Language education needs for multilingualism in Fiji primary schools

This paper looks at current practice in teaching multilingual Indo-Fijian children in eight Fiji primary schools. Indo-Fijians speak Fiji Hindi (FH) as their mother tongue, learn Shudh Hindi (SH) or Urdu, and English for formal and literacy purposes and use English and Fijian for interethnic communication. The current education policy states that children be taught in their mother tongue for the first 3 years of primary school before English becomes the medium of instruction. This practice was not apparent in the schools. In all 24 observed classrooms, English was the dominant language of instruction. There is an important need in Fiji for teacher training to address the issues around multilingual education so that teachers can confidently contribute to an educational system which maximises the use of Fiji's linguistic resources for the educational advancement of all sectors of the country's population.     

Tools for talking: the purposeful and inventive use of languages by bilingual children in primary classrooms

This article is based on a number of observations of bilingual children in an East London primary school, and some work carried out for a doctoral study. The article explores children’s views and perspectives on their use of first and second languages at home and at school. The kernel of the investigation is that language use is dependent on purpose. Bilingual children’s use of their first and second language depends on which language best serves a particular function. Often children who speak two or more languages on a regular basis combine these to create a new language. Schools therefore need to review their language policies and practices in relation to their pupil intake, taking into account the contribution of bilingual experience to children’s overall linguistic development. Teachers also need to understand parents’ views on their children’s language and literacy education. These issues are of vital importance if schools are to provide an inclusive curriculum.     

Estimating the impact of language of instruction in South African primary schools: A fixed effects approach

For many children around the world, access to higher education and the labour market depends on becoming fluent in a second language. In South Africa, the majority of children do not speak English as their first language but are required to undertake their final school-leaving examinations in English. Most schools offer mother-tongue instruction in the first three grades of school and then transition to English as the language of instruction in the fourth grade. Some schools use English as the language of instruction from the first grade. In recent years a number of schools have changed their policy, thus creating within-school, cross-grade variation in the language of instruction received in the early grades. Using longitudinal data from the population of South African primary schools and a fixed-effects approach, we find that mother tongue instruction in the early grades significantly improves English acquisition, as measured in grades 4, 5 and 6.     

Reading Acquisition in Singapore

One of Singapore's problems with reading acquisition programmes stems from the fact that although most of our children come from non-Englisg speaking homes, their parents' choice of the medium of instruction is English. This means that English is taught right from the first day the child enters school. Most of the other countries where English is taught and is not the mother tongue, use the mother tongue as a medium of instruction for several years before the introduction of English. Neither are Singaporean children totally immersed in English at school because they also spend part of their school time learning a non-English language, namely Chinese, Malay or Tamil. Investigation into problems connected with the teaching of English and reading is therefore very important for Singapore, especially since one of our education system's streaming procedures is instituted very early, at the end of the third year of schooling at Primary 3.     

Decolonization,educational language policy and nation building in plural societies: The development of Chinese education in Malaysia, 1950–1970

The two decades from 1950 to 1970 were a crucial period of educational reorganization in Malaysia that stemmed from the decolonization after the Second World War. This educational reorganization sought to address the perennial issue of nation building via educational language policy. The development of Chinese education was under severe threat as the British colonial government opted for a national school system that used English and Malay as the media of instruction in place of the segregated vernacular school system that had existed during the colonial period. Much to the relief of the Chinese, the national school system failed to materialize due to the lack of financial resources to reorganize the entire educational system. But the Chinese were unable to maintain the Chinese school system within the ambit of the national educational system advocated by the postcolonial Alliance government. The Alliance government had only allowed the Chinese to undergo Chinese education at the primary level. At the secondary level, it opted for a monolingual system of education based on Malay as the main medium of instruction in order to foster national integration through a common language. The Chinese had to switch to this medium of instruction if they wanted to remain in mainstream education. Such a system of transitional bilingual education was aimed at incorporating the Chinese into the nation building process.     

