"We speak three languages. How many can you speak?" These little ones take obvious pride in their linguistic abilities. A lot of adults would undoubtedly be envious. |
Concordian International is taking advantage of children’s natural ability to learn content and acquire languages at the same time
Little children pick up languages. All they need is the proper environment with plenty of interaction and, presto, the process begins. One language – nothing to it. Two languages? Child’s play. Three languages? Kids are the champions.
This is not language "learning" in the traditional sense. You can’t really teach language to little ones. Instead, children "acquire" languages naturally by continually hearing and using them in meaningful situations.
 A single door opens to two very different environments. In the foreground, Candy Kelly stands with several of her students in the English section. Continuing through the door, the language shifts to Mandarin Chinese as Shih Yu Kuo and her assistant Lin Yi Ming play a clapping game with another group of children. |
Certainly the most productive environment for language acquisition as a child is the home and neighbourhood. This is where children acquire their mother tongue – and often a second language as well if one is widely spoken in the immediate surroundings.
In Thailand, tens of thousands of young children are acquiring a second language in international schools. Interestingly, the second language – usually English here in Thailand – is actually a by-product. The schools themselves are focused primarily on academic content. At the same time, however, they provide a rich environment – a community – where the language acquisition process can flourish.
But why stop at a single language? For very young children, wouldn’t it be possible to deliver the curriculum in two languages? Couldn’t the children spend part of the day in one language environment and the rest of the day in the other?
That is exactly what is happening at Concordian International School (CIS) which began operating last August in Thana City just outside of Bangkok in Bangplee, Samut Prakan. There, children from pre-school to first-grade are learning part of their curriculum in Mandarin Chinese and part in English. As if that isn’t enough, they are also studying Thai, the native language for most of the children.
Does it work? The Learning Post spent a day there recently to find out.
Not a language school
"It needs to be understood," says CIS director Nadine Tyro, "we’re not a language school. We’re teaching through languages."
The curriculum is based on the Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). This is the same inquiry-based and topic-driven curriculum currently in use in the Kesinee International School and New International School of Thailand in Bangkok and the Prem International Centre in Chiang Mai. The major difference is CIS’s use of the dual language approach.
PYP programmes throughout the world typically feature close teacher collaboration. At CIS, such collaboration is particularly critical because responsibility for delivering the curriculum at each level is divided among two teachers using different languages. As such, they cannot share the same classroom as is true in many other schools.
Nor can they simply divide up the curriculum, leaving, say, mathematics to the Mandarin teacher or science to the English teacher. Instead, when Ruth Gould’s kindergarten two students are exploring the properties of magnetism in English, that’s what they are exploring in Yu Chi Chuang’s Mandarin section as well.
 The subject is measurement. The language of instruction varies. It’s Chinese in the main picture and English in the inset. |
"What I introduced today in measurement, they’ve already had (in the Chinese section) but with metre sticks or rulers whereas I used a tape measure today."
Staff and environment
"They’re teachers first," says Tyro of her staff. "They’re teaching concepts and they’re helping children acquire skills in all the subjects areas."
But does this really foster language acquisition – particularly in two languages, neither of which are the native tongues of the vast majority of the students?
Tyro and her staff are clearly convinced that it does. But, stresses Tyro, it requires a dedicated, caring and well-trained staff as well as the proper environment.
"We provide a non-threatening environment," Tyro says. "The teachers really do care about the kids, so the kids are happier to take risks and start using the language. They’re not frightened to come up to me and speak to me and use English because they know I don’t speak Thai, I don’t speak Chinese.
"They love being here and that’s the key. They love to learn because of the environment we set up. They sense it as soon as they come in here. People care about them and therefore they want to be here. It’s stimulating. They get to do many different activities. They don’t have that one teacher all day. It’s a nice facility to be in as well."
House has been pleasantly surprised at how well the children seem to be handling the dual-language curriculum. "To be completely honest, it’s a lot more successful (than I expected). I was feeling like it might be a struggle. They actually are able to do a lot more than I thought they could."
However, learning two (three, if you count Thai) languages simultaneously, she says, "does slow them down at times in their progression in those languages. In other international environments that I’ve worked in, their oral language develops a little faster. But you remember here, they’re developing two languages at the same time."
