Ignored Bilingualism: The dark side of international education?
Bilingualism, and its close friend multilingualism are buzz words these days. Do a quick Google search and you will find a plethora of articles proclaiming the myriad benefits of speaking more than one language, some true and some exaggerated. A side effect of this increased attention is a growing interest in promoting bilingualism at younger and younger ages through schooling. Many different initiatives are popping up to cash in on the "earlier is better" publicity, from ear
The Role of L1 in EMI
Oxford University Press has just released and important new position paper on the role of the first language in English medium instruction. Authored by Hamish Chalmers (University of Oxford) and supported by a panel of academic and industry professionals, it lays out very clearly the strong research arguments in favour of including rather than excluding students' first languages in the classroom. I have been privileged to be asked to support the launch of this paper with a bl
