Two-Way Immersion in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: Multilingual Education in the Public Primary School Filière Bilingue (FiBi)

Melanie Buser

Two-Way Immersion in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: Multilingual Education in the Public Primary School Filière Bilingue (FiBi)

A Longitudinal Study of Oral Proficiency Development of K-4 Learners in Their Languages of Schooling (French and (Swiss) German)

by Melanie Buser (Author)
©2020, Monographs, 302 Pages
Education

Series: Exploration, Volume 191

The two-way immersion program Filière Bilingue (FiBi) is a choice-based educational alternative in a public school in Biel/Bienne. It integrates French-speaking, German-speaking and allophone students and strives to promote bilingualism and biliteracy in addition to grade-level academic achievement. This book presents a longitudinal study of oral proficiency development of K-4 learners in French and German (languages of schooling). Data were collected over four years and analyzed by using a mixed-method approach. Whereas the quantitative analysis shows the emergent multilinguals’ ability to use the two languages communicatively, the qualitative analysis provides some illustrative translanguaging examples of learners in their beginning stages of moving along a bilingual continuum.

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Foreword by Prof. Dr. em. Jean-Paul Narcy-Combes (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3)
Acknowledgments
Contents
Abstract
Introduction
- Purpose of the Study
- Research Context
- Initial Questions
- Significance of the Study
Part One Theoretical Background
- 1 Perspectives on Language, Language Ability and Various Models of Bilingualism
  - 1.1 Foundational Issues
  - 1.1.1 Social Constructivism
  - 1.1.2 General Interactive Processing Theories
  - 1.1.3 Connectionism and Emergentism
  - 1.1.4 Structural vs. Mentalist Conception of Language
  - 1.1.5 From a Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) to a Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (DMM)
  - 1.2 A Dynamic Interactive Processing Conceptualization of Language
  - 1.3 Defining Language Ability or Proficiency
  - 1.3.1 Relative Levels of Language Ability, or Proficiency, in the Two Languages of Schooling
  - 1.3.2 Ways to Quantify Oral Proficiency in Emergent Multilingual FiBi Speakers
  - 1.3.2.1 Comparison of Oral Proficiency in the Registration Language of FiBi Cohorts 2010, 2011 and 2012 (Between-Speaker Comparisons)
  - 1.3.2.2 FiBi Speakers’ Oral Proficiency in Their Registration Language as Compared to Their Partner Language (Within-Speaker Comparisons)
  - 1.3.2.3 Oral Proficiency of French/German Bilinguals of FiBi Compared to Other FiBi Students (Between-Speaker Comparisons)
  - 1.4 Different Models of Bilingualism
  - 1.4.1 Bilingualism as Dual
  - 1.4.2 Bilingualism as Dynamic
  - 1.4.3 Beyond Bilingualism: A More Holistic Approach with a Focus on Multilingualism
- 2 Multilingual Development and Two-Way Immersion Education
  - 2.1 Towards a Definition of Multilingualism
  - 2.2 The Individual vs. Societal Dimension of Multilingualism
  - 2.3 The Proficiency vs. Use Dimension of Multilingualism
  - 2.4 Adopting a More Holistic View on Multilingual Development
  - 2.4.1 Engaging in Multilingual Discourse Practices: From Languaging to Translanguaging
  - 2.4.2 Critics of the Translanguaging Concept: Strong and Weak Version of Translanguaging
  - 2.4.3 Translanguaging (Strong Version) for Communicative Purposes: Four Categories
  - 2.4.3.1 Translanguaging to Mediate Understandings
  - 2.4.3.2 Translanguaging to Co-Construct and Construct Meaning
  - 2.4.3.3 Translanguaging to Include
  - 2.4.3.4 Translanguaging to Exclude
  - 2.5 Defining Two-Way Immersion Education Programs
  - 2.5.1 Defining Two-Way Immersion Education
  - 2.5.2 A Review of Research on Two-Way Immersion Students’ Oral Proficiency
Part Two Empirical Study
- 3 Research Design
  - 3.1 Context of the Study
  - 3.1.1 The Role of the Sociolinguistic Context
  - 3.1.1.1 The Swiss Linguistic Landscape
  - 3.1.1.2 From Diglossia to Transglossia
  - 3.1.1.3 Languages in the City of Biel/Bienne
  - 3.1.1.4 Status of Languages of Schooling within the Filière Bilingue
  - 3.1.2 Filière Bilingue (FiBi) in Biel/Bienne: A Pilot Project in a Swiss Public School
  - 3.1.3 Composition of the Classes: Detailed Categories of Learners within the Filière Bilingue
  - 3.2 Participants in the Study
  - 3.2.1 Preliminary Remarks
