While the literature and interest in bilingualism in education in the Middle East remains new, it is widely practiced across the world either by design or by a complete accident. Many literatures ignore or only mention the Middle East in passing, possibly due to the perception that the Arab world homogenously used Arabic, and are even hostile against English, French, Germany and others. Karmani (2005) and Karmani and Pennycook (2005) in Gallagher (2011) deconstruct the evolution of rhetoric and attitudes towards English, which was inevitably associated with the US activities in the Arab world, besides the perceptions that is is a symbol of moderation. Other groups of the population instead appropriated the language for their own purposes, effectively guaranteeing its survival and academic interest in it. The movement towards mandatory bilingual education in public schools by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) is a culmination of a growing trend in the UAE and the rest of the world. It is a reflection of the already existent diversities in many countries, the need to meet the challenges of globalization and perhaps most crucially, the already extant evidence on the pedagogic benefits of bi-literacy.
Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) asserts that the accurate definition of bi-literacy, bilingual education and bilingual competencies etc, is crucial to the understanding of the benefits and effects. Accordingly, the fractional view that bilingualism involvestwo monolinguals within a single person and the holistic views that bilinguals integrate complex. Gallagher (2011) defines biliteracy as “the mastery of reading in particular and also in writing, in two or more languages”. Other definitions of biliteracy, bilingualism etc exist, but have common aspects especially in the description of creation of balanced bilingual competence in thinking, reading, speaking, writing and meaning equivalent fluency in several languages. This according to Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) is not easily achievable, besides being fluid. However, evidence of the existence of biliterate and bilingual competencies comprise of a parallel continua in the creation of a connection between print and oral language. In understanding biliteracy and bilingualism as a contunuum, the researchers analyzed multiple concepts and and literature on, or including biculturalism, psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and multiple other aspects of learning, language acquisition among others, Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012).
There are marked changes in the attitudes of populations, from 50 years ago, when it was widely believed that monolinguals are stronger. It has come up against entrenched perceptions that English is an imperialist language that weakens Arabic and Islam, Gallagher (2011). The introduction of English in Abu Dhabi and using the school syetem to immerse students into the new language asa against simply additive biliteracy is a major step towards the rise of bi-literacy in the country and region. The “mastery of reading in particular and writing in more than one languages” introduces mutiple language concepts from different languages and crucially, aculturizes students as against simply addiditive bilingualism. The practical utility of English in the Arab world, and across the world, has been an important situational, macro factors that has pushed the region towards making schools into hybrid centers for learning English and Arabic. The place of Arabic (colloquial spoken, modern standard and classical Arabic), in the hearts and minds of the Emirati children and the rest of the Middle East remains an important consideration too, Gallagher, 2011). They complicate first language acquisition for children, which in turn reflect negatively on the English language acquisition. The mandatory and universal requirement by ADEC is facilitated by the actual environmental exposure has helped move English from the elite’s preserve to the masses, as against Canada’s full emersion model and Hong Kong’s model that only selects academically strong children to learn a new language, Gallagher (2011).
Operational factors i.e. the school exit criteria, the profile of the teachers to implement bilingual educational models and the immersion degree equal have an influence on the adoption of the English language as well as the realization of the cognitive and pedagocal benefits of bi-literacy. According to Gallagher (2011) “late, late immersion” model is potentially innefective as well as both expensive and unsustainable as compared to school learning, which ahs reduced rates of failure. The International English Language Testing System Consortium asserts that such school exit criteria hurt the rates of attainment in the region, with upwards of 83% of school graduates failing to achieve the minimum standards for direct admissions into Zayed University’s university level programs in English.
Partial immersion has according to Gallagher (2011) resulted in systematic under-achievement not only in the second other languages, but also the primary language. Partial immersion, alongside poorly qualified teachers comprise important operational factors that influence the cognitive, pedagocal and other beneficial elements of bi-literacy. The Abu Dhabi model draws from, and builds on the Canadian, European and Hong kong models of bi-literacy. It is a side-by-side immersion model, with two teachers in a child’s class teaching in English and Arabic respectively, from kendergaten through the child’s schooling. This model has been successfully adopted elsewhere in the Middle East, including Malaysia and Brunei. Protypol immersion models lay a massive emphasis outside the United Arab Emirates. However, it is uncertain as to whether all immersion models are actually successful in promoting the beneficial bi-literacy gains for children, and thus there is potential that may be explored through the implementation of variants of these models. Rolling out a policy as extensive as ADEC’s requires a considerable number of teachers, which makes trachers scarce at least at the onset, and if this is true, then bi-literacy gains would be heavily limited.
There is also a wide body of evidence on the expected and actual outcomes of bilingualism, which represent perhaps the biggest driver behind the continued popularity of bilingualism, Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012). These have been examined with regard to the literacy and language outcomes; content knowledge outcomes as well student attitudes. There are clear expectations of improved proficiency in both languages according to the existent literature, including the fact that Arabic laguage would not be affected. Gallagher (2011) shows that instruction of children in minority languages have no effect on the primary language. However, target language proficiency is subject to multiple, standard educational performance variables, including the cultural and societal attitides to education, school system quality, instructional methods for both languages, qualification of teachers etc.
