BILINGUALISM AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION

BILINGUALISM AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION

ASSIGNMENT 1

How can we measure bilingualism? Describe some of ways bilingualism has been measured and discuss the problems associated with them.

Bilinguality and bilingualism are two similar concept of mastering language.

Although many authors believed that there were some differences between these two terms. As it is stated in Study Book (2004, p. 1.2) that the term of bilinguality most often refers to linguistic abilities of individual. While bilingualism is a wider concept, it is more social aspects of bilinguality, such as bilingualism in various communities, societies, etc., the socio-political context of being bilingual.

Bilinguality and bilingualism were not enough known as concept only, but it must be see as a complex thing which can be studied through research, in other word it is applicable thing. In doing research, there must be valid measurement which can be shown in the logic and real fact. As it is mentioned ‘(m)easurement is an inextricable aspect of language investigation’ (Study Book, 2004, p. 1.2). In the field of second language learner, measurement is very important in order to test the learners’ level proficiency or achievement. Therefore, we will see how can we measure bilingualism and see what happened in the bilingualism measures.

The linguists believed that measurement of bilingualism is a very complex phenomenon. There are many aspects that must be concerned about. Study Book (2004, p. 1.8) stated that bilingualism has many aspects that researchers can investigate and it is very important to define the scope of investigation. Furthermore, it says ‘In any measurement or testing situation we need to answer three fundamental questions’ (Study Book, 2004, p. 1.8). They are the ‘Why?’, the ‘What’, and the ‘How’.

The ‘Why?’

It is very important, in measuring bilingualism, to decide the clear purpose of our investigation. Otherwise, we will fail to measure what we want to. Study Book (2004, p. 1.8) mentioned some question as follow:

‘Are we trying to find out how proficient and individual is in two different languages at a given time or perhaps we are rather interested in how the proficiency in the two languages is changing over a period of time? Are we trying to measure the degree of the use of the languages in different domain? Are we trying to measure the speaker’s attitude toward using the two languages? Or are we most interested in whether the individual has equal competence in the two (or more) languages? Are we more interested in the society as a whole than in individual?’.

In addition to this, Baker (2001, p. 18) says ‘Measurements of bilinguals can take place for variety of purpose, and it is valuable to differentiate between some of these overlapping aims’.

Distribution

The kind of measurement is found in census questions. The aim is to know the distribution and size of bilinguals in particular area. The result will show the proportion and the location where the particular language used mostly or rarely.

Selection

The aim of this measurement is to grouping people in a separate group based on their level of proficiency. For example; students at school will be divided in the group of levels novice, elementary, advance, etc.

Summative

The aim is ‘…to indicate the destination a person has reached in their language learning journey’ (Baker, 2001, p. 19). It usually occurs at the end of class program or semester. The test will cover some aspects of language proficiency which consist of reading, listening, grammar, etc.

Formative

This type of measurement is usually to measure a particular proficiency of language learner. If the test shown low competency so the learner need to be given a remedial. ‘If the test reveals areas where a child’s language needs developing, there can be immediate intervention and remedial help’ (Baker, 2001, p. 20).

The ‘What?’

‘What’, it is something what we are going to measure or the object of our investigation. Study Book (2004, p. 1.9) stated:

‘Since our focus of investigation is bilingualism, rather than just a second language, we need to define what we mean by bilingualism. If we agree that bilingualism is a scope of investigation rather than a phenomenon per is, we can paraphrase our question as ‘What is our scope of investigation?’ Are we interested in all individuals who have some command of two or more languages in any macro-skill, or are we just focusing people who have reached native-like proficiency in both or all?’.

The ‘How?’

This is the fundamental question in the measurement of bilingualism. It concerns about the process or the action of ‘How to measure what we are trying to measure?’ (Study Book, 2004, p. 1.9). The ‘How?’ will be answered after the ‘Why?’ and the ‘What?’ questions have been answered. Therefore, it is important to consider the concept of three simple heading: The ‘Why?’, the ‘What?’, and the ‘How?’ before we define kinds of bilingualism measurements.

In the next section we will discuss about many kinds of the measurements of bilinguality. Hamers & Blanc (2000, p. 34) stated their notion about measurement of bilinguality. There are seven kinds of the measures of bilinguality:

1. comparative measures;
2. measures of bilingual competence;
3. measures of compound-coordinate bilinguality;
4. language biographies, self-evaluation and judgments of bilingual production;
5. measures of bilingual specifity;
6. measures of cognitive correlates of bilinguality and
7. measures of affective correlates of bilinguality.

