Abstract
The study focuses on a paired bilingual model used in a Serbian-English kindergarten in Serbia, where Serbian is the official language and, for the most part, the language of the immediate environment, while English has the status of a foreign language, albeit a socially prestigious one. The bilingual pedagogy of the model is based on complete language separation, i.e. ‘one person – one language’ approach, with L2/L1 ratio ranging from 1:8 to 1:10, depending on daily organization. The aim of the research was to investigate the teachers’ concerns in connection with the applied model, as well as the challenges they come across in their daily work. Also, their language teaching strategies and their correlation across languages were examined, alongside the role of the teachers and parents in encouraging child motivation and attitude toward second language acquisition. Finally, the attitudes of children themselves towards ‘one person – one language approach’ were recorded. With this aim in mind, a linguistic ethnographic approach was adopted, and the data were obtained through class observations and child observation sheets, semi-structured interviews with L1 and L2 teachers, a questionnaire for parents and a structured interview with children. The interview with children was conducted using the Berkeley Puppet Interview method in order to reduce acquiescence bias by employing the use of two puppets which take over the role of the interviewer and produce two opposite statements for each interview item, prompting the child to agree to one. Observation focused on children’s spoken interaction with the teacher, with the aim of revealing the ratio of FL/L1 use, alongside focusing on the teachers’ language teaching and motivational strategies, in order to uncover the most frequently used ones. The results show that the target bilingual model had mostly positive effects on children’s passive knowledge and attitude towards the English language, but also that more stakeholders favoured a balanced approach to the language learning process, regarding the applied ‘one person – one language’ model inappropriate. Both the children and the parents expressed a wish for introducing L1 into their L2 teacher’s repertoire, alongside the teacher herself. The practical value of such changes in the applied approach would be providing young learners with a positive model of a bilingual person. The children would benefit from exposure to comfortable and successful communication with one person in two languages, leading to fewer blockages and restrictions concerning their own use of both languages, as they would become more acceptant towards bilingualism in themselves.
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Notes
- 1.
As these scales were developed for the Croatian people in 1998, only 7 years after Serbia and Croatia stopped belonging to the same country, the scales were taken verbatim, because not enough time had passed for the Croatian and Serbian people to develop a different mentality during that time period.
- 2.
Where the percentage score does not add up to 100, it is due to missing or indiscernible answers.
- 3.
A greater level of positivity towards the language itself than towards either of the most dominant native speaker groups can be explained by the concept of English as an international or global language (Crystal 2003), while the attitude towards the Americans could be related to the controversial role of the USA in Serbian more recent history.
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Appendix
Appendix
1.1 Children’s Interview Statements
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1.
I like speaking L2 in the kindergarten./I don’t like speaking L2 in the kindergarten.
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2.
I am ashamed of speaking L2 in the kindergarten./I am not ashamed of speaking L2 in the kindergarten.
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3.
I am afraid I will make a mistake while speaking L2 in the kindergarten. / I am not afraid.
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4.
I speak L2 with my L2 teacher./I speak L1 with my L2 teacher.
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5.
When my L2 teacher asks me something in L2, I answer in L1./I answer in L2.
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6.
Sometimes, I speak L2 with my peers in the kindergarten even when our L2 teacher is not present./I never speak L2 with my peers in the kindergarten when our L2 teacher is not present.
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7.
I speak L1 with my L2 teacher, because I can’t speak L2./I can speak L2, but I don’t want to speak it in front of my peers.
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8.
I speak L1 with my L2 teacher, because all my peers do so./I speak L1 with my L2 teacher because I myself want to do so.
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9.
I would like our L2 teacher to sing L2 songs in L1, too./I like the fact that our L2 teacher sings only in L2.
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10.
I would like our L2 teacher to retell L2 stories in L1./It is better for me to hear stories in L2 only.
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11.
I would like our L2 teacher to translate what s/he says./I don’t like it when translating into L1 is done in class.
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12.
I like it when our L1 teacher translates our L2 teacher’s words./I don’t like that.
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13.
I like it when one of my peers translates our L2 teacher’s words./I don’t like that.
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14.
I understand everything that my L2 teacher is saying./I don’t understand everything.
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15.
I prefer when my L2 teacher uses gestures or pictures when s/he explains something in L2./I prefer to have it translated into L1.
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16.
When I don’t understand what my L2 teacher is saying, I ask for repetition in L2./And I ask for translation.
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17.
When I don’t understand what my L2 teacher is saying, I stay silent./I look around at what my peers are doing and I do the same.
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18.
If our L2 teacher used both L1 and L2, it would help me understand better./For me, it would be confusing. (Alternative: When my L2 teacher uses both L1 and L2, it helps me understand better./For me, it is confusing.)
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19.
I prefer it when our L2 teacher speaks both L1 and L2./I prefer our L2 teacher to speak L2 only.
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20.
Sometimes, I speak L2 with my L2 teacher./I speak L1 only.
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21.
If our L2 teacher used L1 sometimes, I would use L2 more./If s/he did that, I would only use L1 then.
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22.
If our L2 teacher used L1 sometimes, I would ask questions more often when I don’t understand something./I ask her/him anyway if I don’t understand something.
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23.
I would like our L2 teacher to use both L2 and L1./I prefer her to use L2 only.
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24.
I would like all the children to speak L2 only with our L2 teacher, just as s/he does with us./I would not like us to be required to speak L2 only with our L2 teacher.
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25.
I like it when our L1 teacher says something in L2./I don’t like it.
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26.
If our L1 teacher spoke L2 only, I would always speak L2 with her/him./I would always speak L1 with her/him, too.
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27.
I think that our L2 teacher can speak our L1./I think that our L2 teacher cannot speak our L1. (Not applicable if both teachers are declared bilinguals.)
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28.
I would like our L2 teacher to discipline us in L1./For me, it is better in L2.
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29.
It would be easier for me to do a task if our L2 teacher gave us additional explanations in L1./An explanation in L2 is enough for me.
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30.
I wish we watched cartoons in L2 in the kindergarten./I do not.
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31.
I would like us to read books in L2 in the kindergarten./I prefer reading books in L1.
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32.
Sometimes, at home, I play with my toys speaking L2./I speak only L1 when I play at home.
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33.
I sometimes speak L2 at home./I don’t speak L2 at home.
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Prošić-Santovac, D., Radović, D. (2018). Separating the Languages in a Bilingual Preschool: To Do or Not to Do?. In: Schwartz, M. (eds) Preschool Bilingual Education. Multilingual Education, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77228-8_2
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