Bilingual Teaching
Bilingual teaching, as
reflected in the term, is a kind of learning in which two languages are used
in combination and used the mother tongue and other languages. Many countries were
applying the method to their children and this has happened in several decades
such as England and Canada. The general purpose of bilingual teaching is
primarily to provide supplies to the students’ language skills that include
listening skills, speaking, reading and writing in a language other than their
mother tongue. The capability using two languages not only in speaking and
writing, but also the ability to understand what other people are communicated
verbally and writing. Children are able to speak, read, and write in two
languages with the same capabilities. The implementation of bilingual
learning can make children have an understanding of oral communication and able
to speak in two languages.
However, there are
three kinds of bilingual teaching programs, those are transition, maintenance,
and enrichment. Each program has a different arrangement. First, the bilingual
transition programs carry out in which the students learn the content area
especially through the mother language. For example, the student learn about
English using the mother tongue (traditional or Indonesian language), by the
time they learn the vocabulary, sentence, and text in English. So, the students
have mastered English if they apply their position as communication media and
the whole content areas using English. The bilingual maintenance program is
different from the bilingual transition program. The student learns the content
areas using the mother language as long as their schooling. Improving their
capability, the student has to learn their academic subject in English. The aim
of the program is the student learns English as skill to master the academic
subject. For example, in math subject matter, their teacher use native language
first then begins teaching the same curriculum in English, using the native
language to fall back on. Last, bilingual enrichment gives preference to the
student to be able learns two languages in every academic subject. So, the academic
subject can be explained through their ability and compare between the mother
language and English.
In addition, bilingual
teaching has many principles. The most important is to develop the use of
bilingual communication skills so they can communicate in two languages learned
or the language used by people in their environment. The bilingual program helps
someone know other cultures. However, each language goes with the system
behavior and different cultures. By knowing the language, they know the culture
of the language, as well as cultivate an attitude of tolerance towards other
people who have different cultures. The least, being a bilingual person can
develop one's ability to think creatively and have two or more words for each
object and an idea also make a person more careful in communicating with people
of different languages. Moreover, the bilingual program can grow and boost confidence
in a person. Besides, a person with bilingual bolder to communicate and still
feel safe in an environment that uses the bilingual program who understand him
and will allow a person to learn a third language, when the person is already
bilingual.
However, the aims of
bilingual teaching are to improve subject matter mastery, to improve the
English language skills in scientific and non-scientific forums, to manage
accessing scientific knowledge of various international media, and to get to communicate
between students from within and outside the country. For example in Indonesia,
bilingual education is implemented through the development of international
schools. The learning process in a high school should to be able to produce
graduates who have the ability and compete in international level. The process
is expected to equip students with skills, such as organizing learning,
collaborating, communicating, researching, learning to think in another point
of view, and perform self-evaluation and group learning. In addition, the
learning process should be able to SMA BI to equip the learners with awareness
of the roles and responsibilities as members of society and responsiveness to
the personal, societal, and global level.
To sum up, bilingual
teaching uses the mother or tongue language and other languages to develop
their ability and to compare what were the students learned in different languages.
The children can take the benefit using bilingual program. Besides, the bilingual
program can be applied not only in immersion schools but also other schools
which have capability to execute the bilingual teaching. So, the students have
the same chance to learn the second language.