The basics of bilingual education

Talofa lava.

By now I guess we will have quite a few parents who have joined the school community since this column began, so perhaps it is a good time to return to some of the basics of bilingual education. To enable us to better understand the issues faced in bilingual education it might be a good move to review the different models and approaches that have been developed over the years and the influence they have had.

Possibly one of the earliest approaches to language learning and teaching is the one known as the Grammar Translation approach. Wikipedia explains it as, “ …a foreign language teaching method derived from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin. The method requires students to translate whole texts word for word and memorize numerous grammatical rules and exceptions as well as enormous vocabulary lists. The goal of this method is to be able to read and translate literary masterpieces and classics.”

Notable in this approach is that the teaching is all conducted in the learner’s first language. The programme depends on texts and the place of grammar in setting the rules by which sentences are put together. This results in student having to learn long lists of words, and grammar rules covering all possible situations. The content of the programme is structured in the syllabus by setting which grammatical structures are taught and ordering them from easy to difficult. Thus the language learned is not based on a need to communicate something. Communication in the target language is not a primary objective.

So we can see that this approach is not effective in producing native-like speakers of the language except perhaps in small numbers. It does not teach us to use language in real situations for real purposes. Additionally success depends on a high level of intellectual sophistication on the part of the learner.

However there is still a place for some elements of the approach particularly in developing metacognition, that is having the language and understanding of structure to be able to discuss what is going on by using words like noun, verb etc to talk about the target language. And there is always a place for learning lists of vocabulary items provided they are based on real situations and experiences.

I believe that one of the interesting effects of this approach has been the well embedded belief that grammar is the rule by which correct language is created. We hear this attitude expressed when someone says we need to know grammar to speak our language. It is often used as a way of establishing a sense of superiority in the critic who believes that their language is “correct.”

Grammar is more profitably seen as a set of descriptions of how a language is constructed, and this changes as the language evolves. Grammar in the first sense would demand that we say, “The man to whom the money was given.” Native speakers of English defy the “rule” nowadays by saying, “The man (who) the money was given to.” The person who says, “ to whom…” just sounds pompous. Whom is a word on the endangered list in English!

Ia manuia lou aso,

Chris