论幼小衔接视角下的家庭语言教育

学前儿童语言教育是家庭教育的重要组成部分,也是幼小衔接的重要内容。在幼小衔接期间,语言教育关系儿童综合素养的培养,影响儿童入学准备的成效。因此,应构建学前儿童语言教育的家庭生态系统,发挥家庭在儿童语言教育方面的优势,承担起家庭在儿童语言教育中应有的责任。在家庭语言教育中,应着眼于:帮助儿童建立课题意识,在语言学习和探求知识的过程中培养其解决问题的能力;在语言学习中渗透科技信息,利用高科技手段辅助家庭语言教育;注重语言学习的引导和情景创设,帮助儿童形成创造性思维;不局限于家庭小课堂,深入到大自然中锻炼儿童感知能力。     

Using video self-modelling to increase active learning responses during small-group reading instruction for primary school pupils with social emotional and mental health difficulties

Effectiveness of a video self-modelling (VSM) intervention was examined with primary schoolchildren who attended a full-time special education programme for pupils with social emotional and behavioural difficulties and who exhibited inappropriate behaviour during small-group reading instruction. A randomised multiple-probe baseline design was used in this study in four subjects with a follow-up phase 6 weeks after intervention. Four children aged 10 were videotaped during reading instruction to determine levels of active learning and behavioural difficulties. Intervention took place at the teacher’s desk or table 3–5 minutes immediately before the child’s designated time for reading group instruction. During intervention, the children were shown carefully selected brief segments of their own video that had been recorded during the previous session. Results indicated VSM was an effective intervention for increasing active learning responses and for reducing behavioural difficulties during reading instruction. Optimum results were maintained for more than 8 weeks after intervention. These results support VSM as an effective antecedent intervention and add to the growing body of evidence-based practices for elementary school pupils who have social emotional and mental health difficulties.     

The Swedish ‘people’s school’ in Finland and the language question: homogenization and differentiation

This paper presents an historical overview of issues around the language of instruction and the curriculum of mother‐tongue education for the Swedish‐speaking minority in Finland during the half‐century after the establishment of the public school in 1866. In a linguistic‐ and culturally‐diverse society like that of Finland it has not been self‐evident that the question of language as a medium of instruction and as a school subject would be understood and shared in the same way by Finns and Swedes. This paper focuses on two collective themes, homogenization and differentiation. Homogenization stands for forces aiming at securing equal opportunities for education, regardless of vernacular languages and cultures. Differentiation refers to the possibility of accommodating the education to specific needs of the Swedish‐speaking population.     

When a Bilingual Child Describes Living Things: An Analysis of Conceptual Understandings from a Language Perspective

With increasing numbers of students learning science through a second language in many school contexts, there is a need for research to focus on the impact language has on students’ understanding of science concepts. Like other countries, Brunei has adopted a bilingual system of education that incorporates two languages in imparting its curriculum. For the first three years of school, Brunei children are taught in Malay and then for the remainder of their education, instruction is in English. This research is concerned with the influence that this bilingual education system has on children’s learning of science. The purpose was to document the patterns of Brunei students’ developing understandings of the concepts of living and non-living things and examine the impact in the change in language as the medium of instruction. A cross-sectional case study design was used in one primary school. Data collection included an interview (n = 75), which consisted of forced-response and semi-structured interview questions, a categorisation task and classroom observation. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results indicate that the transition from Malay to English as the language of instruction from Primary 4 onwards restricted the students’ ability to express their understandings about living things, to discuss related scientific concepts and to interpret and analyse scientific questions. From a social constructivist perspective these language factors will potentially impact on the students’ cognitive development by limiting the expected growth of the students’ understandings of the concepts of living and non-living things. A paper accepted by Research in Science Education, August, 2006.     

The Introduction of English‐language Education in Early Colonial Hong Kong

This article examines the attitudes of the colonial and metropolitan governments towards the promotion of English‐language education on Hong Kong Island between 1842 and 1860. The study, which draws on a range of unpublished primary sources, was conducted in response to Whitehead’s recent call for detailed case studies of colonial education policies. This article explores, within the context of Hong Kong, a centrally important aspect of education in the Empire, and one that has been the subject of surprisingly little archival research: British policies towards the teaching and learning of English as a second language. The article begins by analysing the political, economic and demographic forces that influenced the study and use of English in Hong Kong during the 1840s and 1850s, and then moves on to examine language policies and practices in the colony’s mission schools, with a particular focus on the Morrison Education Society School, the first Western school to be established on the Island after the British occupation. The final section analyses the introduction of English teaching in the government vernacular schools in the early 1850s.     

