to read about the success in Hamburg. Having a daughter who we are trying to raise bilingual, it is important for us to know that the benefits of such a program which really works.
    The organisation of such programs would be immense, but the outcomes for the children would be significant for not just migrant families but for local children as well. Knowing more than one language is often an advantage later on in life.

  • Ary says:

    The programme mentioned in the blogpost literally signifies the positive direction of the potential education policies for implementation by countries whose immigration attraction comes from needs of both the government’s and the foreigners’. Successful executions of such schemes on the developing scales would lead to beneficial outcomes. However, the limitation of the scheme lies in the nature of itself: BI-lingual. The question of whether such similar system would be effectively functional when the scope of considered-languages expands (tri-, or even multi-lingual) is still left to-be-discovered. For examples, considering a community of people whose original nationality is Vietnamese; cultural and linguistic heritage is Chinese (any given dialects); and who are living in Australia – an English speaking country, would (or must) there be a decision of abandoning one language (either Chinese or Vietnamese), or is it viable/feasible to come up with an educational policy/scheme that all the considered languages end up being fostered? Personally, I think it’s worth considering.

  • Au says:

    From my point of view, bilingual programs need a great amount of effort to organize and implement. These programs need to go parallel with specifically designed materials in two languages. People have to continue designing materials for different levels from primary school to at least secondary schools. Teachers of human and social science and natural science need to master two languages to be able to teach their subjects to students which creates new disciplines in universities. In the city where I live, there are a community of mixed people between Chinese and Vietnamese. In a local primary school, they use bilingual curriculum to teach children. The teachers are half Chinese and Vietnamese too. Each teacher will take responsibility for each class and teach all subjects from social to natural science. However, this bilingual program just lasts in the first five years in primary school. From secondary school, these mixed students will study the same mainstream material to other native-born peers.

  • Yuki says:

    This article illustrates the real facts of bilingual children in many countries. However, to achieve the goals of various dual-language immersion programs, educators need to design the curriculum in bilingually so that students can have a chance of gaining knowledge of both languages. The situation sounds like what has happened in Vietnam, nevertheless, it requires many factors completed to develop the bilingual programs in Vietnam such as the number of qualified teachers, the curriculum and the infrastructures.

  • Chunja says:

    It’s obvious that migrant children encounter more difficulties and challenges acquiring the second language and are more disadvantaged in academic performance in class compared to the native students. Therefore, applying dual-language immersion programs as suggested in the blog seems to be an effective and feasible solution to the issue. In fact, these problems are quite new to me as it isn’t introduced or launched in my teaching context as probably we are not the native speaking countries. I agree that it is essential to implement this program so that students from diverse background have equal opportunities to learn and develop themselves. However, as there are still some concerns such as teaching materials and the running cost, I would hope to read more research or further information of the programs so that I may consider and introduce this to my future teaching context.

  • Farzaneh Morovati says:

    Hello,

    This article mentions to bilingualism very clearly. Nowadays, migration rate is rising more than any other times especially in some specific countries such as Australia, Canada, and so on. From my personal point of view, the migrants’ children are the ones who have mostly been exposed to the side effects of migration and its upcoming problems. Parents might migrate for the benefit of their children but they should also know that their children need high rate of attention after this decision. In terms of bilingualism, speaking two languages or more is a great advantage but I have always thought that children who are exposed to two different languages in the society and at home might stay in confusion and instability. It’s a kind of indirect pressure on children from society and parents. Children will master two languages but the question is that do they really master in all skills or some? I think the context in which the children are situated may specify different proficiencies for example the oral fluency can be better in mother tongue and written skills at school for the second language. So, both parents and the government are responsible for the children progress of literacy in a new environment.

    Thank you
    Farzaneh Morovati

  • Mengyao APPL941 says:

    Running the ‘dual-language immersion programs’ obviously can benefit the migrant students, helps these students break the barriers of target language learning on the way for obtaining the subjects knowledge. Furthermore, this kind of bilingual education can also help migrant students master two languages in literacy efficiently through a natural immersion teaching method. That sounds an ideal education form! But in China, the bilingual programs seems hard to promote because of the high-quality demand for bilingual-education teachers, bilingual programs not only need teachers are able to work on two languages professionally but also expertise in the specific subject.

