London Met Repository

Enquiry into the effects of bilingual teaching

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Urkmez, Serpil (2011) Enquiry into the effects of bilingual teaching. Metronome, 1. pp. 19-29. ISSN 2046-1941

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Abstract

This paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of the bilingual teaching of Mathematics to a class with a large number of Turkish speaking students in a mainstream secondary school. The paper begins with an outline of the research methodology, evaluates the research materials and findings and goes on to reflect on the effectiveness of bilingual teaching based on personal, direct experience. Information was gathered by means of qualitative research methods using questionnaires and observations. Accumulated personal experience in education indicated that bilingual students benefit from hearing explanations in their first language or having the opportunity to use the language in the classroom. This inspired the exploration of whether having access to information bilingually affects students’ motivation and attainment, with particular reference to Turkish Speaking (TS) students, and whether there are benefits for the whole class (mixed class) or whether teaching part of the lesson bilingually has negative effects for the non Turkish speaking class members. The data obtained from initial finds appear to suggest that there are positive correlations between the contextualisation of mathematical concepts in a bilingual environment and students’ access to mathematical knowledge.

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