Creating an educational home: mothering for schooling in the Australian Women’s Weekly, 1943–1960

Abstract

This article examines cultural representations of the mid-twentieth century mother of schoolchildren in a mass-circulation Australian women’s magazine, arguing that schools and schooling have been under-acknowledged in the historiography of mothering, despite their importance in shaping modern childhood and family life. Framing the Australian Women’s Weekly as a medium of public instruction, we identify and analyse its advice about schooling, both direct and implied, across a variety of the magazine’s sections: in illustrations, news, feature articles, advertising, letters and advice columns. This advice was informed by the popular dissemination of medical, psychological and educational expertise, by managed exchanges amongst the magazine’s readers and by the availability of a variety of consumer products. Much of the guidance offered to mothers was aspirational, aimed at educating and thereby modernising the readership. The interconnectedness of advertising and editorial produced visual and textual images of an “educational home” in which children had their learning supported or enriched, just as their bodies were capably fed and clothed. By the 1950s there was an increasing emphasis on interpersonal relations and therapeutic psychology and the Weekly had embarked on a project of encouraging mothers to learn more about schooling, to do more to support their children’s learning and to take an interest in education as a social project. Despite her strong and growing connection to the school through her children, however, the school mother was almost always represented as working outside its physical boundaries during this period.     

The politics,policies, and practices in linguistic minority education in the People's Republic of China: the case of Tibet

Like many nations, China faces the dilemma of designing an education system that, on the one hand, promotes national unity and economic development and, on the other, is sensitive to the unique needs and cultural background of various minority groups. During the regime of Mao Zedong class differentiation in Tibet was seen as a threat to communist ideology. The Tibetan society was condemned as “backward” and Chinese became the official language in all schools. As a result, Tibet is one of the least literate regions in China. Current Chinese law dictates that school curricula should reflect the interests of their constituencies and the minority language should serve as the medium of instruction. However, the examination system to advance to higher education reinforces the Mandarin language. Consequently, many minority parents believe that the sole use of Tibetan may not help their children's future. China's educational success in Tibet (and other minority regions) will depend on her ability to engage ethnic minority students in the universal primary school system.     

An advocacy project for multicultural education: The case of the Shiyeyi language in Botswana

Multicultural education respects cultural differences and affirms pluralism which students, their communities and teachers bring to the learning process. It is founded on the belief that a school curriculum which promotes the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity and human dignity is most likely to result in high academic achievement and quality education. In Botswana, English is the official language and medium of instruction and Setswana is the national lingua franca which is used for formal occasions in the villages and other informal settings. Any other languages spoken by unrecognised tribes are banned from use in schools or the media, including minority languages taught before independence in 1966, This paper describes the Shiyeyi Language Project, initiated by the Wayeyi tribe, which advocates for a multicultural model of education where children learn in their mother tongue and about their local culture at an early stage, then add the national language, and eventually an international language as medium of instruction. The project operates within an unfriendly political and legal context, but has achieved some results. Continued efforts, especially as supported by similar language projects, have the potential to change the situation in Botswana.     

Classroom language use in multilingual settings: Mathematics lessons from Quebec and Zimbabwe

This article is concerned with language use in mathematics lessons in settings where the language of instruction is a second language for all or most of the learners. Four lessons taken from primary schools in Montreal and in Zimbabwe are compared, illustrating ways in which teachers in each setting couple development of the target second language with teaching of subject content. By doing so, we believe that instruction is effective in helping children to make the shift from the primary school emphasis on computing numbers to the secondary level emphasis on solving problems; in the long term children are also better prepared for the language-related demands of higher education.     

