Bilingual Education
The 2021/2022 school year marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Bilingual Program. At that occasion, we have produced an anniversary short film featuring students, parents and teachers, who share their experiences of learning in the Bilingual Program as part of this bilingual “family”.
End of year videos
Each spring, every child in the Bilingual Program completes an interview with their Main Class Teacher. The videos below contain short excerpts from the videos of two students over the years, and show each child’s growth and the changes in their use of English over the years. Both students started in our kindergarten program at the age of three; neither family lived abroad, nor was either family bilingual. So while both children were very good students, they are also in many ways average representatives of our program.
Co-teaching
The following videos are good examples of our method of co-teaching: the Bilingual Family Model. The essentials are (1) one person, one language; (2) alternation of languages through the lesson; and (3) shared content, but no translation.
We call our method of co-teaching the Bilingual Family Model. We switch languages multiple times within a given lesson, and the children use the language targeted for the given exercise – yet both teachers are actively involved in the lesson, whether in a leading or a supporting role. We emphasize activities that are interactive, enjoyable and communicative. We also integrate content and language in order to provide an environment rich in English language, culture and subject content – so that for our students, English is not primarily a subject but a natural communication tool.
In the Grade 2 Mathematics clip, we see a targeted review lesson with activities designed to practice both math content and language. We also see two different types of teacher demonstrations, alternation of language and a fine example of the students sticking to English due to the provision of clear language targets.
In the Grade a Science clip, we again emphasize our core principles of active, student-centered, communicative teaching. Language targets and language support are again utilized, with digital tools and platforms also making an appearance.
The Grade 4 Mathematics clip illustrates well the Bilingual Family Model. Here we see new material with very tightly integrated co-teaching and no repetition. Students work in groups and are engaged intellectually and kinesthetically.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
We chose this EFL video because it’s a good demonstration of student-centered teaching in monolingual classrooms where the teacher aims to facilitate and guide while maximizing the students’ opportunities to talk, think, and actively, joyfully discover and learn.
Afternoon Tutorials
Tutorials are an ideal setting for consolidating and further developing students’ skills and knowledge. In the first example a typical lower school grouping of four students collaborates to practice math with their teacher, focusing on key mathematical concepts and expressions, and even pronunciation.
In the second segment, from the same tutorial, the students focus on speaking skills while reviewing vocabulary.One thing to notice is how the children pass key information between themselves in English, rather than reverting to their native language.
Early in First Grade
This video features a group of first graders in their third month in our program. As you can see, they are already able to process lesson content – and actively communicate – in both English and Hungarian throughout the lesson.