Bilingual Programmes

Master in Second Language Learning and TeachingUniversity of Cantabria, 2014/2015

Paola García Mantecón

1. INTRODUCTION

BILINGUALISM CLIL

1970 1980 1990 1995

Keeping this in mind, we will see what is going on in theCzech Republic.

2. CONTEXT

• “Modern nation” (Federative Republic of Czechoslovakia until 1993)

• Member of European Union since 2004

• Central Europe

• Czech is supposed to be the official language

• Minority ethnic groups (Slovaks, Polish, Romans, Russians, Germans and Ukrainians)

(Housing Census,2001)

Czech Republic’s educational system estructure

3.LINGUISTIC POLICY

• There is not a law that which focuses only on language planning.

• The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1997)

• Act on the Rights of members of National Minorities (2001)

1. The right to use one’s name and surname in the language of a national minority.2. The right to multilingual names and denominations.3. The right to use the language of a national minority in official documentation and discourse

and hearing before a court.4. The right to use the language of a national minority during the elections.5. The right to education in the language of a national minority.6. The right to develop the culture of members of national minorities (including maintenance

and development of the language)7. The right to spread and receive information in the language of a national minority.

(Nekvapil, J. 2007)

Rights related with linguistic aspects:

3.1 MINORITY LANGUAGES

•Education Act, 2004 there is a required number of students belongingto a minority group in a school to use the languageof the minority as the language ofinstruction, either in a single class or in the wholeschool.

(E.g.: Basic school: 10 pupils in a class/ 12 in each class tobecome the language of instruction of the whole school)

GERMAN:

-They are disperse all over the regions

-German is taught as a subject in many schools

-There are private German schools

POLISH:

- The only minority group with their own

education system

- Polish Pedagogical Centre

ROMA:

-Most Roma pupils do not speak Czech

-Different social standards

-To attend to special schools

SLOVAKIAN:

- The largest minority group

-It used to be part of the curricula

OTHER LANGUAGE MINORITIES:

-Bulgarian

-Greek

-Hungarian

-Rusian

Czech is considered de language of instruction in mainstream

education

3.1 MINORITY LANGUAGES

3.2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES

• To learn two foreign languages is compulsory in Basic Education

•English is considered the main one

• L2: 3rd grade (age 8)

• L3: 8th grade (age 13)

• At the end of Basic Education (age 15)

A2 in L2

A1 in L3

4.BILINGUAL PROGRAMS

• Bilingual programmes since 1990

• CLIL approach

• Implemented only in few Secondary schools (2 years of lower S.E. and 4 of upper S.E.)

• Age: 13 to 19

• Vehicular languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian and English

0 2 4 6

FRENCH

GERMAN

SPANISH

ITALIAN

ENGLISH

(Maljer, A. Marsh. D. Wolff D., 2007)

• SUBJECTS:

Maths, History, Physics, Biology

• ACCESS:

-Entrance exam in Czech and Maths.

- Target language Knowledge in not usually evaluated.

-Intensive language training in the L2 in the first two years.

(Euridyce, 2006)

•METHOD:

-Active pupils

-Cooperation

-Motivation

-Good envioroment

•TEACHERS:

-Czech teachers qualified to teach the contents

who are proficient in the target language (C1)

-Native speakers

• STUDENT CERTIFICATION:

- Leaving examination (Maturita)

- A standard Czech certificate

- A certificate in the target language

5. EVALUATION

• It is not easy to foster research projects about CLIL programmes in the Czech Republic

due to the small number of classes available for observation and study (Wolff, 2007).

• Faculty of Education in Prague (Charles University): studies about teaching Maths in

English

• “Follow-up of the Action Plan on language learning and linguistic diversity National

Report Template” (European Commission, 2006)

•English Proficiency Index (EPI, 2013)

6. CONCLUSIONS

• Czech is not a majority language, so it is important for them to reach a high level in

a foreign language.

• They have not developed yet a bilingual policy according to their geo-social needs.

• English teaching as L2 is recently

• Older Czech generations feel certain aversion to speak English

The satisfactory development of bilingual programmes still needs time, and the positive results will be reflected in future

generations.