  • Preeya says:

    This article show productive outcomes of the Hamburg programme for bilingual education. according to this course, learning English language deepens on the political dimension which lead to the execution of the programme stand in the way of political ideology. However, the migrant students in this article are able to communicate and learn English effectively with their personal challenges, especially on the complement on grammar regulations. In my point of view, this programme is not only useful for migrant students, but also it can be adapted to minority students or young students.

  • Wendie LIU says:

    Along with the increasing fluctuation of the amount of the immigrants around the world in contemporary society, some countries including America, Australia and Canada are experiencing a huge amount of immigrants from other non- English speaking countries. Within their long stay in these countries, the education of the immigrant children has greatly attracted people’s concerns. In terms of the literacy learning and language use, the majority of the immigrant children and their parents are confronted with a sharp issue- the recognition of the bilingual education. Just as what mentioned in the article, bilingual education could promote the success of the education among immigrant children. However, it is significant for the parents to be alert to some potential problems, for example, due to the different stratification of the parents varying from low-class family to upper-class family in terms of their wages and educational and cultural background may lead to the discontinuity of their children’s literacy learning beyond schooling practices.

  • Bilo says:

    The results of this study are very interesting since they show a real example of how to it is possible to “erase” educational disadvantage of migrant children. With this in mind, bilingual education should become a key area in applied linguistics in order to raise the awareness of its effectiveness. However, as the article also mentions it, bilingual programs are “politically controversial” which means that regardless of its proven effectiveness the implementation of these programs is still subjected to political decisions, and that is a complication which is really hard to tackle.

  • Arnon says:

    A bilingual program in German is a valuable model which shows bilingual education can eliminate educational problem of students especially migrant children. It definitely works to learn two or many languages when they were young. I dream to see the bilingual program in every countries such as Asia. Children in many counties in Asia face challenge to learn language, if there are schools for teaching language, it can be a great thing for children in next generation.

  • J says:

    In countries where English is a native language, it is crucial to consider implementing bilingual programs for the students who have different language backgrounds. When schools can provide bilingual or multilingual programs / curriculum for immigrant students, it can promote their academic achievement and enable them to develop academic skills. Moreover, while taking the classes, they are able to be exposed to English in natural situations (their proficiency of English will be improved efficiently). This means that it is possible to improve their English as well as enhance their academic skills at the same time.

  • Van Le says:

    “Dual-language immersion programs” is a new concept to me and I think it is such a great idea that should be promoted throughout the world to assist bilingual students and erase the disadvantages they have to face at schools compared to their native-born peers. Small migrant children might have less difficulties than the older ones, but overall, it is extremely crucial that schools adopt this kind of model to help their students have equal chances to reach their greatest potentials.

  • Siyi Wu says:

    Multiple languages education is a good way to help immigrant students in better learning, understanding and developing. For example, in Australia, Although some Chinese immigrant students feel hard at school and they might cannot suit for the life of English culture, most of them have more chances to grow up to a successful people, which because they grow up with two different culture. As the Germany example, it is good for students to receive multiple language education, but it is really hard sometimes.

  • Orpheus says:

    It is true that children of migrants face a lot of disadvantages in learning than native-born ones. This is because most educational institutions prefer maintaining a monolingual environment to educate their students without acknowledging that this cause a number of problems related to the learning process of these bilingual students. Therefore, it is of importance that the use of dual-language immersion programs such as Hamburg programs needs to be promoted so that bilingual students will be provided with a great number of opportunities to overcome the barriers of learning a new language at monolingual classrooms.

  • Ann says:

    When parents are migrated due to many reasons, school age children have to suffer in their education. They have to learn the particular language as well as subject content through that language. As mentioned by Prof. Piller, migrant children are disadvantaged in monolingual schools. Additionally, there is a slow adaption to this scenario throughout the world.
    It is important for us to get to know about six year project by Joana Duarte (2011) on bilingual education school in Hamburg. If relevant authorities pay more attention about bilingual education migrant students will outperform language proficiency and subject contents.
    It is important to train bilingual teachers as well.
    With the complexity of globalisation which anybody cannot stop, there should be more recognition to bilingual education.

