4.4 Questionnaire for parents of bilingual children - IS MU

Masaryk University
Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature
Integrating Children Speaking English as their Mother Tongue into the
English Classroom Bachelor Thesis Brno 2012
Supervisor: Written
by: doc. Mgr. Sv?tlana Hanu?ová, Ph.D. Radka
Saundersová
Declaration:
I hereby declare that I have written this thesis on my own, using only
the sources listed in the bibliography. Brno, 20 January 2012
_____________________ Radka Saundersová
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my supervisor doc. Mgr. Sv?tlana Hanu?ová, Ph.D.
for her invaluable guidance, advice and kind approach as she gave direction
to my work.
I would also like to thank Mgr. Záleská for kindly testing my
materials and willingly implementing my ideas; my daughter Anya for being
an enthusiastic test subject for me; the parents and teachers who kindly
answered my inquisitive questions; and my family for unfailing support and
patience.
The country with one language is an island - a pure island,
A far, untranslatable island
The one which has two languages
Has a more welcoming speech. An old melody and an accompaniment - and a grasp
Of the richness of expression.
The key to two cultures is
For children a lifelong treasure, without pain. There is room for another language - in the memory.
The memory is insatiable.
Two are not harder to understand.
Can one not stimulate the other? Professor Iolo Wyn Williams
(Taken from Encyclopaedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education.)
Introduction 6 I. The Theoretical Part 7 1 Bilingualism 7
1.1 The term bilingualism 7
1.2 Languages and the Czech Republic 10
2 Talented children 11
2.1 The definition of a talent or a gift and to what extent it
applies to bilingual children 11
2.2 Current trends in elementary education in the Czech Republic 13
2.3 Implementation of the trends 14
2.4 Bilingual children in English lessons 15
3 Differentiation 17
3.1 Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom 17
3.2 VAK Learning Styles 18
3.3 Multiple Intelligences Test 19 II. The Practical Part 21 4 Introduction 21
4.1 Understanding the needs of children speaking English as their
mother tongue 21
4.2 Comparing the curricula and adapting the Czech curriculum to
native-speaker needs 22
4.3 Summary of the main adaptation points 29
4.4 Questionnaire for parents of bilingual children 30
5 A case study 32
5.1 Introduction 32
5.2 Anya 32
5.3 National Curriculum Assessment test 33
5.4 Differentiation 35
6 Creating the Tasks 36
6.1 Sample Worksheets 37
6.2 The Worksheets, Notes for the teacher and Comments 39
6.3 Tasks Summary 54
7 Conclusion 55
Works Cited 57
Figure 1 58
Table 1 58 Introduction I am a mother of four children bilingual in Czech and English whose
English is at a native speaker level. The children have to attend 3
compulsory English lessons a week at school and there is no option to study
a different language. For the last four years, I have been trying to help
the teachers provide my children with meaningful instruction and
appropriate materials, but I have not yet entirely succeeded. This thesis
is a part of my effort to remedy that.
This thesis: 'Integrating Children Speaking English as their Mother
Tongue into the English Classroom' consists of two parts. The theoretical
part examines the definition of gifted and talented children in connection
with bilingual children, and sets out to prove that bilingual children
should be considered talented for the purpose of their English classes and
treated accordingly. Further, the theoretical part sums up the principles
of differentiation and how they apply to bilingual children. The practical
part is a case study designed to assess whether the needs of bilingual
children, and particularly those children who are native speakers of
English, are being met in the regular English classroom. The purpose of the
thesis is to explore ways which could help teachers understand the
children's needs better and to meet their needs in an appropriate manner.
With the help of the British curriculum, authentic British teaching
materials and a book on differentiation, new sets of materials for
bilingual children have been created and tested. The findings resulting
from this research are included in the conclusion.
While the number of children who speak English at a native speaker
level is currently relatively small, the number of children who can be
considered bilingual in Czech and English rises each year. There are at
least 14 kindergartens in Brno alone offering to teach children English
through total immersion. Even if there were only 5 children leaving each of
these establishments each year, that would bring around 70 children
bilingual in Czech and English into the first year of Brno schools each
year. While these children might not be of the same level and fluency as
native speakers, their ability to understand English and to communicate in
English would be considerably higher than the ability of their monolingual
peers. However great or small their number, these children also require an
individual approach in their English lessons.
The work also touches on the subject of teaching English to children
who are already bilingual (for example Romany children who speak Romany and
Czech; or Vietnamese children who speak Vietnamese and Czech) for whom
English is their third language. I. The Theoretical Part
1. Bilingualism
1 The term bilingualism "Bilingualism is best studied as an interdisciplinary phenomenon. The
concept of bilingualism is a relative notion." (Romaine 22)
There have been many studies conducted on bilingualism and many
scholars have developed a wide range of definitions of bilingualism. One
extreme opinion is expressed by Bloomfield who describes bilingualism as "a
native-like control of two languages" where "perfect foreign-language
learning is not accompanied by loss of the native language" (55-56).
However, even he recognizes that "one cannot define a degree of perfection
at which a good foreign speaker becomes a bilingual: the distinction is
relative" (56). As Baker states in his Encyclopaedia of Bilingualism and
Bilingual Education in the simplest terms, "most people would say ... that
a bilingual is a person who can speak two languages" (2). And as he points
out, that explanation raises more questions. We could ask: How well can
they speak the two languages? Can they only speak them or can they read and
write in both of them too? Are they equally proficient in both of them and
in all four skills (speaking, reading, writing, listening)? Are they
proficient in either of them and in any of the four skills? There is no
easy and straightforward answer to these questions. However, the following
seems to be generally applicable:
Few bilinguals are equally proficient in both languages, even
though this is often thought to be the case. One language tends to be
stronger and better developed than the other. This is described as the
dominant language. It is not always the first or native language of the
bilingual. ... Few bilinguals possess the same competence as monolingual
speakers in either of their languages. This is because bilinguals use
their languages for different functions and purposes. (Baker 3)
This view has been further developed by Grosjean who represents the
other end of the scale and who states that bilingualism is "the ability to
produce meaningful utterances in two languages, the command of at least one
language skill (reading, writing, speaking, listening) in another language
[or] the alternate use of several languages. ... We will call bilingual
those people who use two languages in their everyday lives." (1)
While Grosjean might be viewed as somewhat extreme in his generous use
of the term 'bilingual', his paper offers many insights into the reality of
being bilingual. He corrects some general misconceptions as to what it
means to be bilingual and how bilingualism works:
Bilinguals acquire and use their languages for different purposes,
in different domains of life, with different people. It is precisely
because the needs and uses of the languages are usually quite different
that bilinguals rarely develop equal fluency in their languages. The
level of fluency ... will depend on the need ... and will be domain
specific.
Bilinguals have been described and evaluated in terms of the
fluency and balance they have in their two languages; language skills in
bilinguals have almost always been appraised in terms of monolingual
standards; research on bilingualism has in