Thought Piece | Working Together for a Better English Education

Bilingualism

It is important to establish what we mean when we use the term bilingualism. Scholars of this field have noted that bilingualism is the acquisition and development of two languages in a student’s school years, either simultaneously or sequentially. We know that achieving this requires harmony between students, teachers, and parents; a community of support is necessary for a successful bilingual education. Students in a bilingual school are achieving two things at once; they are learning English and learning new content in English at the same time.

This process is not without its challenges and re- search indicates that three areas impact the ability to speak two languages; the individual, the family, and society. The individual factors are the lear- ner’s personality, motivation, ability, and age of exposure to two languages. The family’s language proficiency and use of Chinese and English, socioeconomic status, and attitude toward bilingualism also affect the acquisition of two languages. Finally, acquiring two languages occurs in a societal context that expresses attitudes toward the majority (Chinese) and minority (English) languages, determines the status of bilingualism, and affects the level of support for the majority and minority languages in the community.

Immersion

At Whittle, our primary aim is to reimagine education, and this extends to our approach of teaching English in a Chinese setting here in Shenzhen. With our ongoing research and development, we are pioneering and refining many educational techniques including better language immersion pro- grams with accompanying teacher development. We believe that the only reliable route to bilingual proficiency is through an immersion program. Receptive language plays an important part in our immersion program, through subjects taught in English (STEM, PE, CAD, and Performing Arts - Music and Drama), and core components of the Whittle model (Morning Meeting, Advisory, and Closing Circle) which are conducted in English.

Equally important in our immersion program is expressive language. This is taught by our English and EAL teachers. Expressive language is essential in developing oracy skills followed by literacy skills. The goal is for our students to reach advanced proficiency in English, allowing them to study at different campuses in our network and to function academically and professionally in English later in life. Immersion prepares our students for colleges where instruction is routinely taught in English and where they will be required to effectively express themselves in English.

EAL Department

Bilingualism and immersion are therefore two key areas that we are intently focused on. Our student body is predominantly comprised of EAL learners and we understand that proficiency in English is a primary goal for most of our students, and a key reason why many parents selected us over other schools. The EAL Department is specifically tas- ked with enabling our students to access the curriculum in English.

Through assessment we have identified that some students require more help than others and the EAL Department supports these students both in the classroom and during acceleration with specialized EAL programs. As we move into the second semester, changes to our schedule bring with them incredible opportunities to provide individual, personalized learning through our dedicated acceleration periods. The focus in these periods will be to deliver tailored education which meets the needs of each student in small group sessions.

To serve the entire student body, the EAL Department aims to provide planning support and development for all our teachers who use English as the main language of instruction. Through a series of posters, newsletters and workshops, we aim to equip teachers with EAL strategies necessary to successfully plan and deliver lessons to meet the language demands of all students. To achieve this, the EAL Department works alongside the English Department to raise the standards for English across the whole school.

EAL Strategies in School and at Home

Three key EAL strategies which we employ to sup- port bilingualism in school are; immersion (with Chinese), a bilingual print-rich environment, and translation checks. Current research indicates that total immersion - a strict English only environment - may be problematic to EAL learners, especially to those who have not been using this approach from an early stage in their education. Allowing some Chinese in our English classes enables students to connect the content they are learning to their first language, thereby improving understanding. The structured use of Chinese in an English classroom can enrich and enhance the learning experience.

A bilingual print-rich environment is a form of functional print; an early literacy strategy in which students use a print-rich classroom environment to develop print awareness and practice emergent reading. For our students, functional print is likely only to exist in the school environment and will be absent from the home and communities they live in, therefore it is an essential part of immersion. An example of this would be a word wall (which students create with teachers); for EAL learners it is best to display new content with an image and the English and Chinese text.

Finally, it is to be expected that students will not understand all the content that is being delivered during an English class. Using a bilingual print-rich environment for key terms and concepts helps, but it would be impossible to display all content in this way. At dedicated comprehension checks during a lesson, students are asked if there are any additional terms or concepts that they need to be translated into Chinese to aid their understanding. The primary source for this is peer translation, where students assist each other by explaining or translating English into Chinese.