  • Naoya says:

    Advance in technology has definitely facilitated globalization, resulting in the spread of multiculturalism. As more individuals move from one country to another, they are more likely to gain opportunities to stay in a different country and encounter culturally different situations where they are required to adjust themselves to a particular culture. In that sense, bilingualism is not only a matter of child education but also that of adult education. However, early immersion of people into a different language and culture leads to more successful acquisition of them. As a teacher working in Sydney for teaching English to Japanese students from kindergarten to junior high school, I have experienced seeing them gaining the significant benefits of acquisition from the early exposure. Age should be highly regarded when it comes to bilingual education.

  • Thet says:

    This article is so informative that it presents the important issues that bilingual children usually encounter and the working bilingual education programmes and their results. In fact, in my country, bilingual children with the home languages of ethnic languages have this kind of hardship throughout their basic education, learning the subject content in the second language which doubles their study load. Consequently, this leads to a considerable dropout rate and examination failure rate.
    It is interesting to know the positive outcome of the Hamburg programmes and so this inspires me to find out how those programmes are implemented in the classrooms.

  • abc says:

    This study provides a fascinating snapshot into the educational lives of bilingual children. I found it very interesting that educational outcomes for bilingual children enrolled in targeted bilingual programs matched those of monolingual German children. I’d love to see programs of this calibre implemented broadly in Australian schools. However, I recognise that this may be difficult for a number of reasons, not least of all the huge range of mother tongues spoken by migrant Australian children.

  • Sunny says:

    I think migrant children who study in monolingual schools may lose confidence and have trouble in get along well with local students.
    They may need to work much harder to get same grades with local children.Apart from learning the subject knowledge, e.g. mathematics, science, and so an, they also need to overcome the language barriers to understand the language content in their textbooks. They may feel more stressful and may lose confidence when they have a bad preformence.
    Because of the difficulties to communicate well with their classmate, some migrant students, especially those who are shy, may not easily to make friends.
    There are also other problems exist, while all these problems may be soleved if they study in a bilingual program. Students is relatively fair since their beginning levels are same and because of the multilingualism in the school, everyone seems have the same opportunities to make friends and socialise with other. All these changes have positive influence in children’s mental health.

  • Anas says:

    A dynamic topic especially in the current environment where migration is the norm. Migration comes in all forms – the need to seek political and religious protection but also in search of a better future. Multiculturalism and bilingualism is now a common environment in classrooms around the globe. It cannot be contained and doing so is a futile effort and will only backfire the society. As such, the project of bilingual elementary schools in the Northern German port city of Hamburg is always a fascinating as has given opportunities for others to look at 1. how it can be done 2. the benefits for the students which will ultimately benefit the community and the country at large in terms of employment. In the Australian context, I cannot help but notice bilingual schools are slowly but surely appearing. For example, ABC covered a story on a Japanese/English bilingual school. The story made for an interesting study and I wonder if a study has already been conducted or being conducted – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hU7IezSAs8. If anyone has more similar stories, please share. I am interested and would like to see how this can be implemented in Jordan. And for those who are interested in articles on bilingualism, please check out:
    1. The Conversation – Bilingualism – code switching (Parodi, 2015):
    Teresa Parodi: Lecturer of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, UK
    http://theconversation.com/speaking-in-tongues-the-many-benefits-of-bilingualism-49842

    2. The Guardian – The Joys and Benefits of Bilingualism (Jones, 2018):
    Tobias Jones: British author and journalist
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/21/the-joys-and-benefits-of-bilingualism

    In 1922, in “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,” the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”

    We, as students of this course, are extremely lucky to be able to tap into the world of another language. Hopefully, as the future educators of our nations, we can come up with ways on how we can modify the current education system of our country to incorporate English – successfully. ‘Successfully’ in this context means having the bilingual proficiency similar if not the same to native speakers of both our L1 and L2.

  • Haley says:

    This article really seems to show a good, workable model for bilingual education. It is interesting to see that the students actually caught up to their German counterparts. If the students can actually achieve the same results in coursework and come out of schooling truly bilingual maybe this is a model of schooling that could be useful for all, not just migrants and minority students.

