Krashen in this paper defined bilingual educaton as a means of using the child's first language to accelerate the acquisition of English. He stated that the primary goal of bilingual education is English language development.
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
1) Making English More Comprehensible.
By presenting the subject matter in the child's first language, the child will understand it even if it is presented in another language. Cummins (2005)* stated that this is the transfer of conceptual elements where the child learn, say photosynthesis in Malay, but be able to answer questions in English.
2) A Short Cut to English Literacy.
It is easier to learn to read in a language you already know, and once you can read, you can read. I guess this is related to the fact that you can transfer your linguistics skills in learning your L1 in learning L2. Cummins (2005) mentioned that there are five types of transfer, and I guess the ones that related to this point are
-transfer of metacognitive and metalinguistic strategies (visualising, mnemonic devices, etc)
-transfer of specific linguistics elements (such as the meaning of photo in photosynthesis)
-transfer of phonological awareness (how a letter sounds in a language)
3) Early Exposure to Comprehensible English
Good bilingual programs provide exposure to comprehensible English from the very first day and introduce subject matter teaching in English as soon as it can be made comprehensible. My understanding of this is that once the child can understand basic English, teaching of subject matter in English should start. Somehow this is contradicting with his own paper entitled Dealing with English Fever. I have discussed this paper in my two previous entries English Fever? and Cures for English Fever. In that paper, Krashen mentioned that there is no need to start early. Starting early is only necessary to achieve native or near-native fluency.
4)Scientific Studies Support Bilingual Education
In this paper, Krashen presented a few researches done before. In these studies, students have shown the average 'effect size' about .26, which is about a quarter of a standard deviation above the average. I think this is related to the Bilingualism Theory where it says bilingual students process the same fact twice- in both language.
Krashen then give a recommendation- enrich the print environment. This can be done by having better-equipped library. I totally agree with this. Being a nerd myself when I was a child, the local library is a heaven for me. I would spend hours in the library in the afternoon after school, and more on the weekends. I read for hours each days. I finish reading a novel within a day. Even now, my favourite place is still library, and Borders and Kinokuniya. I can get lost there for a whole day- mesmerised with the rich world of knowledge.
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DISCUSSION POINT
I am very much interested with the point 3, Early Exposure to Comprehensible English. If we are to start as what Krashen suggests, we might as well to introduce the English for basic communication in primary education, and only to introduce the subject matters, be it Science, or Mathematics, or any other subjects, in English when the students have grasped the L2. Perhaps, it is best to introduce these subject matters in secondary school?..............................................................
This paper is written by Krashen, and can be retrived from http://sdkrashen.com/articles/krashen_intro.pdf
*Cummins(2005) Teaching For Cross-Language Transfer in Dual Language Education: Possibilities and Pitfalls. Retrived from http://www.achievementseminars.com/seminar_series_2005_2006/readings/tesol.turkey.pdf
I hope to discuss this research paper especially in the subject of language transfer soon.
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