Abstract
Bilingualism as the medium of educational instruction in institutions has led to much controversy. The challenge, however, for policy makers is to address the issue of what languages are to be the medium of instruction and the place of the home and minority languages in EFL contexts as English becomes the lingua franca worldwide.  Further, research has shown that bilingual students when compared to monolingual students perform better in academic institutions as they have developed higher cognitive skills required for learning. Although bilingualism as the medium of instruction has been researched and has become more common in institutions worldwide, it is under researched in L1 Arabic contexts especially in the Lebanese multilingual/cultural context from the student and teachers’ point of view. This paper reports on an exploratory survey study of student and teachers’ preferences in one English medium institution in Lebanon as to what language(s) they prefer to study in at both the pre and university levels. Main findings indicate that both students and teachers show a high preference for bilingualism as the medium of instruction at both the pre and university levels with English the priority medium.  Implications and recommendations for future research are made.
Highlights
1.1 The ProblemOver the past several decades, it has been debated as to the extent bilingual education is effective in mainstream classrooms at both the secondary and tertiary educational institutions from different aspects such as language acquisition, teaching/learning, cultural awareness, identity and learner attitudes (Archila & Truscott de Mejía, 2017; Baker & Wright, 2017; Dewaele, Housen, & Wei, 2003; García, Lin, & May, 2017; Palfreymen & van der Valt, 2017)
The present study aims to explore the extent to which bilingualism as the medium of instruction is favored by both students and teachers, the stakeholders, at the pre and university levels in one English medium educational institution in Lebanon which would contribute to the body of knowledge in this field
Since the teachers’ sample was small and did not show normality, comparative non parametric Kruskall Wallis statistical testing was carried out for means of two independent samples and Spearman significance test at a two-tailed significance level of less than p = 0.05 between the two samples. This was done to find any significant differences in preferences for bilingualism as a medium of instruction according to three independent variables 1) student and teachers, 2) English (EMI) and French (FMI) educated students, and 3) bi/multilingual female and male students
Summary
Over the past several decades, it has been debated as to the extent bilingual education is effective in mainstream classrooms at both the secondary (used interchangeably with high school in this study) and tertiary (used interchangeably with university in this study) educational institutions from different aspects such as language acquisition, teaching/learning, cultural awareness, identity and learner attitudes (Archila & Truscott de Mejía, 2017; Baker & Wright, 2017; Dewaele, Housen, & Wei, 2003; García, Lin, & May, 2017; Palfreymen & van der Valt, 2017). Speaking more than one language, many argue, is necessary in today’s global world as this opens wider career and educational opportunities and facilitates cross cultural communication (e.g., Jin & Cortazzi, 1997; Jaumont, 2018; among others). It is claimed that it is necessary for educational institutions to meet the multi-literacy needs of students especially in light of the strong influence from monolingual medium proponents and their work on academic English which often does not take minority languages into account at university levels. 9) highlighted the challenge that educational institutions need to address. The language of instruction is the medium through which knowledge is transmitted during the educational process. The issue of what language the teachers use when giving lectures and what language is used to compile the text materials they adopt becomes a core issue in educational development for any multiethnic, multilingual country
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