Facing bilingual education: kindergarten teachers’ attitudes, strategies and challenges: Kindergarten teachers' attitudes, strategies and challenges

Mila Schwartz, Aura Mor-Sommerfeld, Mark Leikin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article examines how majority-language teachers coping with additive education view their roles in a bilingual framework, how they perceive issues of culture and language in young bilingual children, and how they understand the term ?bilingual education? in an L2 non-additive context. The study has been conducted in the context of pre-school bilingual education of second generation Russian-Hebrew speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Using an ethnographic approach comprising observation, interviews and life histories, a set of behaviours and beliefs has been revealed, enabling us to compare approaches in two bilingual ? Russian-Hebrew ? kindergartens. This is discussed at both the micro- (teachers? reports) and the macro- (Israeli language and educational policies) level.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)187-203
Number of pages17
JournalLanguage Awareness
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

Keywords

  • Bilingual education
  • Immigrant culture
  • Language awareness and strategies
  • Majority-language teachers
  • Minority-language maintenance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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