EDUC7047: Language in Education Planning
Semester 1, 2022
Weekly readings and reading guidelines and focus questions
Week 8: Language policy and bilingual education
OVERVIEW
In Week 7, we started discussion on language in education policy (LEP). Our discussion mainly focused on the LEP processes—which led to an understanding of policy formulation, implementation and the actors involved. (You may remember the onion metaphor!) We also discussed LEP goals and a 7-component framework for implementing LEP. Departing from this LEP scenario, in Week 8 we discuss one model of LEP: bilingual education. Another model, medium of instruction, will be discussed in Week 9. Both are interrelated models and are dominant in education systems and there are also lots of controversies surrounding both. The aim of this week is to help you develop an understanding of these issues with a focus on bilingual education. The three readings cover many levels of education and have a focus on many regions of the world.
Garcia and Woodley (2015): Bilingual education.
In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of bilingual education. They consider bilingual education from a historical perspective, discuss core issues, summarize research approaches and key findings and provide an overview of new debates in the field. They conclude the chapter by suggesting implications for education.
You may like to consider the following questions about the reading:
1. How do the authors describe the differences between traditional instruction and bilingual education?
2. What is the key difference between the Canadian and American model of bilingual education?
3. In their historical overview, the authors focus exclusively on North America. Is there a history of bilingual education in other parts of the world?
4. What is the difference between the monoglossic and heteroglossic view of bilingual education?
5. Why do the authors argue that the traditional concepts of additive and subtractive bilingual education are inappropriate in the contemporary context?
6. What are key findings of research on bilingual education as reviewed by the authors?
7. What are the different research methods used in research on bilingual education?
8. Why are concepts such as L1, L2 or L3 not relevant to bilingual education practices?
9. What are the different terms that refer to heteroglossic practices of bilinguals?
10. What are the educational implications of the heteroglossic practices of bilinguals?
Ana Maria Relano-Pastor (2018) Bilingual education policy and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in Europe
This chapter focuses on one form of bilingual education known as CLIL (content and language integrated learning). CLIL is distinctively a European model which is also being promoted in education systems in other parts of the world. The author surveys CLIL research in Europe as a type of bilingual education policy that has aimed at enhancing English language teaching in line with the Council of Europe and European Commission demands. The key argument that is advanced in the chapter states that the promotion of economic competitiveness, intercultural dialogue, social cohesion, and democratic citizenship through CLIL is deeply ingrained in neoliberalization and commodification processes.
Please consider the following questions as you read the chapter.
a) What is the definition of bilingual education adopted by the author?
b) Why does the author make an argument for taking a language ideology perspective in investigating bilingual education?
c) What is the key argument behind the political economic perspective? How does this perspective relate to CLIL research?
d) What is the author’s definition of CLIL?
e) How does CLIL relate to neoliberalism?
f) Why does the author make an argument for an ethnographic approach in researching CLIL?
g) How does CLIL relate to inequality and social divide?
h) Are there CLIL programs in your country? Do the issues raised by the author apply to your context?
Nguyen and Hamid (2018) Bilingualism, orientations in language attitudes and ethnic minority students in Vietnam
Minority languages and their speakers in the developing part of the world have received relatively less attention in language policy and planning research. This article reports research on some of these issues in Vietnam. Vietnam, like many other nation-states, is often represented as a monolingual polity. The reality is, there are a few dozens of minority groups in this country who have their own languages. The key focus of the article is the bilingualism of these minority groups as they navigate the society and respond to the language policies in different domains including their own ethnic community, schools and religious institutions. Their responses to these domain-specific policies are viewed through the lens of orientations in language attitudes that we have already discussed in the class: language as problem, language as right and language as resource. The authors argue that although a nationalist conception of language as problem orientation may not tolerate linguistic diversity, ethnic minority groups may consider their bilingualism as a resource and they may not necessarily experience conflicts between bilingual identity and national solidarity.
Consider the following questions in reading the article:
1. How do the authors describe the sociolinguistic context of Vietnam as a polity?
2. Why do they talk about individual and institutional levels of policy?
3. What are the three orientations of language attitudes discussed by the authors?
4. How do school language policies shape the language attitudes of the minority students?
5. What is the impact of church language policies on the students?
6. What language policies are operative in the ethnic communities and how do they shape the students’ attitudes?
7. How do the students view their individual bilingualism and why?
8. What is the key argument put forward by the authors?
Enjoy your reading!