Advantages of Bilingual education in school

The best time to learn a language is among birth and 8 years old. From 2-3 years old, a child certainly knows the language to which he is visible and expresses himself in that tongue. Though, most languages are introduced much later in schools.

In a French immersion North America, language is not considered an academic topic, it is integrated into the curriculum.  The language is not the object taught it is the instrument used to teach the prospectus. We are no longer teaching a language we are teaching something via the language. As the bilingual person Madeleine Lowenthal says being bilingual means speaking two languages without having learnt them. In a bilingual educational setting kid are learning the language without realising.

So how does it work?

There are diverse methods of education employed to teach “bilingually”.

There is the French program bilingual school process. Students are taught some subjects in their native language from kindergarten to year 3 and from year 4 to year 6 these subjects are skilled in a second language. This process implies no geographical movement for the whole schooling of your child.

Alternative method is the dual language bilingual education where both languages are used within the classroom. Half of the schoolchildren in the classroom are native English speakers and the other half of the students are native speakers of another language. Together, they will learn each other’s culture as well as language.

The third method of bilingual education is immersion. This is the one person one language approach. There would be one teacher teaching the native language and alternative teaching the second language. This method could be organised on alternative days, or perhaps one morning in the native language and one afternoon in the second language. Teachers speak in their particular language but allow children to speak in whichever language they chose.

All these methods have proven to be effective. The key is to balance both languages equally.

Such programs require a solid tri-partite partnership –– strong commitment from the schools’ leadership, very qualified and dedicated teachers, and ceaseless involvement from the parents at all levels.