good practices in the design and delivery of multilingual ... · mother tongue based mle? la...
TRANSCRIPT
Good practices in the design and delivery of multilingual education for
minority language communities.
Catherine YoungSIL International - Asia
What is the educational situation for minority language communities?
The choice of the language…is a recurrent challenge in the development of quality education... Speakers of mother tongues, which are not the same as the national…language, are often at a considerable disadvantage in the educational system…(UNESCO 2002. Education in a Multilingual World.).
Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to achieving Education for All (EFA): a legacy of nonproductive practices that lead to low levels of learning and high levels of dropout and repetition. (World Bank, June, 2005. “In their own language…Education for all”.).
Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to achieving Education for All (EFA): a legacy of nonproductive practices that lead to low levels of learning and high levels of dropout and repetition. (World Bank, June, 2005. “In their own language…Education for all”.).
Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to achieving Education for All (EFA): a legacy of nonproductive practices that lead to low levels of learning and high levels of dropout and repetition. (World Bank, June, 2005. “In their own language…Education for all”.).
Fifty percent of the world’s out-of-school children live in communities where the language of schooling is rarely, if ever, used at home. This underscores the biggest challenge to achieving Education for All (EFA): a legacy of nonproductive practices that lead to low levels of learning and high levels of dropout and repetition. (World Bank, June, 2005. “In their own language…Education for all”.).
What are the desired outcomes of mother tongue based MLE?
l A responsive system to address local and national needs
l Equity and access to quality education opportunities for all – in the multiple languages of the nation
l Retention of learners in schooll Maintenance of heritage language
and culture
How do we get there?
l Systematic, theoretically grounded practicesl Appropriately funded innovationl Clear processes for moving to “scale”.l Information to ensure shared understanding
of reasons for implementationl Training (initial and on-going) to support
practice – teachers, administrators, othersl Classroom materials for students and
teachers
Supportive language and educationpolicies that…
l Provide clear, non-conflicting legal status and support for ethnic minority languages,
l Institutionalise infrastructures for implementation and support of MLE programmes in both formal and non-formal education systems
Thomas & Collier study(Wayne P. Thomas & Virginia P. Collier, 1997)
Original Question: How well does an English language learner (ELL) need to speak English before he or she can function effectively in the English language classroom?Revised Question: For ELLs, what model of bilingual education comes the closest to achieving educational parity with native English children at the end of their educational experience?www.crede.ucsc.edu/research/llaa/l.l_final.htmlhttp://njrp.tamu.edu/2004/PDFs/Collier.pdf
Longitudinal study
42,000 students tracked for 11 years
l ESL pullouts – 22,000l ESL academic content – 5,400l Standard early exit – 7,100l Early exit with academic content – 3,700l One-way developmental – 2,900l Two-way developmental – 1,250
Resultant model: 4 processes that drive language education
l Sociocultural
l Linguistic
l Academic
l Cognitive
Not just language of instruction but …
WHAT is taught?WHO teaches?WHY something is taught?HOW is it taught?WHICH materials are used to teach?WHEN and for HOW LONG does teaching happen?
All programmes need to be concerned with each of these components. To ignore one of these components will weaken the potential impact of a MT-first multilingual education programme.
Challenges to address?
l Lack of understanding of purpose of MT-first MLE
l Linguistic challengesl Political challenges – lack of political willl Rapid implementation with poor preparation
What are the indicators of strong MLE programmes?
TimeTrainingTools
Time
l Short, early-exit programmes l Rapid implementation (short preparatory
phase)l Short pilot programmes
Training
l Limited or no awareness raising for parents and other community stakeholders
l Limited training for teachers in MLE specific pedagogical and curriculum issues
l Training for teachers from minority language communities
l No training for educational administrators or supervisors
Tools
l No systematic, multiagency process towards an agreed writing system
l Too few reading materials in L1 to promote reading fluency as a foundation for skills transfer
l Lack of advocacy and awareness raising strategies for stakeholders
l Testing, evaluation and documentation procedures
Tools TrainingTime
Task
List issues relating to:– Time (preparation phase for programme,
for how many years is MT used, time allocated for teacher training)
– Training (what training is given to whom and when? Who are the trainers?)
– Tools (agreed writing system, awareness raising materials, teaching/learning materials, teachers guides,