  - 3.2.2 Categories of Emergent Multilingual FiBi Students
  - 3.3 Detailed Research Questions and Respective Hypotheses
  - 3.3.1 Comparison of Oral Proficiency in the Registration Language of FiBi Cohorts 2010, 2011 and 2012
  - 3.3.2 FiBi Speakers’ Oral Proficiency in Their Registration Language as Compared to Their Partner Language
  - 3.3.3 Oral Proficiency of French/German Bilinguals of FiBi Compared to Other FiBi Students
  - 3.4 Methodological Background
  - 3.4.1 Data Collection
  - 3.4.1.1 A Longitudinal Perspective
  - 3.4.1.2 Sample Size for Interviews 1 to 5
  - 3.4.1.3 Effective Dates and Number of Interviews
  - 3.4.2 Methodology
  - 3.4.2.1 Guidelines for Interviews 1 to 5
  - 3.4.2.2 Construct Analysis
  - 3.4.2.3 Quality Criteria
  - 3.4.2.4 Limitations of the Method and Sources of Bias
  - 3.4.2.4.a Identify and Reduce Sources of Content Bias
  - 3.4.2.4.b Identify and Reduce Sources of Linguistic Bias
  - 3.4.2.4.c Individualized Timing of Ten Interviews
  - 3.4.2.4.d Language-Based Processing Measures
  - 3.4.2.4.e Resource-Orientation in the Development of Interview Guidelines
  - 3.4.2.5 A Mixed-Method Approach
  - 3.4.2.5.a Methodological Framework for Quantitative Analysis
  - 3.4.2.5.b Methodological Framework for Qualitative Analysis
- 4 Quantitative Analysis
  - 4.1 Introduction
  - 4.2 Results of the Quantitative Study
  - 4.2.1 Comparison of Oral Proficiency in the Registration Language of FiBi Cohorts 2010, 2011 and 2012
  - 4.2.2 FiBi Speakers’ Oral Proficiency in Their Registration Language as Compared to Their Partner Language
  - 4.2.3 Oral Proficiency of French/German Bilinguals of FiBi Compared to Other FiBi Students
  - 4.3 Discussion of the Quantitative Analysis
- 5 Qualitative Analysis
  - 5.1 Introduction
  - 5.2 Selected Excerpts of Interviews 4 and 5 for Qualitative Analysis
  - 5.2.1 Total of Transcribed Interviews 4 and 5
  - 5.2.2 Transcripts of Oral Productions of FiBi Students with French (FRL and AFRL) and German (GRL and AGRL) as a Registration Language
  - 5.3 Results of the Qualitative Study
  - 5.3.1 Translanguaging to Mediate Understandings
  - 5.3.1.1 Translanguaging to Mediate Understandings in Creative Ways
  - 5.3.1.2 How Do You Say…?
  - 5.3.1.3 To Be Understood in spite of Inaccuracies
  - 5.3.1.4 Tacit Agreement between Interviewer and Interviewee
  - 5.3.2 Translanguaging to Co-Construct and Construct Meaning
  - 5.3.2.1 Illustrative Examples of Polysemy to Co-Construct Meaning
  - 5.3.2.2 Co-Construct Meaning by Acquiring Lexical Items
  - 5.3.3 Translanguaging to Include
  - 5.3.4 Translanguaging to Exclude
  - 5.4 Discussion of the Qualitative Analysis
Part Three Discussion and Future Perspectives
- 6 Major Findings and Discussion
  - 6.1 Major Findings and Results
  - 6.2 Limitations of the Study
  - 6.3 Further Research
- 7 Pedagogical Implications and Perspectives
  - 7.1 Research-Based and Practitioner-Informed Implications
  - 7.2 Which Profile for a Professional Two-Way Immersion Teacher?
  - 7.3 Towards a Professionalization of Two-Way Immersion Teacher Education
Conclusion
Appendices
References
List of Figures, Tables and Images
Glossary
Index
Autobiographical Note: Melanie Buser, PhD

Pages:

302

Year:

2020

ISBN (PAPERBACK):

9783034339292 (Active)

ISBN (EPUB):

9783034339957 (Active)

ISBN (PDF):

9783034339940 (Active)

DOI:

10.3726/b16589

Language:

English

Published:

Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2020. 302 pp., 16 fig. col., 28 tables.

Melanie Buser is the developer and coordinator of the two-way immersion curriculum « Cursus bilingue/ Bilingualer Studiengang » of the two Universities of Teacher Education HEP-BEJUNE & PHBern located in the French-speaking and German-speaking parts of Switzerland, respectively. She has a solid eight-year experience as a Secondary 1 teacher. She then continued her studies at University of Zurich where she earned her Master of Arts degree in French and English Literature and Linguistics and Philosophy in 2007. In 2015, she obtained her PhD from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris 3) and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Université de Montréal (UdeM) and HEP-BEJUNE in the field of professionalization of teacher education.

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Two-Way Immersion in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland: Multilingual Education in the Public Primary School Filière Bilingue (FiBi)

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