Differences between teaching in a monolingual setting and teaching in a bilingual setting

Talofa lava. 

For the last newsletter of the year I would like to take a look at some of the essential differences between teaching in a monolingual setting and teaching in a bilingual setting.

For most of us who attended the usual NZ school it would appear on the surface all that is required for a successful bilingual classroom is for a speaker of the target language to walk in and do in that language what would have been done in English. There are a number of critical differences though.

Firstly our heritage language classes are made up largely of students who are not native speakers of the language and in the first year or so have limited understanding of what is being said. The teacher in the bilingual classroom can be reasonably sure that the children’s language resources in the target language are quite small. Whereas the teacher of English in NZ can be reasonably sure that most of her students bring a rich resource of language to the classroom (barring the fairly small group of children who are native speakers of other languages).

What does this look like? Typically these students have a small vocabulary, limited to a narrow range of topics, with a limited knowledge of colloquial usage, and confused concepts about the syntax of the language (word order). None of these situations are rare in English-only classrooms, but we are talking about a matter of degree here, a vocabulary of 500-1500 in the target language compared to 2500-4000 in English. The implication of this for the bilingual teacher is that she needs teaching strategies for efficient language acquisition and a wide range of strategies for supporting children’s comprehension. In the main the teacher in a monolingual classroom assumes that students have a working knowledge of English and makes use of that knowledge. In the heritage language learning classroom the teacher has to create that level of language competence.

Being able to speak a language is no guarantee that one can teach it. Being bilingual is no guarantee that one can teach bilingually. To be a successful bilingual teacher one needs not only to know all that is required to teach in the English-only environment but also knowledge specific to second language/bilingual teaching and learning. Knowledge such as:

• the pedagogical theory behind second language bilingual learning;

• how second languages are acquired by bilinguals;

• how the brain processes new language and knowledge how the brain transfers skills and knowledge from one language to the other;

• what activities are available to accelerate these processes;

• how to encourage students to communicate in the new language in an environment dominated by English;

• how to adapt curriculum to become a vehicle for language learning as well;

• knowledge about biliteracy, not just literacy in one language; and

• how to deliver the curriculum through the language.

This last point is probably the major one. The Heritage language is not a curriculum subject. Our children are not learning the language as a subject and there is no text book for them or their teacher to follow as we would find in a secondary school or university class. The language to be learnt comes from the demands of each curriculum area and is not formally structured, it is the learning environment that is structured.

-Right from the start our children are learning and using the language as a means of communication. The curriculum is delivered in the target language, the academic skills are taught in that language, classroom social activity is ideally in that language. The students can’t escape from it at the end of the period and go to a Maths class taught in English. The teacher needs to know how to maintain the language use across all curriculum subjects and still cover the essential skills.

-Additionally this is taking place within the cultural context of the target language. In the Māori class things are done in a Māori way in line with Māori cultural beliefs and practices.

-As you can see, our teachers, teaching in the Heritage language classes need to have a special skill set, and the complexities of teaching are in excess of those for the average English speaking teacher in an English speaking classroom. When stressed it is common for bilingual teachers to yearn to return to the comparatively straightforward English-only classroom. They know how challenging being a bilingual teacher is.

Which language should be used to test/assess/counsel a bilingual child?

Kia ora tatou. 

Among the many texts on my bookshelf I have a copy of “A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism” by Colin Baker (2000). This book does very much what its title says and provides clear concise answers to the myriad of questions we teachers and parents have.

In browsing through the book I came across the question, “Which language should be used to test/assess/counsel a bilingual child? What should be the nature if such assessment?” Part of Baker’s response is about national testing systems such as our NCEA and he makes some important points about the practice of teachers and schools when assessing their students, in particular regarding the use of norm referenced tests. 

Norm referencing is the process of statistically finding an average, in other words creating what a “normal” student looks like in statistical terms.  When a student is assessed with such a tool the results show where that student stands in comparison to this statistically normal student. 

On the surface this may seem to be a reasonable process however there are some rather important fishhooks to be found. These assessment tools are often based on data gathered from native, monolingual speakers with very few bilinguals included. In Baker’s view such assessments are typically created by “White, middle class, Anglo test producers” and will include elements unfamiliar or not relevant to the bilingual. Nor do they measure the things bilinguals do need to be good at. 

Let’s try a mind experiment…Let us say, “ A normal apple is more or less ball shaped, with a core in the centre and glossy yellow-green, orange or red coloured skin. The flesh is apple flavoured and moderately crisp.”

Even though my grandfather successfully grafted a pear branch on his apple tree it is not possible to match the pears against what makes a good apple. To do so would mean saying, “This pear does not make a very good apple, it is misshapen, the wrong colour, wrong taste and too hard. The pear comes in well below the norm for apples.”

Assessments which make the assumption that a test can measure the achievement levels of bilinguals against monolingual standards effectively measure pears as if they were apples.

Baker also makes the point that assessment against monolingual norms can be disempowering to the bilingual student if it is implicit in the assessment that success is measured against monolingual standards. Inevitably bilinguals feel that their skills and knowledge are undervalued. Bilingualism is then seen as of less value, not “mainstream” and marginalised. 

Read more in: “A Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism” by Colin Baker (2000) Multilingual Matters, Clevedon USA. A number of copies are held in the school library.

Noho ora mai ra, Chris