22.901, Qs: Bilingual Simultaneous Foreign Language Teaching

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-901. Wed Feb 23 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.901, Qs: Bilingual Simultaneous Foreign Language Teaching

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1)
Date: 22-Feb-2011
From: Natalia Hahn [natalia.hahn at ph-freiburg.de]
Subject: Bilingual Simultaneous Foreign Language Teaching
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:07:22
From: Natalia Hahn [natalia.hahn at ph-freiburg.de]
Subject: Bilingual Simultaneous Foreign Language Teaching

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I'm interested in bilingual simultaneous foreign language teaching.
My question is "How can children simultaneously learn two foreign
languages (English and German) in a classroom?" I'm not talking about
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). My idea is different.
CLIL involves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a
language other than that normally used. In my project both foreign
languages are not a medium but a subject of learning.

Project: Bilingual simultaneous Foreign Language Teaching in English 
and German

Target group: monolingual children without any skills in foreign
languages (preschool children or children in the first school-year)

Languages: L1 - an Indo-European language, for example French; L2 -
English and German

As for the background on my project, I worked in Russia as a Teacher 
of German as a foreign language for many years. In our Language 
Center we had courses for adult learners and for preschool children 
(all children were monolingual in Russian). The parents of children had 
difficulty between choosing a German or an English course. English is 
more common... The parents couldn't afford both courses (English and 
German) at the same time.

That's when I had an idea/question of how I can integrate two 
languages in one course? English and German are target languages 
and a subject of learning. "Simultaneously" entails 1 hr of English 
followed by 1 hr of German or one station in English and the other one 
in German with two teachers in one classroom. The contents are 
delivered in both target languages systematically and in a coordinated 
manner.

Now I'm working in Germany and trying to develop this idea. There is a
lot of bilingual literature for children in Europe, bilingual content
learning, bilingual schools, bilingual or trilingual education systems...

This project might be interesting in Europe in relation to:
- bilingual/trilingual education systems (e.g. schools in Italy, South
Tirol, for children with L1-Ladin and German/Italian as L2 who are
taught in two languages at the same time).
- or to simultaneous teaching of two foreign languages... at school or
preschool...

The sources I used deal with integrated Language-Didactics, 
experience of CLIL, examples of double Immersion Programs in 
Canada, education system on the Ladin-Schools, Education system in 
Luxembourg. These examples are good and helpful, but they are only 
indirectly related with my idea. I'm searching for further examples now. I 
would like to know whether anybody has ever come up with something 
like that, has done a similar project? The language world is fascinating, 
there are so many education systems. Maybe there is a multilingual 
country where it is a standard to learn/to teach two foreign languages 
in one (block)lesson?

This project will be a part of my dissertation or a research project.

Thank you very much in advance,
Natalia Hahn 

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition




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