There are real content knowledge gains for bilingual children, as against monolingual children, which traslates further than just linguistic benefits, to promote cognitive gains (Gallagher, 2011). In a study involving upwards of 140 children, Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley (2011) determined that some skills, which are critical in learning to read, cognitive and linguistic skills acquisition were transferable among different langauges. The children participants were drawn from two predominantly, English speaking and one French speaking, Canadian cities. A sample of 140 children from 19 kindergatens (initial sample of 172 and average age of 70.8 months) that employed the Canadian immersion model had 115 tested through the four-year school duration, while 25 missed at least one test during the same period (Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley, 2011). The tests included receptive grammar working memory, receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, fluency in word reading, rapid naming, letter sound and letter name knowledge as well as word identification among others.
The results indicated that skills that are necessary for reading and writing skills are helpful across different languages. The performance in English language reliably predicted the perfomance of the children in French, both in the English-speaking and French-speaking cities. English receptive vocabularies was however, a language-particular predictor that was incapable of influencing the French performance (Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley, 2011). While these results demonstrate that some skills are clearly transferable, the study fails to build into its methodology the fact that intelligence levels among the children not only differ. Perhaps even most crucially, that a very intelligent kid will perform better (and in the same way) in both English and French, with or without transferable skills. Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley, (2011) presents empirical research evidence showing that monolingual English children’s learning ability is inflenced by the acquired language skills, which in turn implies that difficulty in language a cquisition leads difficulties in learning. Ignoring the reinforcing influences of languages among bilingual learners, it is clear that monolingualisma nd bilingualism should result in similar learning ability for children in both groups.
The results however, colloborate Gallagher (2011) and Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) among other literatures, which also found considerable. Gallagher (2011) anticipates a positive influence on the literacy of Abu Dhabi children, on the back literatures showing a relationship between language skills. It is clear, according to Gallagher (2011) and Orellana, & Moll (2012) that simultaneous learning of divergent written systems resulted in least confusion for children as against cloesly related languages (French and English). Effectively, the wide linguistic dissimilarity between Arabic and English, English and Chinese make for better skills acquisition and cognitive development as against appropriation of some language concepts from one langauge to the next. The balance between linguistic transfer and interference is thiner in linguistically close languages, but in disimilar languages, the advantage is almost entirely in favor of lingistic tranfer.
The literacy and langauage benefits envisaged by the Abu Dhabi Education Council as well as Gallagher (2011) have been borne out by multiple empirical researchs. According to Gallagher (2011) other than target languages proficiency, bilingual children have a betetr mastery of content courses. Developmental literacy in more than one language has notable cognitive advantages. Bialystok (1997) sought to determine the infleunces of bilitracy on on the children’s ability to relate print and language. The study involved 137 children aged between four and five years, classified into three different groups. These included 34 monolingual, English-speaking children with a mean age of 4.4 years, 47 bilingual French and English-speaking children (with a mean age of 4.3 months), while the third group comprised of 53 Engish-Chinese bilingual children with a mean age of 5 years and 5 months.
The subjects were group accoding to their developmental stage, which improves on Orellana, & Moll (2012)’s methodology, before being subjected to preliminary screening tests on their understanding of print. Non of the children included in the study were capable of readingn and information about language experiences was collected. The study administered three separate tests once a week. The tests included the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the word size and moving word problem tests. These are similar to the tests employed in Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley (2011). Information was alaso collected from the teachers as well as parents on the childrens’s reading, language and other abilities that would have affected the results. The results indicated the existence of considerable differences between monolingual and bilingual subjects. Bilingual children had a better grasp of of the general symbolic representation of print, while older English-Chinese children demonstrated increased understanding of the specific correspondence relations in English language print. This is significant because general correspondence relation according to Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) and Bialystok (1997) is applicable to all systems of writing, despite the fact that specific correspondence relation is varies from one writing system to the other. Effectively, the increased capacity of bilingual children to master general correspondence relation, which represented a better transferable capacity in learning other languages and crucially, better cognitive development of the children. The debate on the adoption of biliteracy in the United Arab Emirates has seen rising voices of the possibility of the Arabic language suffering at the expense of foreign languages, Gallagher (2011). As emphasized by the Abu Dhabi Education Council, the Arabic language is critical to the identity of the Emirate and the region and it is crucial that it is protected. However, a multitude of comparative literature including Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll, (2012) has debunked this notion. On the contrary, the potential of development of transferable language skills from a studying English will serve to not only increase the learning of Arabic, but crucially in culturally enriching it. In addition, cognitive gains from the learning of different languages works for the benefit of learning across the board. According to Quintero & Huerta-Macias (1990), the UAE, the Middle East and the rest of the world has moved on with the rise of globalization, the internet, global commerce, supply chains and even politics. Effectively, with or without a deliberate effort at co-opting bilingualism, it will come naturally in the long run. The urgency of the decision by Abu Dhabi Education Council in introducing the English language has not only been driven by these facts, but perhaps most crucially, by the fact that the rich are already buying bilingualism, Gallagher, 2011).