Comparative measures

It is the most frequently used technique for measuring the various dimensions of bilinguality, that is, by comparing two language competences. ‘However, a direct comparison between measures in two languages is extremely difficult even when it is possible’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p. 34). It is difficult to compare various competences of two different languages in the same standardized measurement. It is possible, for example, to test the bilingual students by comparing their vocabularies competence. We will know whether the vocabularies competence of the students were balance or not from the comparison of words produced. ‘This comparative approach is the only valid one when bilinguality is measured on the ‘additive-subtractive dimension’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p. 35). It means that the cognitive advantages or disadvantages of additive and subtractive bilinguality are measured in respect of monolingual populations.

Measures of bilingual competence

There are some test researches on it such as:

- Test of competence in the mother tongue. Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.35) mentioned some examples such as the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 1959) measuring receptive vocabulary, Reynell’s syntactic complexity test (Reynell, 1969) and the numerous language test included in traditional test batteries. According to Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.35) said that these test only measure one aspect of language competence in the mother tongue and it is far from evident that the particular aspect measured is the most relevant dimension. Most of these tests were made only to measure the linguistic competence not for the communicative competence.

- Test of competence in a second language. ‘These tests are designed to measure the level of competence in second language reached by non-native speakers at that language’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.36). The test is usually designed for certain purpose such as in Indonesia, the students of senior high must fulfill the standardized grade of English in the final examination to enter the university. Therefore, the test would not be able to measure the whole competence of second language skills. And sometimes, it did not show the real competence of the students because of some factors such as reliability, validity, luckiness, etc.

- Behavioral measures. ‘The difficulty of measuring bilingual competence by means of traditional languages tests has led experimental psychologists to design measures which allow a direct comparison between the two languages’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.36). There are some kinds of behavioral measures:

1. Reaction or latency-time measures. It is used to measure the verbal fluency in both languages.

2. Completion and word-detection tests. The test is designed to measure the number of words produced in two different languages. For example Indonesian – English, the students were asked to produce as many as words by recognizing a picture in both languages.

3. Verbal association test. The test is to measure balance or dominance. As an example Indonesian – English, the students were asked to produce words as much as possible. ‘This technique is based on the assumption that the more a learner becomes competence in L2, the more likely he is to give a high number of associations to L2 words and the more closely these associations will resemble those of the native like speakers of L2’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.38).

4. Interlingual verbal flexibility. It is to measure the bilingual ability to manipulate the two languages simultaneously, for example the ability of switching translation in both languages.

5. Use of interlingual ambiguity.

Measures of Compound-Coordinate Bilinguality

This is semantic based measures which ‘…the distinction between the compound and coordinate bilingual in one of semantic representation; it implies that for the coordinate bilingual there is a greater semantic independence between the two linguistic codes, while for the compound there is greater semantic interdependence between two codes’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.39). Furthermore they give examples of some techniques which differentiate between compounds and coordinates, such as:

· Semantic satiation and semantic generalization Berserker Burr-t (Lambert, 1961, 1967; Lambert & Segalowitz, 1969);

· Semantic distance (Lambert, Havelka & Crosby, 1958);

· Core-concepts techniques (Lambert & Rawlings, 1969; Arkwright & Vian, 1974);

· Word-association technique (Lambert & Moore, 1966).

Language biographies, self-evaluation and judgments of bilingual production

Language biographies are usually occurred to the person who use or acquire two languages in his/her daily life formally and informally. For example a person who use two languages at home and at work or education. They use both languages in balance. ‘Language biographies provide information on the age and context of acquisition of both languages, their past and present use, their number, the variation spoken, the degree of literacy, etc.’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.40).

In order to measure the language competence, ‘we should therefore be used in combination with other means’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.40). In this case, the measures frequently used to evaluate bilingual competence are self-evaluation and evaluation scale. The evaluations were done by the native speakers which can be used as a reliable means of balanced bilinguality. According to Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.40) who said that it will be more difficult to use in order to evaluate the proficiency of dominant bilingual since it seems less reliable for judging proficiency in a language spoken in a non-native way.

Measures of bilingual specificity

This measure is dealing with ‘the bilingual’s behaviour is viewed as the sum of two monolingual behaviours’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.41). It is occurred, for example, when bilinguals communicate each other by using simultaneous use of the resources of each of their languages. While they were speaking in one language they could borrow word from other languages. There are some researches have been done on these specific codes, for example:

- Lavandera (1978) who has drawn attention to the inadequacy of monolingual measures to try to evaluate speech production in bilingual communication situation.

