02.07.2020

Beacon Talks addresses the impacts of bilingual education on the integral development of students

Beacon Talks brought a very familiar theme to the school community: bilingual education. Master in English language teaching  from School for International Training, Vermont, and Beacon’s English advisor, Terry Aranda, spoke with director Vera Nicol Giusti about bilingualism and its essence, its complexity, its benefits and how it works at Beacon, as well as to answer viewers’ top questions.

According to Terry, “language is not just a means of communication, it is an instrument of thought. In other words, by learning content and exploring concepts in other areas of knowledge through a language other than the language of birth, students develop high thinking skills. ”

The conversation addressed the literacy process in bilingual schools and the different ways of dealing with this process, exposure to reading and writing, for example, is done in parallel in both languages. A high-level bilingual school improves students’ reading and study skills, so that they will benefit throughout their academic life. Good faculty training is also essential. “This professional must know how to deal with childhood issues, encourage group work and know how to engage students in solving problems in several different ways,” says Terry.

When speaking about welcoming students in transition to bilingual education, Terry explained the importance of extra class support for this student and a closer monitoring of his teachers – a work developed by Beacon aiming at promoting the best possible integration to a new environment.

The guest highlighted that, on the contrary to what many people think, bilingualism does not cause confusion or harm to children. The bilingual individual has both languages active all the time, allowing him to use all the linguistic resources he has to express himself in the best possible way.

Linguistic diversity and various types of accents were also addressed. “It is important to teach students that there is this variety in speech and, most importantly, that accent is identity, it shows where we came from”, she adds.

You may follow the entire Live video here.