Sekolah Swasta dan Bilingual: APPENDIX

Sebagi sedikit informasi tambahan buat para orang tua mengenai program bilingual, saya tampilkan hasil riset ini. Data ini hanya sebagai contoh saja. Saya berikan ini dalam bahasa Inggris (teks asli). Buat orang tua, cukup memahami yang Bold saja. Kalau tidak sangup memahaminya, coba saja diartikan kata per kata, secara pelan-pelan, dan rasakan sendiri apa yang anda lakukan terhadap anak anda setiap hari di sekolah bilingual dia.

RESEARCH ON BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Some highlights:

During the first five years, children are learning their primary language at a rapid pace. Because language and thought are interdependent, a firm command of the native language is vital for conceptual development (Cummins, 1989; Wolfe, 1992; Wong-Fillmore, 1991).

Children under the age of five have not reached a stable enough command of their native language not to be affected by the immersion in English-only classrooms [ = mereka pasti terpengaruh secara negatif kalau masuk kelas immersion di bawah umur 5 tahun, karena L1nya belum stabil] that they typically encounter (Wong-Fillmore, 1991). Thus, acquisition of English as a second language by young children may result not in bilingualism, but in the erosion or loss of their primary language, dubbed "subtractive bilingualism" by Lambert (cited in Wong-Fillmore, 1991).

Conversely, when children are able to learn their primary language with all its richness and complexity, they are able to transfer these skills to a new language. (Wolfe, 1992).

Young children who are forced to give up their primary language and adjust to an English-only environment may not only lose their first language, but may not learn the second language well (Wong-Fillmore, 1991).

When children have only a partial command of two languages, they may mix both languages in what Selenker (1972) called "fossilized versions of inter-languages," rather than using fully formed versions of the target languages (Wong-Fillmore, 1991). This inability to speak any language with proficiency puts children at high risk for school failure.

The loss of the heritage language [bahasa ibunya] can seriously jeopardize children's relationships with their families, who may not be fluent in English. The inability to communicate with family members has serious consequences for the emotional, social, and cognitive development of linguistically diverse children (Cummins, 1989; Wolfe, 1992; Wong-Fillmore, 1991).

Creating a classroom environment that values and accepts children's home culture and language is the first step in helping children feel proud, not ashamed, of their "mother tongues, their origins, their group, and their culture" (Skutnabb-Kangas & Cummins, 1988). Bilingual education, in which children are encouraged to use their first languages while supporting their acquisition of English, is optimal.

Many researchers and educators, however, contend that constant correction can have a damaging effect on children's self-esteem, attitude toward school, and ability and motivation to learn to read and speak standard English (Delpit, 1995; Cummins, 1988).

[Seorang “Guru” yang tidak mengerti pendidikan bahasa barangkali akan selalu mengoreksi bahasa Inggris yang salah di kelas. Ini tidak perlu dilakukan. Dampak emosionalnya negatif sekali. Guru bahasa harus tahu kapan perlu dikoreksi dan kapan boleh dibiarkan saja.]

ACQUIRING A SECOND LANGUAGE FOR SCHOOL

Language Development

Linguistic processes, a second component of the model, consist of the subconscious aspects of language development (an innate ability all humans possess for acquisition of oral language), as well as the metalinguistic, conscious, formal teaching of language in school, and acquisition of the written system of language.

This includes the acquisition of the oral and written systems of the student's first and second languages across all language domains, such as phonology (the pronunciation system), vocabulary, morphology and syntax (the grammar system), semantics (meaning), pragmatics (the context of language use), paralinguistics (nonverbal and other extralinguistic features), and discourse (formal thought patterns). To assure cognitive and academic success in a second language, a student's first language system, oral and written, must be developed to a high cognitive level at least through the elementary-school years.

Academic Development

third component of the model, academic development, includes all school work in language arts, mathematics, the sciences, and social studies for each grade level, Grades K-12 and beyond. With each succeeding grade, academic work dramatically expands the vocabulary, sociolinguistic, and discourse dimensions of language to higher cognitive levels.

Academic knowledge and conceptual development transfer from the first language to the second language; thus it is most efficient to develop academic work through students' first language, while teaching the second language during other periods of the school day through meaningful academic content. In earlier decades in the United States, we emphasized teaching the second language as the first step, and postponed the teaching of academics. Research has shown us that postponing or interrupting academic development is likely to promote academic failure. In an information driven society that demands more knowledge processing with each succeeding year, students cannot afford the lost time.

Cognitive Development

The fourth component of this model, the cognitive dimension, has been mostly neglected by second language educators in the U.S. until the past decade. In language teaching, we simplified, structured, and sequenced language curricula during the 1970s, and when we added academic content into our language lessons in the 1980s, we watered down academics into cognitively simple tasks [tugas2 sengaja dibuat lebih mudah supaya bisa dipelajari di L2]. We also too often neglected the crucial role of cognitive development in the first language. Now we know from our growing research base that we must address all of these components equally if we are to succeed in developing deep academic proficiency in a second language.

First And Second Language Acquisition: A Lifelong Process

To understand the processes occurring in language acquisition during the school years, it is important to recognize the complex, lifelong process that we go through in acquiring our first language and the parallel processes that occur in second language acquisition. Development of a complex oral language system from birth to age five is universal, given no physical disabilities and no isolation from humans. But the most gifted five-year-old entering kindergarten is not yet half-way through the process of first language development.

Children from ages 6 to 12 continue to acquire subtle phonological distinctions, vocabulary, semantics, syntax, formal discourse patterns, and complex aspects of pragmatics in the oral system of their first language (Berko Gleason, 1993). In addition, children being formally schooled during these years add reading and writing to the language skills of listening and speaking, across all the domains of language, with each age and grade level increasing the cognitive level of language use within each academic subject. An adolescent entering college must acquire enormous amounts of vocabulary in every discipline of study and continue the acquisition of complex writing skills, processes that continue through our adult life as we add new contexts of language use to our life experience.

As adults we acquire new subtleties in pragmatics, as well as the constantly changing patterns in language use that affect our everyday oral and written communication with others. Thus first language acquisition is an unending process throughout our lifetime (Berko Gleason, 1993; Collier, 1992a). Second language acquisition is an equally complex phenomenon.

We use some of the same innate processes that are used to acquire our first language, going through developmental stages and relying on native speakers to provide modified speech that we can at least partially comprehend (Ellis, 1985; Hakuta, 1986). However, second language acquisition is more subject to influence from other factors than was oral development in our first language. When the context of second language use is school, a very deep level of proficiency is required.

Dan banyak sekali informasi yang lain bisa dicari sendiri di Internet, dengan kata kunci seperti "Second language acquisition".

Semoga bermanfaat.
-Gene Netto

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