- Poplack’s (1980) who attempt to correlate the degree of balance of bilinguals with high level of competence in rule-governed code-switching.

- Grosjean (1985) who believed that a bilingual also develops patterns of behaviour that are unique to his state of bilinguality.

Measures of cognitive correlates of bilinguality

These measures are based on the existence of a correlation between the development of bilinguality and cognition. The result of these studies showed us that there are cognitive advantages and cognitive disadvantages. As Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.42) who stated that cognitive development is assumed to be affected by bilingual experience, an experimental design is used to which the result of verbal and non-verbal intelligence test, verbal creativity, verbal flexibility, divergent thinking, verbal transformations, symbol substitutions, etc are compared. They refer to the study of the classic study by Peal & Lambert (1962) as an example of an experimental design using large array of measures in order to asses cognitive differences between bilinguals and monolinguals.

Measures of affective correlates of bilinguality

These measures believe that there is always a cognitive and an affective aspect of development. According to Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.42) say ‘The affective component of bilingual development has to do with the relationships between the bilingual individual and his two languages. Since language is a social phenomenon, all affective reaction towards it is not limited to the language but applies also to the individuals and groups who speak that language’.

All of the measures discussed above were not applicable enough to measure bilinguality in some cases. There are some other measures which might be able to use in bilinguality. Hamers and Blanc (2000, p.43) mentioned those measures as follow:

Measurement of bilinguality in cultural minority

These measures are dealing with situation language in contact, for example in education of cultural-minority children. The test were developed and administered in the majority language, which is usually their weaker language. Therefore, ‘psychometric tests of academic language proficiency are not appropriate for the assessment of minority children because these children have not reached the level of development required for these tests to be valid’ Cummins (1984a) cited in Hamers & Blanc (2000, p.43). Another case is occurred in the cultural differences between the different groups. For example, ,when we want to measure the vocabulary competence of the minority child, which is presented pictures or objects in the majority cultures. ’Although attempts have been made to construct culture-free measures applicable to all children, it has proved impossible to eliminate the cultural bias from test without impairing their validity as measures’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.44).

Measurement of societal bilingualism

These measures are designed for the study of languages in contact at the societal level. ‘Researchers in this area normally make use of more general methodologies from social science, such as census technique, polls and surveys as well as applying the methods of sociolinguistics and of the ethnography of communication’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.45).

In addition, another notion about measurement of bilingualism was stated by Baker (2001). Baker gave some examples of the observations in order to make some essential points and tend to represent the styles most often used in researches as follow.

Language Background Scales

According to Baker (2001, p.20) who says ‘Language background or functional bilingualism scale are self-rating scales. They endeavor to measure actual use of two languages as opposed to proficiency’. In his observation, Baker (2001) found that the scale has limitations beside the problems of ambiguity and social desirability.

Language Censuses

These measures are usually done by the government ‘…as providing relatively accurate measures of the number of language speakers in local communities, regions and countries’ (Baker, 2001, p.24). There are some examples of censuses given here such as The United States Census of 1910, The United States Census of 2000, The 1992 Census of Venezuela, etc. In his analysis, Baker (2001, p.26) concluded that the census questions did not always give accurate and comprehensive information about use of languages, and also revealed implicit official attitudes towards the use and maintenance of minority languages.

Self-rating on proficiency

These measures give opportunity for the students ‘…to asses their language strengths and weaknesses’ (Baker, 2001, p.26) He gave example of survey by the Linguistic Minorities Project (1985:349) in London. They were asked to rate themselves on four language basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Language Balance and Dominance Measures

Baker (2001, p.30) says ‘Various tests have been devised to gauge the relative dominance or balance of a bilingual’s two languages’. It is commonly done in the US particularly for language minority children. Baker (2001, p.31) says ‘…a major problem in these measures is the presentativeness of measure of language proficiency and performance’.

Communicative Language Testing

These measures concern to the use of two languages in a range of real communicative situations. Such a test has been done by the US Foreign Service in oral interview. According to Baker (2001, p.33) who says ‘There are doubts about whether such interview procedures can validity imitate and investigate real communicative competence. At the same time, they are a compromise between artificial pencil and paper tests and the impracticality of the detailed observation pf individuals’.

