Czech Republic

1. Bilingual Programmes
Master in Second Language Learning and Teaching
University of Cantabria, 2014/2015
Paola GarcíaMantecón

2. 1. INTRODUCTION
BILINGUALISM
CLIL19701980
1990
1995
Keepingthisinmind,wewillseewhatisgoingonintheCzechRepublic.

3. 2. CONTEXT
•“Modernnation” (FederativeRepublicof Czechoslovakiauntil1993)
•Memberof EuropeanUnionsince2004
•Central Europe
•Czechissupposedtobetheofficiallanguage
•Minority ethnic groups (Slovaks, Polish, Romans, Russians, Germans and Ukrainians)
(HousingCensus,2001)

4. CzechRepublic’seducationalsystemestructure

5. 3.LINGUISTIC POLICY
•Thereisnota lawthatwhichfocusesonlyonlanguageplanning.
•The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (1997)
•Act on the Rights of members of National Minorities(2001)
1.Therighttouseone’snameandsurnameinthelanguageofanationalminority.
2.Therighttomultilingualnamesanddenominations.
3.Therighttousethelanguageofanationalminorityinofficialdocumentationanddiscourseandhearingbeforeacourt.
4.Therighttousethelanguageofanationalminorityduringtheelections.
5.Therighttoeducationinthelanguageofanationalminority.
6.Therighttodevelopthecultureofmembersofnationalminorities(includingmaintenanceanddevelopmentofthelanguage)
7.Therighttospreadandreceiveinformationinthelanguageofanationalminority.
(Nekvapil, J. 2007)
Rightsrelatedwithlinguisticaspects:

6. 3.1 MINORITY LANGUAGES
•EducationAct,2004
thereisarequirednumberofstudentsbelongingtoaminoritygroupinaschooltousethelanguageoftheminorityasthelanguageofinstruction,eitherinasingleclassorinthewholeschool.
(E.g.:Basicschool:10pupilsinaclass/12ineachclasstobecomethelanguageofinstructionofthewholeschool)

7. GERMAN:
-Theyare disperse allovertheregions
-Germanistaughtas a subjectin manyschools
-Thereare privateGermanschools
POLISH:
-Theonlyminoritygroupwiththeirowneducationsystem
-PolishPedagogicalCentre
ROMA:
-MostRoma pupilsdo notspeakCzech
-Differentsocial standards
-Toattendtospecialschools
SLOVAKIAN: -Thelargestminoritygroup
-Itusedtobepartof thecurricula
OTHER LANGUAGE MINORITIES:
-Bulgarian
-Greek
-Hungarian
-RusianCzech is considered de language of instruction in mainstream education
3.1 MINORITY LANGUAGES

8. 3.2 FOREIGN LANGUAGES
•Tolearntwoforeignlanguagesiscompulsoryin Basic Education
•Englishisconsideredthemainone
•L2: 3rdgrade (age 8)
•L3: 8thgrade (age 13)
•At the end of Basic Education (age 15)
A2 in L2
A1 in L3

9. 4.BILINGUAL PROGRAMS
•Bilingualprogrammessince1990
•CLIL approach
•Implementedonlyin fewSecondaryschools(2 years of lower S.E. and 4 of upper S.E.)
•Age: 13 to 19
•Vehicular languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian and English0
2
46FRENCHGERMANSPANISH
ITALIAN
ENGLISH
(Maljer, A. Marsh. D. Wolff D., 2007)

10. •SUBJECTS: Maths, History, Physics, Biology
•ACCESS:
-Entranceexamin Czechand Maths.
-Target languageKnowledgein notusuallyevaluated.
-Intensivelanguagetraining in theL2 in thefirsttwoyears.
(Euridyce, 2006)
•METHOD:
-Active pupils
-Cooperation
-Motivation
-Goodenvioroment
•TEACHERS:
-Czechteachersqualifiedtoteachthecontentswhoare proficientin thetarget language(C1)
-Nativespeakers
•STUDENT CERTIFICATION:
-Leavingexamination(Maturita)
-A standardCzechcertificate
-A certificatein thetarget language

11. 5. EVALUATION
•ItisnoteasytofosterresearchprojectsaboutCLILprogrammesintheCzechRepublicduetothesmallnumberofclassesavailableforobservationandstudy(Wolff,2007).
•FacultyofEducationinPrague(CharlesUniversity):studiesaboutteachingMathsinEnglish
•“Follow-upoftheActionPlanonlanguagelearningandlinguisticdiversityNationalReportTemplate”(EuropeanCommission,2006)
•EnglishProficiencyIndex(EPI,2013)

12. 6. CONCLUSIONS
•Czechisnota majoritylanguage, so itisimportantforthemtoreacha highlevelin a foreignlanguage.
•Theyhavenotdevelopedyeta bilingualpolicyaccordingtotheirgeo-social needs.
•Englishteachingas L2 isrecently
•OlderCzechgenerationsfeelcertainaversiontospeakEnglish
The satisfactory development of bilingual programmes still needs time, and the positive results will be reflected in future generations.