This paper analyzes the article 'Early Childhood Bilingual Classrooms' by Jocelyn Smrekar (2005) from "Making a Difference in the Lives of Bilingual/Bi-cultural Children".
Abstract This paper explains that Jocelyn Smrekar in her article 'Early Childhood Bilingual Classrooms' by (2005) suggests that the bilingual education of young children should not be merely about language acquisition but also about a kind of cultural meeting of the minds of teachers and students of a variety of different backgrounds. The author points out that Smrekar's views in this sense coalesces with the esteemed cognitive academic language learning approach (CALLA), which states that valuing the student's own prior knowledge and cultural experiences and relating this knowledge to academic learning in a new language and culture is a key aspect of creating a learning-friendly environment for foreign language acquisition. The paper criticizes Smrekar because, unlike CALLA, she does not give much advice for teachers in terms of creating hands-on approaches that might be effective in the everyday life of the classroom.
Table of Contents:
Article Summary
In Favor of the Article's Point of View
Against the Article
Summary
From the Paper "Smrekar provides helpful reminders that young children do not learn language as if by magic, rather individual students may vary in the levels of exposure they have to the language at home and in their social environments. She also encourages teachers not to judge student's overall intelligence harshly, merely because they make common initial linguistic mistakes in using English such as code mixing, or referring with a specific word to all general examples of a type, or conversely use under-extensions of specific vocabulary words, or not using a general vocabulary word in a host of specific contexts."