Criterion Referenced Language Tests: A Curriculum Approach to Language Testing

‘Language proficiency tests use usually classified into Norm Referenced and Criterion Referenced Tests; the former usually being summative test, the latter mostly being formative test’ (Baker, 2001, p.33). These measures are usually done at school.

Having discussion above I agree that bilingualism is complex and it is global phenomenon, as Hamers and Blanc (2000, p.49) say ‘…which involves simultaneously a psychological state of the individual and a situation of languages in contact at the interpersonal and the collective level’. There are no absolute measures that we can use in measuring one’s bilinguality. Therefore, it is importance to use the variety of measures in order to capture a state of bilinguality. We can use any measures based on the purpose we intend to. As Hamers and Blanc (2000, p.49) say ‘Even if some of the measures are still crude, it is preferable to use them rather than to reject quantification altogether’.

Reference:

Baker, C. 2001, Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3^rd edn. Multilingual Matters Ltd, Clevedon, England.

Hamers, J.F. & Blanc, M.H.A. 2000, Bilinguality and Bilingualism, 2^nd edn. Cambridge University Press, New York, USA.

The University of Southern Queensland, 2004. Bilingualism and bilingual education, Selected Reading. USQ, Toowoomba, Australia.

The University of Southern Queensland, 2004. Bilingualism and bilingual education, Study Book. USQ, Toowoomba, Australia.

JOURNAL 1

Most of people are able to speak and understand more than one language. It usually exists on the country which has many tribes, because they usually have mother tongue and national language as communication. For example Indonesia, which has many tribes with the different local languages. However, Indonesian people use Bahasa Indonesia as National language.

As in my region, the place I live, the citizen consists of two major tribes; Javanese, and Bugisnese. I can say that they are bilingual because they speak two languages as communication. There are similarities between these two tribes in using their L1 and L2. When they are in the community of the same tribes, they will communicate with their L1(informal situation). But they will use Indonesian Language in the formal situation such as business, office, and education.

However, it is quite often occurred errors slip of borrowing words from L1 to L2, or L2 to L1. People usually could not say particular word in L2, and then they switch into L1 words. Another example, I have student who get difficulty in mentioning number in Indonesian Language even in the classroom. He will think in L1 for a while to say number in Indonesian Language as L2.

In addition, most of Indonesian children will acquire two languages in the same time, because of the need. Their parents and their environments use the mother tongue as communication at home but the teachers and students use Indonesian Language as communication at school. ‘…a person who acquired two languages in the home from infancy has received his education in both his languages and uses them regularly at home and at work has most probably developed a balanced and compound bilinguality’ (Hamers & Blanc, 2000, p.40). However, there are also few students who only acquire one single language (Bahasa Indonesia) as their L1. They usually come from a family with different tribe and culture. For example the mother is Javenese and the father is Bugisnese, they use Bahasa Indonesia as their daily communication at home so that the input for the children is only one language. Therefore, the children become monolingual.

ASSIGNMENT 2

Propose a plan for introducing a type of bilingual education program during primary or secondary education in a context that you are familiar with (e.g. if you are teaching in Japan, you may consider writing about introducing an English-Japanese bilingual program), if you are in Australia you may consider an Indigenous-English bilingual-bicultural program. Discuss why you would suggest introducing that type of program and why you think the chosen structure (early or late/partial or total immersion, etc.) was chosen.

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INTRODUCING AN ENGLISH – INDONESIAN BILINGUAL PROGRAM FOR VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

BACKGROUND

Indonesian high school is divided into two groups; those are general high school and vocational high school. The general high school prepares the students for continuing study to the university, while the vocational high school prepares the students for entering job field which need semi professional workers. The percentage is 70% for general high school and 30% for vocational high school of the total number of high school all over Indonesia in the past. However, it has been changed up side down nowadays become 70% for vocational school and 30% for general high school because of the demand of job field to employ the ready-use workers. The output of the vocational school, hopely, will be able to fulfill the employees demand or even open new job field based on the skill background they have.

There many kinds of vocational school which divided into groups of business management group, information and technology group, and tourism and arts group. In this case I will focus on the school I have been teaching at, that is business management group. There are three main departments at this school; accounting, secretary, sales department. There are some subjects which are the same as the compulsory subjects such as history, computer, English, Math, etc. On the other hand, there are some specific subjects based on its department. As I mentioned that the government policy on the high school has been changing nowadays, we will see slightly what happened to the Indonesian education right now.

