THE DEVELOPMENT OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN CANADA

Abstract

The article deals with the study of the development of bilingual education in Canada. The research paper offers the results drawn from a broader qualitative study. We understand bilingualism as a linguistic ability of a person, as social circumstances, as social phenomenon or individual characteristics. Bilingual education in Canada is a phenomenon which is based on the integration of theories and concepts of pedagogy, psychology, sociology, history, linguistics and psycholinguistics. The analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature reveals that scientists all over the world research various aspects of bilingualism and development of bilingual education in different countries. According to the aim of the study, theoretical and applied (descriptive, statistical, comparative, inductive, deductive, analytical, logical, historical, chronological and retrospective analysis, prognostic) methods used in our research are presented. We determine and characterise political, historic, economic, social, cultural, religious, lingual factors which caused popularisation and spread of bilingual education in the country under research. We define the lower and upper boundary of our research as well as develop the periodisation of bilingual education development. We characterise the advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education, its main forms, bilingual and traditional programmes, types of immersion programmes, realisation of bilingual education at pre-school, school and university levels.