The benefits of bilingual education

Rachel Davies, Sydney

Many parents in Jakarta, and other major cities of Indonesia, are working and thinking hard on and about their children's education. Almost inevitably this means that the topic of English comes to their minds, as they recognize, firstly, that their children need English for their future careers and, secondly, that many schools now have English not just as a foreign language to learn but also as a language of instruction.

The second condition leaves many parents worried because they may feel that their children's ability in the English language is not sufficient for them to follow instructions and so study in English.

But, of course, any good school that is targeting the use of, it has to be admitted, a second and foreign language should be able to support its incoming students with remedial programs where necessary. But still it can be difficult for parents to feel fully comfortable with this kind of situation.

Some parents mention how they are concerned that their children may suffer from a kind of confusion of languages that leaves the children being poor in both languages. It is valuable to understand that as a child is developing the ability to use a second language, the first or second language may come to dominate as the child uses that language at a given time. When children show a lack of proficiency in both first and second languages, it is likely to be a developmental phase.

Developmental phases are normal and a quite healthy part of learning. What the children may be going through is what is often termed as "language imbalance". Again this is perfectly normal; it is not all that common for bilinguals to have both languages in perfect balance. But most children that are developing bilingualism will attain an age-level appropriate proficiency provided they have good exposure and opportunities to practice languages.

Parents also express their concern that their children will mix the languages and this adds to the general confusion. Again, however, this kind of behavior is not new and is actually a recognized pattern in achieving bilingualism. Little children that are achieving bilingualism will quite often insert words from one language into another. Slightly older children, of about ten years old and above, will insert phrases or even sentences.

Bilingual education can really be successful where the children are exposed to a genuinely language-rich environment. This means that they need to be given opportunities to extend their vocabulary and interact with peers to use the language communicatively and purposefully. But talking alone is insufficient. It is very important that the language-rich environment for school children includes reading and writing.

Literacy activities will significantly boost the learning. For school children this means that the teachers must be able to make reading and writing interesting activities. Keeping reading and writing close to the children's world will help. So for example, children can and should be encouraged to write about people and places that they know and activities and events are important for them.

By keeping the use of the language close to the children's sphere of experience, teachers will motivate the children and give them clear and concrete sources for their writing and their communication generally. This helps because children need to feel a sense of freedom and ease to take risks in the second language that allows them to experiment and so expand their own use of it.

We can see then that experimentation with the language is useful and even important. But experimentation does mean taking risks, taking a chance to have a go and this means that we are working in areas of uncertainty; but this ok. The process of learning a second language is very much like learning a first language.

Through these kinds of processes children are trying to work out patterns and basic rules that guide the language. Experimentation can be a process that leads to many mistakes being made but again this is an acceptable and understood part of the learning process.

Parents that seek out bilingual education for their children are, understandably, taking on a challenging environment for their child's education but the fruits and benefits that can be harvested from this approach to education are considerable and worth the challenge. But a critical point here is, I think, to acknowledge that we are talking about the development of two languages.

Children that get the opportunity to pursue a second language -- with the aim of achieving sufficient proficiency to be called bilingual are potentially achieving something great. They are achieving a much broader and deeper ability to communicate in the world. But it, essentially, does mean that children should be placed comfortably in a position of pursuing a second language but maintaining their first language.

This can mean, for example, that where children are from homes where English is not the primary language of communication, they can still be encouraged to develop their home language as well as English. Encouraging the first language helps the second language and means that genuine and very beneficial bilingualism is actually being achieved.

The writer is an education consultant and can be reached at rachdavies@hotmail.com.