In general, education is one of the biggest issues of Indonesian development program right now. The government has allocated wide range of money to develop education in particular vocational education. As a result, many new schools were built and many new teachers were employed. As one of the biggest population countries in the world, the biggest number of population is children within school ages between 6 to 17 years old. Therefore, the Indonesian government put education on the top of Indonesian development issues.

One of the most significant policies in education was taken by the central government. That is, teaching other languages (the most popular languages used in the international relationship) in formal education. English is the most popular languages being taught in Indonesian schools. Some other schools taught German, French, Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese as the optional languages. English has been taught from secondary level to the tertiary level. However, a long with the globalization era, the education department initiated to introduce English since elementary school (grade 3). Even though, it was not all of the schools could implement this policy, because not all of the schools have teacher with English background. At the same time, some of the kinder-garten or pre-schools introduced English as the additional subject in the curriculum. It is usually run by the private schools.

In addition, the Indonesian education department took program classifying school into national, international, and ISO 2000 standardized. For the international standard, the school must fulfill certain circumstances. Such as the school must teach some subjects in English. These programs were run in order to up grade the quality of the Indonesian education in general.

Moreover, Indonesian government has taken another significant policy in the last five years. That is called “Otonomi Daerah” or regional autonomy, where every region or district can undertake its own policies, in some certain areas, to develop its region. In this case the local government has authority to make some policies for regional development. For example in education, although the central government still take control in the whole education policies but in some particular cases, the local government could take its own decision and develop its own program. Such as, in developing curriculums, building new schools and employing new teachers. This is really a good chance for the local government, education department in particular to develop education program in order to have better output of school and better local human recourses. In this case, I will introduce an English - Indonesian bilingual education program, which is, called “immersion program”.

WHAT IS IMMERSION PROGRAM?

Immersion based on bilingualism means the students study regular subjects in second language. They can use the language orally and writtenly in daily life. According to Berthold (1995, p.1) cites Genesee (1987:1) who says;

‘Immersion is the form of bilingual education in which students who speak the language of the majority of the population receive part of their instruction through the medium of a second language and part through their first language.’

In addition, Berthold (2003, p. 1.2 ) conclude that, immersion is teaching of a range of subjects (such as Mathematics, Science, and History) through second language to the students who do not initially speak this second language. This is done for at least 50% of the school day, and where the ultimate goal is to produce bilingual students. It is very important to understand what immersion is, so that everyone who is involved in the program has the same understanding and direction to reach the goal.

LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION

There are some considerations we should concern before deciding what language we will use for the instruction of immersion program. In the case of bilingual education in Indonesia, I will recommend ‘English’ as language instruction for some reasons;

1. English is an international language which most of people use in the international communication.

2. Indonesia need much more people who can speak English for international purpose.

3. Indonesia is located in between the biggest continents, the biggest oceans and some big countries. As a result Indonesia will be the traffic center of international trade.

4. Most of knowledge or science and technology development is written in English.

5. The alphabet between Indonesian and English are similar so that the student will not have much problem in the beginning of the program.

6. For the region will get benefits because they will have human recourses with English qualified ability. It means that they will have access for the international relationship.

Based on those reasons above we can conclude that bilingual in Indonesia is additive bilingualism. Meaning that by learning the second language people will get many advantages, without any threatened for the first language existence. Berthold (2003, p. 2.2) says ‘This applies to a speaker whose first language (L1) is dominant and prestigious and is in no way threatened by the acquisition of a second language (L2). The second language is seen as a positive addition of another socially relevant language to a well establisher first language, which will continue to maintain its position of importance, if not dominant’. For example when Japanese who acquires English or Indonesian who acquire English. English will not damage Indonesian language. Moreover, it will enrich Indonesian language vocabularies. As a matter of fact that there are many Indonesian words which came from other languages, such as Arabic, English, and Sanskrit. In other words, learning English as a second language will have positive impacts for Indonesian. Not only linguistic impacts, but also social and culture impacts, and even economic impacts. Indonesian will get many advantages of running this program.