"There’s a little boy in my class who is a native Mandarin speaker," House says by way of example. He spoke no English and no Thai. In an English medium school I would predict that by January he could be really fluent. He really took off in mid March, so it’s just a little bit slower, but you have to remember, he’s also acquiring Thai."
Two stars and a wish
One of the big advantages international schools have over their counterparts in the national school system, says Tyro, is their relative independence. "We are largely autonomous," she says. "We’re not encumbered by a big ministry of education.
"We can bring in people from many different systems who have experienced recent developments in education and we can implement them in our school much more quickly than you could in a larger system."
This freedom, says Tyro, allows curriculum planners at CIS to select from the current best practices in international education and implement those most suited to the school’s multi-language environment. A good example, is the assessment system.
With teaching responsibilities split between two or more teachers, it is not surprising that the school has chosen a collaborative form of assessment. It is based on an Australian system known as "negotiated evaluation". Interestingly, this goes beyond teacher-to-teacher negotiations to include parents and the children themselves.
Even the youngest children get involved. One of the first things they learn to do is to set goals. "With the little ones," says Tyro, "we call it two stars and a wish: two things that they know they’re really good at and something they wish they were maybe better at. It doesn’t have to necessarily be academic. It’s largely goal setting, but at a level that’s appropriate."
What’s appropriate? Four-year-old Patrick provides a good example. "I am very good at playing jigsaws," his teacher has written for him. "I can kick balls very well. I want to improve my colouring skills." Here’s Dan, also four: "I’m good at drawing boats. I am good at making machines with the blocks. I want to be better at drawing trains."
Once a goal is set, the teachers discuss with the child how they might reach it. They also discuss how the school and their parents might help. "This gets built on year after year," Tyro explains, "until when you start getting up to the grades three, four, five level, you’ve got children who are setting goals very specific to their learning."
At this stage, parents are brought into the picture, Tyro says. "How can you help? This child has identified with me these problem areas. How can you assist? Maybe you need to have a particular computer program at home. Maybe you need to be sitting and reading with this child every day."
Another key feature of collaborative assessment is what is known as the focus week. Three times a year, each child comes under particularly close scrutiny. All writing and drawing is collected and teachers photograph the child during activities. Everything goes into a focus book which becomes the centre of attention in a child-led conference with the parents. "It’s great for self-esteem," says Tryo.
"You’re always assessing every child," she explains, "but during that child’s focus week, you’re paying particular attention to them. They wear a little focus badge (‘I am on focus’). So when they go to each of the specialist classes, when they have music, when they have PE, the teacher knows this child is on focus.
"They (the teachers) are paying particular attention to those children and what they can do and need. Their strengths and their weaknesses are discussed with the parents, discussed amongst themselves. From that they know how to design activities to work with the child to overcome whatever problems he or she might have."
Looking towards the future
 There is still time in the day for a Thai lesson, the native language for most of the children. |
Plans for the future at CIS are ambitious to say the least. In consultation with the European Council of International Schools (ECIS), which helps with management, there are plans to grow with the current batch of students, adding a middle school and eventually a high school.
The intention is to seek accreditation from the ECIS and its close associate the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. At the same time, the school will go through the full IBO authorisation process for its PYP, MYP and IB diploma programmes.
According to Tyro, the current group of children, as well as those entering the programme from pre-school to grade one, will go through the dual-language programme through grade five. At that stage, she says, they will be functionally literate in three languages. By the time they reach the IB diploma level, she says, most should be capable of taking English and Chinese as higher level subjects, meaning they will be eligible to receive the IB’s Bilingual Certificate.
In middle school and the high school, the core subjects will be taught in English. Mandarin will remain a requirement, but the focus will be more on literature. To maintain a full dual-language programme, Tyro says, would be prohibitively expensive. "If you’ve classes for physics, biology, the core subjects and you’ve got to provide teachers in more than one language for each, you’re talking about massive amounts of staff," she explains.
To accommodate older children seeking to enter the programme, Tyro says the school will clearly have to make some serious adjustments, including ESL and MSL support. In the upper levels, Mandarin will also have to be offered at various levels.
Until that is in place, she says, CIS will accept students into the dual-language immersion programme above the kindergarten level only if they are reasonably proficient in one of the two languages of instruction. Tyro strongly suggests that parents of prospective students make sure their children get special tutoring or attend summer school classes as soon as possible to get them ready.
terryfrd@ksc15.th.com |