Dispelling the monolingual myth: exploring literacy outcomes in Australian bilingual programmes

ABSTRACT

The enduring monolingual mindset in English-speaking countries results in widespread belief that additional language learning takes time away from literacy in the societal language. Yet, extensive research has shown that time spent learning additional languages enhances learners’ literacy skills, providing first language literacy is sufficiently supported. This paper examines the achievements of students at four primary schools in Australia, where bilingual programmes were implemented to teach subject content through an additional language. Data from the national standardised literacy and numeracy assessment were gathered to compare students within the bilingual programmes with those not in the bilingual programmes. Results show higher performance for students in the bilingual programmes compared to their peers in monolingual classes. Drawing on data from a broader study of formal and informal assessment in these schools, this paper presents the standardised test results and teacher qualitative beliefs about literacy development. Findings show that the bilingual style of learning suits children irrespective of many contextual factors and that children’s literacy in English is enhanced by the addition of a second or subsequent language.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education
• CLIL
• standardised assessment
• first and second language literacy
• language achievement

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the teachers and students who enabled this research to take place. We also thank the NSW Department of Education for funding our research and supporting our ongoing relationships with the schools. We thank Dr Nicholas Gamble for his assistance with the statistical analysis of the data in this paper. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions and improvements to the paper. We hope this paper will be particularly helpful to the school communities to demonstrate the positive outcomes of their work in externally valued ways.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See https://nap.edu.au/nap-sample-assessments for examples and details of the NAPLAN test.

2 NAPLAN is the name of the standardised test in Australia: National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy. See https://www.nap.edu.au/results-and-reports/how-to-interpret\ for more detail on the programme and how the data are reported.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NSW Department of Education.

Notes on contributors

Ruth Fielding

Ruth Fielding is a Senior Lecturer in TESOL and Languages Education at Monash University. She has researched in multilingual settings since 2006 with a particular interest in student identity and multilingualism. Her book on this topic was published in 2015. Ruth’s current research focuses on bilingual programmes in Australia, pedagogy and assessment in bilingual settings, and the intersection between identity and intercultural understanding in relation to language learning and teaching. Ruth has taught in language teacher education programmes in Australia since 2006.

Lesley Harbon

Lesley Harbon is a Professor and the Head of School for the School of International Studies and Education at the University of Technology Sydney. After completing her PhD, she moved into teacher education and over the past 25 years has accepted roles in Study Abroad, International strategy and International Studies. Lesley has been sole author, or co-author and editor of numerous books, book chapters and refereed journal articles. She has delivered invited international keynote addresses and seminars, and has supervised numerous doctoral, masters and honours projects. Lesley has consulted on language education to schooling systems and government agencies.