    Growing up as a native speaker in Australia I have always felt my lack of language education compared to many Europeans. Would this kind of education not also be of benefit to native English speakers, which in turn may very well lead to a more open and mutual understanding of different cultures.

    However, regardless of the possible benefits for native speakers, it is obviously crucial that immigrant children are given this opportunity to develop on par with their local counterparts.

  • Sato says:

    As they say, “Common sense at school is the lack of common sense in the world.” This is true as school education is not flexible enough to adapt to the real situation of linguistic diversity and sticks to the monolingual education. Compared to monolingual programs, bilingual programs in this article will provide more opportunities to use their strengths in knowing both languages and help migrant students grow not only academically but mentally. Such programs need to be encouraged to avoid educational obstacles for migrant children.

    Ideally, teachers in the bilingual programs should be migrants because they know better about the difficulties of migrant children and provide more convincing suggestions based on their bitter experiences.

  • Nasser says:

    Apart from the advantages of bilingual education referred to in the article, there are other benefits that children can gain. These include increased career opportunities where literacy in a second or third language is required. Also, bilingualism affects the identity of bilinguals as they switch between the two languages. This means that one’s social norms of behaviour, personality and the medium of communication changes. Furthermore, the role of parents coupled with schools should not be underestimated.
    Take Iranian parents’ attitude towards bilingual education offered in primary schools in Umea located in eastern Sweden as an example. My sister and her husband, whose two children were born and raised in Sweden as bilinguals, encouraged them to speak Farsi at home, read Persian storybooks and practice written literacy in Farsi. This was facilitated by the help of those bilingual practices at school and strengthened by their grandparents who travelled to Sweden every summer to take care of the kids. Now, they have been equipped with more opportunities for social interactions especially when they travel to Iran.
    Despite all the benefits, the effectiveness of speaking a second language where opportunities for practicing do not necessarily lead to tangible outcomes in adulthood is questionable.

  • Pegah Marandi says:

    Dear all,

    The ability to read and write in both languages (biliteracy) as mentioned throughout the blog, is a vital phenomenon for a migrant child. It is of extreme importance to allow the child obtain both languages at the same time, so s/ he will also maintain his / her mother culture and language. Migration seems to eliminate the mother culture and language as the target’s educational system is based on monoligualism than bilingualism. On the other hand, parents are another important figure in their child’s bilingualism, as there are some families who do not let their child speak his/ her mother language, thus culture, language, and costume is just based on the target country. Creating a bilingual programme within schools seems to be a good idea to pursue various cultures at the same time.

    With regards,

    Pegah

  • Yang says:

    This article actually provides the positive attitudes and encouragement for those bilingual migrant students. To be honest, I was holding the opposition of that to use the mother language to learn another language. I asked a question about the English teaching method in China:”How can teachers use Chinese to teach English?”. I mean, Chinese students are asked to translate English word definitions into Chinese, then translate back into English when needed. As it becomes a period, this learning mode has already kept in depth, and it will easily become “Chinglish”. As I first came to Australia to study, I felt that “Chinglish” and the shortage of logic flow were the main challenges which I faced just because I did not learn English with a correct way.

    However, I forgot to analyse the situation and English learning purposes in China. English is as the compulsory subject which focuses on the tests, we rarely have chances to communicate in English but just keep doing the paperwork. We do not have a correct pedagogy, and we do not have the English learning environment. After reading this article, I changed a half of my “prejudice” in bilingual classroom. It does have a significant effect on the students which their L1 can help them access into L2 easier and clearer.

  • Piiigah (kamali) says:

    I am always feeling envious of those who were educated in bilingual environments. They were lucky to absorb two languages in the best years of their language-learning life. In my opinion, migrants should experience a bilingual educational system to adapt to their new environment as well as keep and save their mother tongue. Learning and educating in an academic bilingual system gives migrants the opportunity to be proficient in all speaking, writing and reading skills.

