Bilingual Schools: what it takes to be a good one?

Bilingual schools are schools that mainly work in the children's band. They are the result of a new reality and constitute a reaction to the low efficacy of traditional language courses, facing the demands of today's world. They stem from the fact that language learning is much more effective in childhood and that, in today's connected world, most young people already have contact and a certain familiarity with the English language.

There are three key requirements for a bilingual program in early childhood education to succeed:

1. Qualification of teachers - the teachers must have a degree of proficiency in the language, a native or near native pronunciation, a rich vocabulary, a cultural competence, among other things.
2. The number of students per class: the classes should not have more than 5 or 6 students, it is a known fact that a large number of students in a class jeopardizes the learning process.
3. The contact time with the language: an effective bilingual education program should offer at least 8 to 10 hours per week of immersion.

It is also important to discuss the problem of the creation of bilingual schools for the deaf in Brazil, which is dealt with in the following very interesting article, here is a quote:

“The objective of the bilingual model is to create a bi-cultural identity, since allows the deaf child to develop their potential within the culture and approach, through it, the culture of hearing. This one considers, therefore, the need to include two languages and two cultures within the school in two different contexts, that is, with representatives of both communities performing in the classroom different pedagogical roles.”

To read the full article, go to: https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/rpge/article/view/10172/7030

Here is a short video to illustrate this discussion:

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FURTHER READING:

Schütz, Ricardo. "Educação Infantil Bilíngue" English Made in Brazil . Online (November 27, 2018).

MOURA Anaisa Alves de.; FREIRE, Edileuza Lima.; FELIX, Neudiane Moreira. Escolas Bilingues para surdos no Brasil: uma luta a ser conquistada. Revista on line de Política e Gestão Educacional, Araraquara, v.21, n. esp.2, p. 1283-1295, nov. 2017. Disponível em: . ISSN: 1519- 9029.