University of Amsterdam

1
Teaching L1 and L2 in Future Europe. Making
Connections in Bilingual Education

• Gert Rijlaarsdam
• Conference Advancing Mother Tongue Education,
  Hong Kong
• April 27th 2002

2
Europe
3
The European Perspective

• Variation
• Many regions
• Various and multiple relations between regions
• Historically, culturally, economically
• Many languages
• Many cultures
• What unifies European countries?
• Their differences
• except the extremes
• .being it right or left

4
Europes Language Education two issues

• Issue of variation
• Definition of L1-education varies
• L2-teaching
• large differences between countries in
  educational culture and history, ranging from no
  experience to longstanding experience
• Issue of unity
• European policy two foreign languages compulsory
• Natural development English as Lingua Franca in
  Europe

5
Status Report the Netherlands

• Lower secondary education
• 12-15
• Higher secondary education
• 16-18

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Compulsory 12-15

• Three foreign languages
• French, German, English
• Traditional choice
• In vocational streams schools are allowed to
  choose two out of three.

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Lessons 12-15 Years
Subject Hours in three years Total number of lessons
Dutch 10 hours 400
English 7 hours 280
German 6 hours 240
French 6 hours 240
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Options for Schools

• Offer
• New foreign languages
• Spanish (favorite childrens choice)
• Italian
• Russian
• Newly imported languages
• Arabic
• Turkish
• NB all languages can be examined at the end of
  secondary schooling, except Italian
• New options Greek, Portuguese

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Sounds good, but

• Does it really work?
• We doubt we can do a better job

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Quality of L2-teaching in Lower Secondary (Part1)

• Observational Studies

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Figure 1 Target Language-classroom Language
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Figure 2 Functional Use of Target Language
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Quality of L1-L2 Language Teaching in Lower
Secondary (Part 2)

• Text Book Analysis Three Qualities of Teaching
  Methodology

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Aspect 1 Knowledge Components in Text Books
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Aspect 2 Strategy Exercises
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Aspect 3 Transfer (1) Exercises in Modalities
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Aspect 3 Transfer / Transfer Support
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Conclusion Lower Secondary Education

• L1-curriculum gt L2-curricula
• Primary Education gt Secondary Education
• Causes?
• Language structure gt Language use

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Future L1-L2 Education
More emphasis on More emphasis on
Pragmatic knowledge What makes communication effective?
Strategic knowledge How do cognitive and communicative processes work?
Problem solving learning strategies Which is learning to State learning goals Transfer learning effects Monitor communicative processes
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Quality of L1-L2 Language Teaching Upper
Secondary Education

• Text Book Analysis
• Panels for L1 and L2
• Need Assessment
• Quality Assessment

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What Kind of Materials

• New course packages for upper secondary.
• Modern languages (French, English, German, and
  Dutch). Fourth grade secondary (16 years olds,
  starting upper secondary of pre university
  education.

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Quantity Vs. Quality

• The course package contains (very little/ little/
  much/ very much) subject matter for all
  examination objectives.
• Not just the number of texts.
• But rather the number of texts and assignments
  meeting the requirements of the examination
  goals.
• Thus estimating the number of texts and
  assignments of a certain quality.

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L2-panels Needs Skills
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Curriculum Specification
L2-curriculum L1-curriculum
Reading Analyzing Interpreting Evaluating Summarizing
Listening Conversation skills Oral presentation Discussing Debating
Writing Collecting, selecting, delivery of information
Vocabulary Grammar Argumentation Analysis, Evaluation, Production
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Content Perspective Reading Skills
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L1 Content Reading sub-skills
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L1 Content Productive skills
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Quality of Methodology

• Methodology adequate for the teaching of skills
• Methodology facilitates strategic language
  teaching and learning
• Methodology facilitates transfer
• Methodology facilitates learning to learn,
  growing towards autonomous learning

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Example Reading Skills

• The course package contains.
• Very few few not few/not many many very
  many
• Assignments aiming at eliciting relevant
  information from a text departing from a certain
  need of information.
• Assignments eliciting the determination of the
  main ideas in the text, the meaning, the
  important elements, the links of meaningful
  elements and the conclusions.
• A variation in types of assignments.
• A variation in text types.

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L1-L2 Needs Compared Methodological Perspective
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Skill-oriented Methodology Textbook .

• Provides real (at least simulated) communicative
  tasks
• Stimulates reflection on
• Communication and learning process
• Result of communication and learning
• Stimulates activation of pre-existing knowledge

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Methodological Perspective Skill-oriented
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Strategic Oriented Methodology Text Book

• Supports how to execute communication tasks
• Supports how to read, listen
• Provide communication and compensation strategies

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Strategic Language Learning in Textbooks
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Transfer Oriented Methodology Text Books Contain

• Texts or tasks that support transfer
• Internal, external
• Tasks to abstract, generalize and specify
• Reduction of situational parameters
• Generalization to other situations

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Transfer in Text Books
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Autonomy oriented methodology Concept

• Independent work
• Independent learning
• Autonomous learning

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Autonomous Learning Text Books
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The Netherlands Conclusion

• Lower secondary
• L2 Little language use
• L1 L2 Grammar oriented
• Primary gt Secondary
• Methodologically L1 gt L2

• Upper secondary
• Text books potential high level of modern
  methodology
• Common framework for L1 and L2 methodology is
  applicable
• Methodologically L1 L2

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Netherlands Future Trends

• Development of L1-L2 methodology
• School subject Dutch English more co-operation
• Definition of skills, situations, textual and
  pragmatic knowledge
• Keywords transfer, learning, autonomy
• At the same time, English will develop towards
  English as Lingua Franca
• Communication with non-English speakers
• Focus on socio-cultural aspects of communication
• Medium of instruction
• Increasing number of schools start English
  streams
• Debate should we start with English ad medium of
  instruction? And when?

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Advances of being Bilingual?

• Bialystock 2001
• Bilinguals gt monolinguals
• metalinguistic tasks
• logical reasoning (complex tasks)
• selective attention
• Arrecco Ransdell (2002)
• Better writers in L1 and L2 when bilingual before
  year 10
• Larger working memory capacity

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Is an Early Start the Only Solution for Becoming
Bilingual?

• Rymenans (review 1998)
• All immersion models have advantages net results
  are the same
• Early or late immersion, other variations
• Effect on L2
• Native like in receptive skills (after 6-7 years)
• Productive skills near native in everyday
  communication, but not in academic oral and
  written productive skills

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Luxemburg Three Media of Instruction
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HK Media of Instruction?