    • Mark says:

      Hi Piiigah,

      I too have feelings of envy, growing up in Australia there was only a very token effort put into learning a second language. Italian classes once a week. After 7 years you could maybe count and recite a prayer and greeting. It’s a shame and wasted potential given how capable children are of learning multiple languages. It then took me much longer as an adult to learn a second language. Migrant children as the article notes have a unique gift and skill in their knowledge of two languages. It seems such a shame to squander the opportunity with education that doesn’t develop both languages to their full potential, though as Zhao notes, there are challenges and costs that have been somewhat glossed over. The number of professionals capable of delivering such an education in each language may differ, with travel times then becoming an issue for example, if creating such a program is even possible in the first place

  • Thuy Linh Nguyen says:

    This article is so helpful as it suggests an effective solution for migrant children. Migrant students have to face to so many challenges and are disadvantaged compared to children whose first language is used at schools as medium instruction. Besides, migrant learners will gradually pick up new languages and do not have many opportunities to use, practice and develop their mother tongues’ skills. Bilingual education helps those students to achieve not only academic content but also languages’ proficiency . However, I wonder if this solution will be practical in a multicultural country like Australia. Before the government can apply this program to real life, problems and questions related to the number of bilingual schools, what languages, material designs, teacher training and costs still need addressing.

  • Li says:

    Based on the development of the globalization, bilingual has become inevitable and unavoidable. It is true that bilingual children can acquire two different languages because of their environment and education. However, sometimes it is quite difficult for these children to adapt monolingual schools’ academic atmosphere. This is because they have to a new language but their native languages are not well-developed. Therefore, the Hamburg programs should be widely promoted to help bilingual children overcome language-based educational problems.

  • zhao valencia says:

    The methodology and relevant curriculum are really successful and worth promoting to other countries. Under this globalisation context, being bilingual is inevitable. However, the potential challenges hidden in this project also cannot be overlooked. From my point of view, this bilingual program requires considerable amount of well-qualified teaching faculty and the investment from the government. Furthermore, both languages in hamburg’s bilingual program are based on the similar alphabet as well as the syntax system, or at least the gap is smaller, considering the one between Chinese and English. Hence, the compilation of the appropriate syllabus and the standardised assessment are no easy job, let alone the explicit instructions to be applied. I hold the precautions optimism attitude to this program, and it is indeed quite inspiring.

  • Nancy says:

    I do agree with you that bilingual education could be beneficial to migrant students in terms of language acquisition and intercultural competences. As you mentioned in the article, the common educational approach which is facing migrant students in monolingual schools is known “submersion education”. Submersion education refers to the situation in which students are made to learn a new language and the curriculum content simultaneously, in the absence of structured language learning supports (Piller, 2016). My friend who moved to Australia since he was 5 and has been living there for 23 years, is able to reach native-like level in speaking and listening but his writing has a lot of grammatical errors. The discrepancy in his language proficiency is attributable to numerous reasons and one of those could be the “submersion education” in monolingual schools.

  • Amra Habib says:

    Mastering two languages has a lot of advantages for the person and for the country where she/he lives. It has a lot of benefits on the social and economic situations of the nation.A more focus should be taken on the programs of implementing more than one language within the school. These programs should be implemented from the primary classes because students can learn more about languages in early childhood education. When entering to a new school, the migrant will have to learn a new language in order to integrate with his classroom mates. However, the language learnt at school should not make him forget his native language because it represents his identity and culture.

  • NAMI NARIMATSU says:

    This wonderful article about bilingual education got me to think Japanese situation of compulsory education from elementary to secondary high schools, where the school systems for migrant children is still developing. I strongly agree that educational disadvantages migrant children may have in the classroom need to be reduced. In the case of Japanese schools, most students are monolingual, may feel that migrant students are rare. Migrant students are also likely to feel anxiety about school tests, the amount of homework, future academic life, establishing friendship and so on due to a lack of support specific to them.

  • THI THU NGAN DONG says:

    Hi Laily,
    I also have a friend who is doing his Phd degree in Sydney and he is currently having the same concern. At first, his daughter did struggle with the new learning environment in Australia due to the language barrier but she gradually overcame all the initial difficulties. Teachers, and fortunately, students, at the new school were very supportive. She also received help from a Vietnamese-speaking teacher who was invited from another school to carry a one-on-one session with her every week. However, my friend will finish his study next year so a real problem is for his kid to readapt to the Vietnamese-speaking context. He and his wife have been trying to talk to her in Vietnamese at home and arrange playdates with other Vietnamese kids. Hopefully it may help but only time will time whether she will be really able to fit in when coming back home.

