Bilingualism Without "Bilingual Education"

The dissertation aims at providing a proposition for the learning of second language in primary, secondary and tertiary level. It suggests that the learning of a second language be completed within nine to ten years of normal school arrangement in which English is taught with communicative method. The learning will achieve the desired success with the advantage of the combination of students' younger age, early start and longer hours of exposure, which are the main causes of the success in the immersion schools in Canada and bilingual schools in China.Language is at the center of human life. We use it to express our loves or our hatred, to achieve our goals and further our careers, to gain artistic satisfaction or simple pleasure. Through language we plan our lives and remember our past; we exchange ideas and experiences; we form our social and individual identities.Some people are able to do some or all of this in more than one language. Knowing another language may mean getting a job; a chance to get education; the ability to take a fuller part in the life of one's own country or the opportunity to emigrate to another country; an expansion of one's literacy and cultural horizon; the expression of one's political opinions or religious beliefs. A second language affects people's careers and possible future, their lives and their very identities. In a word where probably more people speak two languages, the acquisition and use of second languages are vital to the everyday lives of millions. How to help people acquire second languages more than effectively is an important task for the twenty-first century.Today, school children in many countries begin learning a second language in elementary school. Bilingual education has existed in one form or another for 5000 years or more. Bilingualism and multi-lingualism are very characteristic of human societies and mono-lingualism a limitation induced bysome forms of social change, cultural and ethnocentric development.But the teaching of a second language both at home and abroad is not satisfying. The dissatisfaction with the results obtained by traditional method, often at great cost to schools and language systems, and the expenditure of tremendous effort by students and teachers, is a perennial stimulus for change in language education. Learners typically spent years learning English and yet many of them were still unable to use the language effectively. They often knew a good deal about the language but were unable to use this knowledge to communicate appropriately.Many people concluded that it was poor investment if all work seemed to offer so little practical result. Students had a basic foundation of language knowledge but they did not know how to put that knowledge to active use. To help them to communicate and use that language knowledge, it was gradually recognized and accepted that some new ways to language teaching and learning was needed. Language as communication involves the active use of grammar and vocabulary to listen and read effectively and to speak with and write to other people. Language needs to be learned functionally so that learners are able to see that different forms communicate different meanings.One problem confusing laymen and experts alike is the difficulty students meet with when they learn a foreign language. Is language difficult? Then why do infants acquire it so easily and conveniently? If it is easy, why do college students meet with difficulties while learning a foreign language? What is the interplay between language acquisition and age?Noticing the phenomenon, some people suggest the implantation of the Canadian immersion program to China. Actually, a lot of such "bilingual schools" claim the use of English as a medium of instruction of other courses. In Shanghai, there are 260 such experimental schools where some 55,000 students are enjoying the bilingual education. The number will reach 300 and500 by the year 2005 and 2010 respectively, It is reported that bilingual education is very successful in both English and other courses wi...