Multiculturalism through bilingual education

Multiculturalism through bilingual education

At Campsie Public School, a subject one day could be taught both in English and Korean. The bilingual program was a natural fit for the language-diverse primary school, which across 39 different languages among 720 students. Campsie and other 3 schools would be taught 4 Asian languages, Korean, Mandarin, Indonesian and Japanese, one for each school, for one hour or regular class time every day. Subjects such as history or geography would be delivered in the second language. The research found that nearly three-quarters of the students were engaged with the programs.

School as an important place for everyday multiculturalism in Australia, can be considered as potential micropublics, “as they are ideal sites for fostering a respect for the presence of Others, which can coexist with tension and conflict.”(Ho, 2011) Multiculturalism as an unavoidable phenomenon in schools, it is somewhat hard to solve the derived issues that occur in the culture-diverse school and balance the relationship with local students. Tension and conflict are existed as Ho proposed. The bilingual program provided in Campsie Public School is no doubt a good way to relieve the current situation. The conflict is about the tolerance of other cultures and the related people. If students can learn another language, they would probably learn the corresponding culture as well; so they might have more knowledge and understanding of the foreigners and increase the ability of tolerating others. Or, perhaps, they are interested in that particular culture after learning that specific language, and then students would be glad to see that culture coexists with Australian culture, which is a harmony of different cultures.    

Condon (1974) indicated that bilingualism is an asset for individuals in career opportunities, travel and personal development. Therefore, in my point of view, bilingual education is necessary for multiculturalism and is flexible to operate in the school. The bilingual program is different from the language courses, as for a bilingual program, some prescribed courses are completely taught in the second language without the use of English, which practising the second language more than the language course does. If students find that they can grasp another language, then they are more likely to welcome the multiculturalism. Multicultural festivals would attract more students to come and participate, and make more friends probably. I think what language is chosen to be the second language is student-matter; schools could provide several languages that use most often for students to choose, and run different bilingual programs at the same time in one school to enrich multiculturalism. For example, if the school provides both Korean and Mandarin as parts of the bilingual program, then students could choose the second language according to their cultural background or interests, and these students could be classified in the light of their choices for their subjects that would be delivered in the second language. More choices provided, more students would be satisfied.

Bilingual education promotes the development of multiculturalism, especially for the culture-diverse schools. Since the bilingual program only runs in some schools, I hope that one day the program could be generalised to all or most of schools in Australia to meet students’ needs of multiculturalism.

Reference:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/classrooms-blazing-the-trail-in-nsw-for-bilingual-education-20130908-2te22.html

Condon, Eliano C. (1974). Bilingual education. System, 2(2), 16.

Ho, Christina. (2011). Respecting the Presence of Others: School Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.