  • Binisha Sharma says:

    The article made me think about the scenario in Nepal. Nepal is a multilingual and multi ethnic country. Students from different background and mother tongue study in private or government school. Especially in private school students learn all other subject in English; they have only one compulsory subject Nepali (the national language); and they don’t get any opportunity to receive formal education in their mother tongue. Moreover, teaching other foreign language at school in Nepal is not compulsory and is very rare. Students barely take up the language learning classes. As mentioned in the article if “half of the curriculum is taught bilingually” in the schools of Nepal too children would get different language skills and learn in better way.

  • Hanne Houbracken says:

    Last semester in Ghent I had the privilege of following classes on sociolinguistics, taught by professor Slembrouck. He explained the concept of ‘functional multilingual learning’, the exploitation of available interactional resources as didactic capital, which he put into practice during the “Home Language In Education” project (2008-2012). During the project, the use of both the home and dominant language in elementary schools was implemented on a limited scale but they noted that parallel literacy/numeracy in the home language did not result in significantly higher scores for the acquisition of the dominant language; nor did it lead to lower scores. It did however significantly increase the emotional wellbeing of the students.

  • ALEXANDROS BINOS says:

    Being at least bilingual has many individual benefits and also serves the broader community and the economy of a nation. This study showed the success of a bilingual program at elementary school. However, more study would need to be undertaken in many global contexts and across all socioeconomic levels examining the effects of such a program particularly in secondary schools. I believe such a program is warranted in high schools but I am not confident of its effect since younger children in my opinion absorb language learning better than older students.

  • Flora Launay says:

    Thank you for this wonderful article. It made me think of this family with whom I lived for two months when I first came to Australia. I was an au-pair for them, but more than that, they wanted me to be their private “tutor”. They were French and had been living in Australia for 5 years. The parents first put their three children in a French school. However, after three years, they decided that it was high time to put them in an Australian school in order for them to integrate with their environment. They also thought that it would be very beneficial for them to be bilingual. Furthermore, they had in mind the future career of their kids and thought that it was better to have an Australian “certificate” than a French one in order to find a job in Australia. They never regretted their choice. However, they found that their kids were not very good at French. Although they could speak proper French and English, their knowledge of the French language was very low. A bilingual program would have been the perfect solution for them at that time. I strongly believe that bilingual programs and schools are needed for certain people and that we should encourage them. School is also a place of social experiences and in order for migrants to integrate their new culture without losing their own identity, it is important that they can express both. I believe that bilingual schools allow them to do so.

  • Yeongju Lee says:

    As the world became globalised, it has been considered important to have an ability of speaking one or two other languages other than mother tongue language. It helps people to have better jobs and have more possibilities in the future than people who don’t speak another language. That is why, parents seek to encourage their children to learn languages and there are many courses at school that teach other languages to students such as bilingual education program. As mentioned above in the article, people will improve a lot under the circumstance of bilingual education system. Those also would get culture experiences followed by the system since they will be encountered various cultures under bilingual teaching.

  • Nhung Nguyen says:

    Dear Prof. Ingrid,

    I was really impressed with the achievements of the bilingual program examined in Duarte’s article, especially the eradication of linguistic heterogenety. There is a fact that migrant children have to struggle with language barrier at school by themselves and get used to it gradually. Unfortunately, it is not easy to apply the solution like bilingual program because of several requirements such as appropriate syllabus, teaching materials, proficient teachers. in Hamburg’s bilingual programs, it’s worth noting that explicit instruction is considered as the key feature of teaching methodology. Admittedly, this adaptation is reasonable and necessary when the students are expected to interpret subject content knowledge in a non-native language. Moreover, the explicit language may help reduce the interlanguage errors since the interlanguage has been proved to consist primarily of implicit knowledge.

    Another thing that comes to my mind is the age of the students. The school where those bilingual programs were offered is an elementary school and I think this is one of the most important factors leading to the programs’ success. According to critical period hypothesis, these young children are at the best age to master language related problems and consequently, achieve outstanding results in these programs.

    Ngoc Thao Nhung Nguyen

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