GOAL OF THE PROGRAM

Every program must have certain goal to reach, as well as in immersion program. The goal can be initiated from anybody or whoever. But the whole elements who will be involved in the program must understand and responsible to succeed the program. At least we can answer some questions deal with immersion, as Berthold (2003, p. 3.13) said that there are some questions that have to be concerned before running the program;

1. What effects will there be on the students’ first language?

2. How proficient will students be in the second language?

3. What happen to their acquisition of skills and content knowledge of subjects taught through the second language?

4. At what age should the child become “immersed”?

These all questions should be answered before the problem arise in the middle of the program. Because immersion is comprehension program, it involves many elements in the program. Every element can sit together and formulate the goals. The goals may be vary based on the need and significance of bilingualism in Indonesia. We can formulate the goals as below;

1. Give the students chance and maximize their academic ability to study subjects in second language (English).

2. Prepare the students for their future study that will deal with English.

3. Prepare the students to be able to communicate by using international language, especially when they want to have international relationship.

4. Prepare the next generations who have ability to adapt knowledge and technology written in English.

5. The other goal can be formulated based on the regional need.

TYPE OF PROGRAM

There are three types of immersion programs, which have been done by some countries in the world, such as Canada, Australia,USA, etc. Those are;

1. Early immersion, this type of immersion program starts from kindergarten or elementary school grade 1 to grade 11. The most popular example of this type of immersion program has been done by Canada, and sponsored by Swain & friends from the Ontario Institute for Study in Education (OISE). They have been doing research on early immersion for many years to see the effectiveness of the program.

2. Middle immersion, this program is also called delayed immersion. This program is started at year 8 or grade 3 of elementary school. Swain and friends also have done research.

3. Late immersion, this program is started from secondary school grade 1 to 3 (Indonesian Secondary Schools). Canada is the most popular country in immersion program. Late immersion, for example, researches have been done by Genesee in Montreal. He found that a very significant evident on his research. It shown the achievement of late immersion compare to early immersion was slightly different. The common percentage language used in these three types of immersion is 100% and 50% or in other word people called total immersion and partial immersion.

Each of immersion programs has its advantages and disadvantages. However, based on the regional potential and local government capability to support this program, I will recommend ‘partial late immersion’ as the choice because; it will deal with many factors, such as teachers availability, students and parents response, and financial support. Berthold (1995, p.257 ) identified the advantages of late immersion; ‘Students more cognitively developed, and hence learn more quickly. Students are volunteers, self-motivated rather than parentally motivated and easier to develop a continuity program’. The other advantages based on Indonesian bilingual education; English has been studied since grade 3 of elementary school, so the students will not have many difficulties in the beginning of the program.

In addition to this, ‘Why should we choose late immersion?’, if I, as a parent, have to choose, I will enrol my children in the late immersion program because of some reasons. Here there are some factors that we should consider. Those are consideration relating to cognitive factors, consideration relating to linguistic factor, and consideration relating to the time (length of the program), educators, and financial factors. Basically cognitive factor relates to how mental process such as thinking, logic, problem solving ability, knowledge, reasoning, conceptualization develop within an individual. For example, if we look at the cognitive development of students in the classroom, they become more confidence in delivering arguments, critics, logical thinking when they are in puberty. As well as in understanding the lesson, they can use their abstraction and understand the lesson easily.

According to Piaget cited in Brown ( 2000, p. 61) said that a critical stage for consideration of the effects of age on second language acquisition appears to occur at puberty. It is here that a person becomes capable of abstraction of formal thinking, which transcends concrete experience and direct perception and learners at puberty begin to analyse the second language more conscious. Therefore with those students ability late immersion is the right choice. They will get many advantages on the program and it will be easier to reach the goal of the program.

One of the main questions that might be asked by the parents is what about the effects of teaching children other languages to their first language if their first language skills have not developed well yet. This question is quite reasonable because as the parents, they want to keep and maintain their language and culture without any influences of other languages role.

The effects of second language to the first language development might be occurred if the first language proficiencies were not strong enough developed to the children. However, if we look at the results of the research in general is that immersion students are most likely to perform as well as not immersion students on the test of comprehension, including both reading and listening. For example, the comparisons have been made by Geneese for one-year late immersion program in Montreal (Geneese, Morin & Allister, 1979). It was found that the students in the immersion centers had achieved higher levels of proficiency than students in duel-track schools, Geneese’s evaluation also included tests of listening comprehension, speaking, reading and language arts.

Furthermore, the educators, financials and times are three important factors that should be considered about. They stick together become the main considerations in immersion program. In a very simple explanation, why these three aspects should be considered in the late immersion, we can look at the following questions;

1. Who will teach the students, and what kinds of teacher or staff qualification are needed to support this program?

2. Who will fund this program, and how much money will spend for it?

3. How long it will go on?

If we can answer and understand these questions clearly, then, we will consider that late immersion is the best choice. So, we can afford the goal with minimum local government financial support capability in particular and small number of teachers. Because, it does not need long time to run the program.