The Tenability of Comparing the Receptive Lexical Proficiency of Dual Language Children with Standardised Monoglot Norms

As part of a doctoral investigation, the receptive lexical proficiency of 392 Dual Language primary schoolchildren in Gibraltar, was compared with English monoglot norms based on a currently used test of receptive vocabulary, i.e. the British Picture Vocabulary Scales (BPVS), which was standardised on monoglot English speaking children in Great Britain. The subjects’ lexical proficiency was measured in their first language (Gibraltarian Yanito Spanish) and in their second language (English). Their receptive conceptual vocabulary was also calculated. Their lexical proficiency in each of these linguistic variables was then compared with the published BPVS ‘norms’. The results indicated that only a small number of children's lexical proficiency in Spanish and in English was within the BPVS ‘normal’ limits. When, however, their conceptual vocabulary was compared to the BPVS norms, a larger number of children fell within the ‘normal’ limits i.e. standard score of 85 or more. It was concluded that the practice of assessing the lexical proficiency of Dual Language (Gibraltarian) schoolchildren by the use of tests standardised for monoglots is invalid and unreliable, even when their conceptual vocabulary is used as the measure of their receptive lexical proficiency.     

“Each word shows how you love me”: The social literacy practice of children’s letter writing (1780–1860)

This article draws on hundreds of letters that formed German children’s correspondence with their parents, other relatives, teachers and friends, written mostly between the 1780s and 1850s. Through this study, we see the part literacy played in transformations of bourgeois childhood in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. The article further investigates how children used letters as a means of learning sociability and building relationships within kinship networks. Historians of education have sometimes treated children’s writing as secondary to more authoritative records. Yet we miss something important about the history of literacy education if we disregard children’s writing or use it only superficially. This article considers the genre of children’s letter writing, exploring the conventions and typical subjects which contributed to the social purpose of correspondence. Letter writing is examined as a paedagogic exercise, including the preoccupation with the medium which filled children’s letters and evidence of instruction in letter writing. It demonstrates that letters fostered the participation of middle- and upper-class children in household affairs, kinship networks and cultural spheres connected through school friends and parents’ acquaintances from very young ages. Children’s correspondence documents a lifelong process in the making of class cultures and forging of social ties.     

Season of birth and school success in the early years of primary education

Several studies have reported significant relationships between children’s season of birth and measures of their academic success (i.e., the ‘season of birth effect’). Whereas most of these studies were cross‐sectional, the current study uses growth curve modelling to analyse longitudinal data on 3,187 children in Flemish primary education. The results indicate season of birth effects on both grade retention and mathematics achievement during the first two years of primary school. Because the Flemish cut‐off date is 31 December, children born in the fourth quarter (October‐November‐December) invariably are among the youngest in their grade age group. Almost 20% of these children were found to have been retained or referred to special education by the end of Grade 2, whereas for children born in the first quarter (January‐February‐March), this was only 6.34%. First quarter‐born children also showed moderately higher mathematics achievement at the start of first grade. During the next two school years, this achievement gap between children born in the first and the fourth quarter narrowed significantly. Finally, differentiated instruction was not found to be related to the decrease of the season of birth effect.     

British Women Education Officers and progressive education for an independent Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the work of three British Women Education Officers (WEOs) in Nigeria as the colony was preparing for independence. Well-qualified and progressive women teachers, Kathleen Player, Evelyn Clark (née Hyde), and Mary Hargrave (née Robinson), were appointed as WEOs in 1945, 1949, and 1950 respectively. I argue that the three WEOs endeavoured to reconcile their British cultural values, progressive education, English language instruction, and the intricacies of Nigerian cultures in order to prepare students for life and work in an independent Nigeria. Their roles were diverse, encompassing administration and teaching, teacher education, and leadership of girls’ boarding schools and residential training colleges where English was the language of instruction. Following an outline of the WEOs’ prior experiences, I compare and contrast their approaches to progressive education, beginning with Clark’s endeavours to make girls’ education “a graft that would grow onto and into their own way of life” at the Women’s Training College, Sokoto, in far Northern Nigeria. Then I discuss Robinson’s work in a men’s elementary training college at Bauchi where she dispensed a “down-to-earth practical” progressive education to prospective primary school teachers. Finally, Player gave girls “as complete an education as possible for life as a worker, wife and mother” at Queen Elizabeth School, the first government secondary school for girls in Northern Nigeria. Each situation illustrates the complex social relations involved in realising WEOs’ commitments to progressive education as an emancipatory project.