01-+Foundations+of++Bilingual+Education+and+Bilingualism+by+Colin+Baker+(primary+education)


 * Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism by Colin Baker **

** Introduction **

In this book we can see the importance of the language from a sociolinguistic point of view. We must consider that the development of the language, in this case the second language, helps our pupils to be if not more intelligent, more flexible and adaptive to the changes that they must go through in their lives nowadays.

Being bilingual is not knowing all the grammar in both languages, but to develop a healthy correlation between the two cultures that these languages represent and of course, and this is the first task we have as teachers, we must help and encourage our students to communicate in an efficient way in both languages.

First we must know what we consider as intelligent, the ordinary IQ test cannot measure some abilities that human beings use every day. Some authors consider that bilingual persons have the brain divided and do not encourage the parents or teachers to teach a second language in the early years of schooling. I don't think that bilinguals are more intelligent, but they have more resources and their brains are more flexible than those of monolinguals. In the past some researchers stated that bilinguals are not doubly intelligent, in fact many IQ tests show that monolinguals have better results than bilinguals. Other scientists said that the most you learn in one language and use it, the less abilities you have in the other. Verbal IQ tests in 1923 showed than monolinguals had better scores than bilinguals. But as I have already said this is not a fixedaffirmation, because IQ tests pose questions such as how can we define and measure intelligence? What a society considers intelligence, others may not see it as standard behaviour taking into account their origin, education, location, etc. Can heritage change a person's intelligence? Can environment? If the answer is yes in the first case, it will not affect a bilingual person; but if the environment is considered as a changing factor for intelligence, then bilinguals, who have been exposed to two cultures, have different experiences and a richer environment. Furthermore, IQ intelligence tests have only analysed the point of view of the average white middle-class European person but not Australian aborigines or Africans for example. The language of the IQ test also made it difficult for some of the people to complete them: if they are not proficient in the second language they will probably be slower that the ones that have it as first language. The classification as bilingual person is also difficult, we must ask ourselves what kind of linguistic competences we use or how fluent they are in that language. The context is also a difficult issue. It is not the same situation a bilingual child who is in contact with the second language which is considered as good for him by the family, than a family that because this language is not considered prestigious in the place they live they never use it or practise it. If we want to make a serious investigation we must take care of these aspects: *gender *age *school *urban or rural environment *additive or subtractive environment
 * -Are bilingual more intelligent?why this is important to handle with this issue? **

In 1962, Pearl and Lambert developed a study in Canada to explore the relationship between cognoscitive thinking and bilingualism. In spite of some limitations, the conclusion of the study was that being a bilingual person makes you think in more flexible way; it also gives you a bigger capacity of abstract thinking. This ability implies thinking in concepts not in images. A bicultural and bilingual environment can improve the IQ development. Between the two languages there was a positive transfer that helps to develop the verbal IQ. To finish I must say that I believe in the conclusions of Pearl and Lambert and also that we, as teachers, must keep in mind that our pupils could need different classroom strategies in our classes depending on which kind of bilingualism we want for them. As I have said bicultural students can embrace the language in different ways than the other pupils who are not in contact with the second language beyond our classes.


 * -How important is language to develop thinking skills? **

There are four basic language abilities: listening, speaking, reading and writing. these four abilities fit into two dimensions: receptive and productive skills, oracy and literacy. There are skills within skills, traditionally listen as: pronunciation, extent of vocabulary, correctness of grammar, the ability to convey exact meanings in different situations and variations in style. However these skills tend to be viewed from an academic or classroom perspective. Using language on the street and in a shop require a greater accent on social competence with language**.** (Baker, C, 2001 p. 7-8)

The underlying hypothesis concerning creative thinking and bilingual is that the ownership of two or more languages may increase fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration in thinking. Competence in a second language below a certain threshold level may fail to give any cognitive benefits. The evidence suggests that balanced bilinguals have superior divergent thinking skills compared with other less balanced and monolinguals.

A study by Kharkhurin (2008) using the methods of torrance described above revealed that superior divergent thinking was facilitated by bilinguals proficiency in the two languages, the age of acquisition of these languages and the length of exposure to new cultural environment. Kharkhurin (2008) found that bilingualism appears to “have an impact on the ability to rapidly produce a large number of ideas or solutions to a problem, the capacity to consider a variety of approaches to problems simultaneously and have a tendency to encourage the process of thinking through the details of an idea”. (Baker, C, 2001 p. 148-158)


 * -How can we teachers, help children improve their thinking skills through their language and cultural experiences? **

To start we can say that one of the things that teachers must get is that children think for themselves independently and with personal initiative for critical thinking. For this it is necessary to develop teaching proposals that stimulate children.

These thinking skills can be improved by using language and cultural experiences. The language theories of the 1960 tended to center on language skill and in the components of knowledge, but this model ignore the social context where language is used and this is very important.

The language competence includes not only linguistic competence (grammar, vocabulary) but also competence in different social and cultural situations with different people. The pragmatic, play an important role because pay attention for the extralinguistic factors such as communicative intention, context and knowledge of the world.

Teacher must help children find suitable meaning for all that they discover and to develop a suitable response. It is necessary to promote real situation in the classroom for children to see the relation and learn in a contextualized way relating the prior knowledge with the new learning and built a more meaningful learning.

In conclusion, the teacher must teach students to think and teacher must become in mediators for children find their own coherence between what they think, what want or feel and what they do.

** Conclusion **

In conclusion we can say that the benefits of bilingualism go beyond of Communication. Learning a second language in a child can change the way the brain functions, increase concentration skills, and allows you to have greater flexibility and capacity to solve problems. The bilingual people are capable of activating two languages ​​ simultaneously. But learning English should not only be based on a set of grammatical rules, but goes beyond. There give importance to the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. But also is important the social character and the environment in which learning a second language.

** Bibliography ** Baker, C (2001). //Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism: 79. 2001//