Should our children go to bilingual school?

2008-07-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Should our children go to bilingual school?

By : Ronaldi

Nowadays, many schools offer us education with some internationally standardized curriculum.The school is equipped with lots of comfort, facility, quality teachers, e- learning and native speakers, too. Some people feel proud if their children go to that kind of school while others have enough of the school commitment.The most underlying reason for having their children go to the bilingual school is that they want their children to have both good mastery of English and good fluency. Despite the fact that they do not get in touch with their children in English everyday, they insist on having them go to the bilingual school.They do not realize that actually the bilingual schools have become so commercialized.
It is not wrong of them to make their children study there provided they build an English environment too at home.In other words, it is okay for their children to learn there only if they let their children learn the target language peripherally.Likewise, they get lots of exposure in the target language. As I am a school and English course teacher, I once had a phone call from someone. Then she asked me to teach her son privately.After we made a deal about the time and course fee, finally we came to an agreement. I had to teach her son going to one of the International schools twice a week.
The material I had to teach is quite challenging. A junior high student must learn tons of idiomatic expressions from his teacher. I believe it is really beyond my private student's head.What's more, he is a lazy, spoiled, and retarded pupil sufffering from ADHD.The principal of the school even wanted me to hold a conference attended by the English teacher, the pupil's father, and the principal herself in order to talk about his learning problem. At the conference, the English teacher told me that the student had a serious problem with his English. He often forgot to do his homework, so the teacher assigned some extra lessons to draw abreast of his classmates.I just mumbled to myself,"that'll be the day! How could this spoiled teenager accomplished all they set out to do?" I just smiled to his English teacher and gave some comments. Well, actually I commented to show him that I am not dumb :-), I got the point of his talk, and I could speak English fluently, too.By the end of the meeting, then we commited ourselves to do our best to make him thrive.
The time for the student's recovery was so limited that I had to find a shortcut to see a damn way out.You know what the shortcut is? It is a drill. I believe the drill can accelerate his learning.To my surprise, it turned out that I was wrong.The student cried out loudly since I forced him to memorize lots of unfamiliar words.The spoiled boy got stressed out. Then, his mom wanted me to quit teaching him. It's not really a big deal for me.I even felt relieved not babysitting the spoiled boy again.The student eventually ended in failure and he was fed up with the school and his parent made him move from the school to another one.
If he were finally dropped out of the bilingual school after his first-year like that, why did the school NOT ask the students to take a placement test? A test to measure if the student is eligible. The aim of the placement test is to make sure that the students are free of the psychological disorders like autism, ADHD, hyperactivity, etc. In addition, the school must also consider the students' English proficiency before they study there.The selection of the students must be quite strict because the students' parents must pay all the school fee in advance. and the worst is they would lose all the money they invest in the school, if their children dropped out.In other words, the bilingual schools that recruit the students without a tight selection will appear to set out a trap for another "victim". Moreover,the bilingual schools must be responsible for the students' progress,they not only think about filthy lucre. BEWARE! Don't let yourself step into the bilingual schools' trap!

Bilingualschool

Should our children go to bilingual school?