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Bilingual Class (subproject of a broader Project intitled “Bilingualism, Portuguese L2 learning and educational success in the Portuguese school”)

The project is bilingual education Project (Portuguese/ Cape Verdean), in a mixed class (half Portuguese descent, half Creole descent) of an Elementary School located in an African immigration area (EB1/JI of Vale da Amoreira). The Project follows the students from their first to their fourth year of school. It promotes the development of both languages and cultures and the linguistic and intercultural awareness, valuing the minority language as well as Portuguese. Students are taught the normal curriculum and have a daily hour of (and in) Cape Verdean with a bilingual teacher. The linguistic and school results are analysed in comparison with a control class (of the monolingual curriculum).

Project Goal

The number of students from other cultures, and speaking other languages, is increasing in Portuguese schools. The Cape Verdean community is the most representative and also the one with the least (2008) school success. Cape Verdean, being a Creole, has been traditionally undervalued in Portugal, which leads to the loss of linguistic identity and makes their speakers integration more difficult. With this Project (pioneering in Portugal), we intend to reverse the effects of the monolingual model and prove that bilingual education does not only improve school success but it also contributes to the linguistic, cognitive, cultural and social development of both immigrant and Portuguese students. We intend to prove that biliteracy and translanguaging speeds up the development of reading and writing skills and promotes the linguistic awareness and the taste for communication.       

The Project is inspired by models with international positive results: dual language bilingual education, dynamic bilingual education (Ofélia García, 2009).

Who benefits

  • 25 students of the bilingual class;
  • 25 students of the control class (indirectly);
  • parents;
  • 2 teachers.

We expect that the Project may influence the Portuguese and Cape Verdean educational systems and help to internationally promote the use of Creoles in education, targeting a wider population.

How it works

The Project has multiple dimensions: education, investigation, teacher formation, production of materials and establishing a relation with the educational community.

The students follow their normal curriculum with a strong intercultural component and have a daily hour of (and in) Cape Verdean with programs and materials developed by the Project. The teacher formation is ensured by the coordinator and by an investigator who attends the class two times a week. The investigators collect and analyse the data, according to the coordinators recommendations. The  team has periodical meetings with the parents. The developed documents and materials are published online. 

Results

According to the tests made in the second year (2009-2010), the bilingual class exhibits better results than the control class, namely, regarding written narratives in Portuguese and orthographic correction (the results were better in eleven of the thirteen defined parameters). The number of negative transferences between languages is very small. The students spontaneously make contrastive metalinguistic observations. In questionnaires, they show a positive attitude towards learning and using languages, their value and their equality.

The students refuse to change schools. The Portuguese parents ask for formal teaching in Cape Verdean to help their children and all parents manifest their unconditional support (even in mass media interviews).

Evaluation

The evaluation is continuous, with two special moments: at the end of the second and fourth year.

A comparison is made between the control class and the bilingual class, regarding the school results and the oral and written linguistic development, in Portuguese. The same instruments are used for the Cape Verdean Creole evaluation. These instruments consist of questionnaires about sociolinguistic atittudes, written tests to determine the literacy level, oral and written tests to evaluate narrative and descriptive skills and vocabular diversity. The teachers are asked to evaluate the process. There is a data bank with all the students works, for analysis. 

Funding and resources

The Project Bilingual Class is financed by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

There is a total budget of 188.500 euros  regarding the full duration of this subproject (5 years).

It integrates:

  • 2 coordinators,
  • 2 investigators,
  • 1 teacher and
  • 3 consultants (this number may vary)

About this good practice

Details

Posted by
Sandra Silva
Country Coordinator

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