Other than the Arabic language, Gallagher (2011) raises issues over the possibility of science, mathematics and other subjects equally suffering, to which evidence is presented to show that bilingualism would either enhance or not negatively affect other subjectes. Definitive evidence of positive gains comes from Gort (2008) and Quintero & Huerta-Macias (1990). Gort (2008) emphatically gives empirical evidence to conclusively alleviate the growing fears over the potential dilution of the place of Arabic language in the Arab people’s lives. The study sought to understand the natural peer interactions within two-way partial immersion program classrooms that created learning opportunities for the children. The study focussed on the implementation, organization as well as langauage achievements inn TWI classrooms. It was carried out in first grade classes in English-Spanish two-way immersion programs institutions in urban and culturally diverse, K-5 in the United States. The school had upwards of 42% of English language students and Spanish speaking students. The language instruction ratio was more than 75% in favor of English.
The focus was laid on the collaborative efforts among the students inside a working workshop for two classrooms, Quintero & Huerta-Macias (1990). Adults spoke target languages and actively encouraged children to speak it, the children freely used both languages. Instead of observing children inside parallel working workshops, the researcher focused on 6 kids in multiple pairing configurations. The study span off an even bigger study, which focused on the understanding writing skills as well as processes among emergent bilinguals in multiple language learning programs. The wider study lasted more than six months, during which the researchers constantly shadowed and observed the subjects for evidence of collaborative learning, social activities etc. The evidence showed that bilingualism enriched the learning strategies adopted by the student in learning, while at once enhancing the learning opportunities from such collaborative learning and social activities, Gort (2008).
The asserrtions in Gallagher (2011); Gort (2008) and Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) are mirrored in Swanson, Rosston, Gerber, & Solari (2008). Swanson, Rosston, Gerber, & Solari (2008) sought to understnd the influence of oral language(s) as well as phonologicakl awareness on the acquisition/mastery of reading skills among grade thre children. It included upwards of 68 3rd grade children with a mean age of 8.71 years, chosen from 2 school districts in California. 66 of the sampled children were Hispanic, while the remaining two were of mixed extraction, drawn from from school districts with upwardfs of 91% Hispanic population, with 60% ELL population. 46% of the parents in these districts did not complete their high school studies and reading interventions were barred by the poor socioeconomic status of the households. Tests were conducted on a group basis, with independent Spanish speaking judges helping measure the difficulty of the tests.
The measures included blending and segmentation , pseudoword reading tasks, word identification, passage comprehension, paebody picture vocabulary etc. These are identical to the tests in multiple other studies including Iliana, Kenner, Orellana, & Moll (2012) and Jared, Levy, Cormier, & Wade-Woolley (2011). The results are no different either. Swanson, Rosston, Gerber, & Solari (2008) established that expressive vocabulary contributed within a language, coupled with the syntax served as near accurate predictors of literacy as against the phonological awareness measures. Effcetively, the orla langauge skills among children in Abu Dhabi, the Middle East and the rest of the world have a posive effect on the literacy of the future graduates from public schools. Quintero & Huerta-Macias (1990) equally argeues that more is certainly better than less, and thus the more language and cultural exposure, the more the learning opportunities, learning strategies, working memory and other developmental and learning aspects that ultimately beneift childrenand society. Adoption of biliteracy in the UAE will have certain beneficial implications.
References List
Bialystok, E. ,1997, Effects of Bilingualism and Biliteracy of Children's Emerging Concepts of Print. Developmental Psychology Vol 33, No. 3 , 429.
Gallagher, K. ,2011, Bilingual education in the UAE: factors, variables and critical questions. Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues Vol 4, No.1 , 62-79.
Gort, M. ,2008, “You Give Me Idea!”: Collaborative Strides Toward Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Cross-Cultural Understanding in a Two-Way Partial Immersion Program. Multicultural Perspectives, 10,4, , 192–200.
Iliana, R., Kenner, C., Orellana, M., & Moll, L. ,2012, Biliteracy Among Children and Youths. Reading Research Quarterly 47,3, , pp. 307–327.
Jared, D., Levy, B., Cormier, B., & Wade-Woolley, L. ,2011, Early Predictors of Biliteracy Development in Children in French Immersion: A 4-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 103, No. 1 , 119–139.
Quintero, E., & Huerta-Macias, A. ,1990, All in the Family: Bilingualism and Biliteracy. The Reading Teacher Vol 44 No. 4 , 304-15.
Swanson, L., Rosston, K., Gerber, M., & Solari, E. ,2008, Influence of oral language and phonological awareness on children's bilingual reading. Journal of School Psychology 46 , 413–429.
