Q: Should my child be taught bilingually in the primary school but not in secondary school?
A: It's an over-generalisation to say that primary education teaches children, secondary education teaches subjects - but there's a grain of truth that has implications for the way parents view bilingual education. Some parents find it quite natural for their children to be educated bilingually in primary school because such schools are often child-centered. There is curriculum time and an informal, pleasant atmosphere for language acquisition to occur in the primary school. Primary is a time when language acquisition is a higher priority compared with the demands of later secondary school examination success. Some parents therefore see the primary school as the ideal arena where a child's bilingualism flourishes.
Sometimes, the same parents have different ideas for secondary education. Secondary education is viewed as a time to become serious about subject learning, examination success and readiness for the employment market. During secondary education, both teachers and parents become increasingly interested in the child's achievement in maths and science, the majority language and humanities. A second language becomes an examination subject. Bilingual development can seem less important - the goal is examination success, graduation, movement into college or university, and opening up employment prospects.
Bilingual secondary education can however provide educational language continuity for the child. Having been taught through two languages to the end of primary education, it is quite sensible for the child to continue the primary school language pattern in the secondary school curriculum. Research tends to suggest that dual use of language in the secondary school curriculum will not have a negative effect on children's progress and later success. Indeed, there may be a gain to be made in achievement across the curriculum and, at the least, in securing a high standard in a second language. Bilingual secondary schools often produce children whose bilingualism and bi-literacy are both well developed. This does assume, however, that children enter secondary education with sufficient language competence to cope with the language level used by teachers and found in curriculum materials.
For monolingual parents, sending their children to bilingual secondary schools can mean that they won't be able to help children with their homework. However, children whose two languages are both well developed usually have little difficulty in translating to help parents understand the problem. The act of translating sometimes seems to help understanding. While it may take a little extra time to translate, the secondary school child and monolingual parent can work through a homework problem together just as well.
Bilingual children in secondary education can sometimes benefit when the same or similar textbooks are available in both languages - this gives them access to two different set of explanations and illustrations, giving them a greater chance to understand the work.
Some parents fear children will suffer when they get to university or college if they've studied at a bilingual secondary school. But by the age of 16 or 18, bilingual children are fluent at switching between languages and can adapt relatively easily to working at university or college in either language. There is little reason why a child can't switch from Welsh to English at university, so long as they have a well-developed skill in the English and have the depth of vocabulary and complexity of linguistic structure required in higher or tertiary education.
For more information see the 'Education in Welsh section.