WHO WILL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROGRAM?

Here is one of the most important steps of immersion program. Because, if it is unclear who will responsible for the program, it is impossible the program will run well. Perhaps people will see that teacher is the most responsible element in the program. However, if we learn from the history of immersion program from some countries, we will see that teacher is not only the one who responsible for the successful of the program. Besides the teachers or educators, parents and government (education department) have the same role and responsibility to support the program.

Parents, for example, will participate on supporting the program by convincing the children to join and study hard in the program. In some cases, parents could be the initiator of the program and convinced the teachers or even the government to run the program. As Berthold (1995, p. 266 ) says, ‘[t]he role of parents is also critical. Without support of parents there will be no children within the program’. However, parents support is not enough yet. The qualified and the solid educators and administration staff must support it. As well as strong willingness and support from the government (education department) to succeed the program.

In addition of late immersion, there is possibility for the parents to support the financial need, although the local government had allocated certain amount of fund in education program. However, because this program is out of the regular programs, so it needs more financial support. At the same time, government has to fund many other schools spread out the country. As (Berthold, 1995, p. 258 ) says ‘ …the choice of program style will have to be made by the educational, school and general communities working together’. Therefore, those three elements must work together to support the program, otherwise, it will collapse in the middle of the way.

TEACHERS OR EDUCATORS AVAILABILITY

Teacher availability is an urgent issue in Indonesian education. The number of the schools or students is unbalance to the teachers availability. However, as the first program, it does not need too many teachers employed. The government could employ the teachers available at the moment to be the immersion teacher. So far, there are some teachers from my district who have been studying in Australia. They have been introduced to the immersion program at The University of Southern Queensland. At least they have knowledge and know how to run immersion program. The program will be partial late immersion, so that, few teachers are enough to run the immersion program for the beginning. What subject they will teach is based on their skills background as follows.

CONTENTS AREA

Basically there are similarities in the case of subject taught in Indonesian schools with modern country schools. There are Mathematics, Science, Geography, Physical Education, Arts & Music, and some other local contents. It is important to consider the most possible subjects to be taught in second language. The subjects could be understood comprehensively by the students. Berthold (1995, p. 262) says; ‘A role of thumb is that those themes or subjects which;

· Contain the least amount of language and

· Are easiest to demonstrate physically, graphically or symbolically are the areas one would find easiest to begin with’.

Based on the explanation above there are some subjects that we can teach in second language, particularly at vocational school, such as Mathematics, History, Music & Arts, Physical Education, English, and two local contents; Computer class and Home Industry class. Because my school based on the business management group, so I will suggest teaching Math, History, and Computer in English in the beginning of the program besides English subject itself. On the other words, we can choose the main subjects based on the departments of the school, for example accounting, secretary, and sales department. The question arises then, how can we get the teaching materials?

It always becomes a big question when the program will be started. We can learn from the experience of immersion from other countries ever, how they can get the teaching resources. Most of the teaching materials were created by the teachers in the beginning. They translated the subjects into the instructional language, and then they gave the copy to the students. Another way is by finding out the authentic material from the English speaking countries.

It is quite possible for Indonesian teachers to get the authentic material from Australian teachers, because they have had good relationship for long time ago. For example students and teachers exchange program. Some local governments have been engaging relationship with some states in Australia for long time. Such as, Central Java local government with Queensland Education Department and some other big cities in Australia. For teachers from Kalimantan, they have connection and good relationship with some LOTE teachers from Queensland (Toowoomba). In the future this relationship can be extended, such as transferring teaching resources among the LOTE teachers from both countries or students and teachers exchange program. And also we can learn from other local governments who have had relationship with Australian teachers. Or we can search on the internet because it is quite easy to get online materials nowadays.

STUDENTS SELECTION

For the first time, it will be a big issue because people did not know about immersion. The program must be introduced to the public first, parents and students in particular. Considering the large number of the students at school with limited teachers, it is impossible to have many classes of immersion program. One class is enough for the first time program. The program can be introduced to the parents and students, and they could join in the program with its all risk and responsibilities. Another way that can be done by the school is, for example, the school makes some criteria which student can be received in the program. There is a model class in Indonesian schools, which contain students with high motivation, and high ability. This class model can be included in the immersion program.

