Bilingvalno obrazovanje i vaspitanje na školskom i predškolskom nivou u Srbiji i u svetu

Abstract

This paper, first of all, gives an overview of theoretical-pedagogical and other assumptions on teaching in school and preschool bilingual education. It gives an overview of some of the currently applied didactic-methodological, curricular and other solutions of this kind in countries where the practice of bilingual education has recently come to life, includ- ing Serbia, where it is practiced today in numerous state or private kindergartens and schools, especially in larger towns, i.e. in environments where it is easier to find educators who speak foreign languages. Some important requirements for educators and teachers regarding their language competencies that qualify them for educational work in one of the foreign languages are considered, such as competence in both certain subject and the foreign language in which it will be taught, the skill in terms of cooperation between the subject teacher and foreign lan- guage teacher, etc. Also, empirical indicators on the efficiency of bilingual teaching in foreign and domestic practice are discussed, such as research projects on the effectiveness of bilingual teaching in the world that have been aimed at determining how much it has contributed to the level of development of student competencies, with most of such research being conducted in Canada, Finland and Germany. Some of the benefits of bilingual education include better results of bilingual students when compared to non-bilingual peers in all language skills (speaking, lis- tening, reading and writing in English, French and German), higher motivation levels, a richer lexical fund, more skills of knowledge transfer, language spontaneity, intercultural awareness, cognitive flexibility and creativity, etc. However, it has been concluded that, given that there are not many dilemmas of a scientific-theoretical nature regarding the earlier inclusion of preschool children and students in various forms of institutional bilingual education, it is unsustainable that bilingual education is still an educational novelty in Serbia, and that, judging by the insignificant number of preschool institutions and schools in Serbia committed to bilingual education, this problem is still not given enough attention. Therefore, it would be useful, at least at the optional level, to offer university students foreign language teaching programs that would functionally train them for this type of teaching.