SUCCESSFULNES IMPLICATIONS

Once the program was run, many possibilities could be happened. Many unpredictable problems are possibly to happen. There is always failure possibility, but we can learn from the successful program of other countries in the world such as Canada, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, etc. The closest countries we can learn are Australia and Brunei Darussalam, Singapore. Australia is very popular in the world with Benowa late immersion and Brunei Darussalam with its bilingual education program (EFL).

It is very important for the teachers and education department to have such a study tour or study comparison to Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, etc. which have been succeeded on the immersion program. They can learn and observe the immersion program in those countries, so that they have good description about immersion program and know how to run immersion program. In the future, teachers training or sending them to study in English speaking countries are very important. Because of we will need much more teachers for the continuing the program in particular when we want to extend the program. The teacher must not always an English teacher, but also they can be other specialist teachers who have English background or bilingual teachers. The most important thing is they have high motivation, integrity, and loyalty to succeed the program.

Finally, when we want to initiate the bilingual education program, we have to consider many things such as, the goals, the advantages and disadvantages, the financial support, etc. As well as some elements that should work together, such as teachers, parents, and government. Otherwise, the program will be failed and stop on the way of the process. As Berthold (1995, p. 259) says;

‘No one element in the choice of immersion program stands alone. They are all inextricably linked and intertwined with one another. Whatever is decided, there must be long-term planning and resourcing designated to ensure success. Why start what will not be finished?’ .

Reference:

Baker, C., 2001. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 3^rd edition. Multilingual Matters LTD, Clevedon.

Berthold, M. J., 1993. The staircase model: Language awareness to content teaching. In Proceeding of the First Biennial Conference (pp. 38-46). Newcastle: Australian Association of Language Immersion Teachers.

Berthold, M.,1995. Initiating an immersion program. In Berthold, M. (Ed.). Rising to the Bilingual Challenge (pp. 252- 274). Canberra: NLLIA.

Berthold, M.,2003. Study Book. Immersion Language Teaching. The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba.

Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 4^th edition, Longman,San Francisco State University.

Jones, G. 1992. The expectations and limitations of bilingual education in Negara Brunei Darussalam. In Conference Proceedings of the Ninth National Languages Conference (pp. 162-1720. Darwin: Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations.

JOURNAL 2

Many researches on bilingualism have been done in the past forty years. Most of them showed that there are many advantages of bilingualism. Such as cognitive development, linguistics skills, etc. Along with the development of technology and the awareness of parents of; how the education quality is very important for their children. Nowadays, there is tendency of parents, in Indonesia, to enroll their children to join a foreign language course particularly English because of some reasons:

- They want their children to be able to pass on the English final test. Because Indonesian government made policy on the national passing grade for English subject. And the students must fulfill the national standardized grade. If not, they could not continue their study to the next level.

- They seen that by learning English the children will get benefit for their future study, particularly in the globalization era where English become one of the most used language in international communication.

- They studied from the experience of the other parents that the students who join an English course have better communication way, more initiative, and better self-confidence.

Considering those facts above, I think, it is time for the schools to initiate and purpose the bilingual education. Of course, the program must involve many elements such as parents, teachers, and government particularly the education department. They could sit together and discuss how to run the program. The program must be arranged in very good planning, because there are many things which should be considered in initiating bilingual education program. Such as the human resources (educators and stuffing), financial support, and other supporting items such as location, building, material, etc. This program is such a long time program which need good planning, solid and integrated team who have to work hardly, because the results only can be seen after long period of time. Therefore, each element must be consistence during the process, because there must be many problems will arise on the way of the program.

In addition, another bilingual education which is popular in Indonesia nowadays is studying mandarin. It is usually run by the private institutions. Many parents were interested in this program because its specification. This program mostly teach math rather than other subjects, and the most popular one is teaching ‘sim phoa’, it is the traditional method of basic math in mandarin language. Another consideration is Chinese is one of the biggest foreign tribes in Indonesia. So, there are psychological and cultural considerations on it. At the same time, there are many parents in USA, nowadays, who enroll their children into the pre-school mandarin course. They think that China will be one of the biggest countries in the world, so study their language is important.

These facts lead me to the conclusion that the phenomenon of bilingualism is getting progress now. People start to think about the advantages of bilingual education, even though, there is always risk of it. However, from most of the researches showed that bilingual education have much more advantages than disadvantages.