1. Bilingual learners are blessed with a bilingual brain (McCaffery & Tuafuti, cited in Course handout EDPROFST 377, 2011) Bronwyn Wilkinson

2. And many other definitions... Who are they? ESOL funded students Migrant/refugee students NZ born students who speak in another language outside of school Students without ESOL funding Children who speak in English but want to be able to communicate with their family in L1 Students who can change the language they communicate in depending on the situation/setting Children with parents from 2 or more different cultures

3. Research shows......’when students’ bilingualism is recognised, valued, and used in the classroom, their language skills and general academic performance improve significantly. These improved language skills also include students’ increased mastery of academic English’. http://leap.tki.org.nz/Being-bilingual

4. also... ‘bilingual students can also become biliterate, or literate in two languages. The more your bilingual students can use both their languages in curriculum learning, the better. The two languages support each other and are interdependent, and bilingual speakers have some cognitive advantages over those who know only one language’. http://leap.tki.org.nz/Being-bilingual

5. What do we need to know?  when students learned their languages,  how proficient they are in the languages,  in what settings do they use the languages  and with whom do they use the languages?  did they learn the languages simultaneously(as they grew up),  or sequentially(learning L2 after they learnt L1)  and do use them equally or is one favoured? http://leap.tki.org.nz/What-is-bilingulaism

6. http://leap.tki.org.nz/Being-bilingual and... ‘children know how to use the two languages in different places, with different people, and for different purposes. They also know how to purposefully switch back and forth between the two languages in the course of a single activity or interaction’.

7. A bilingual person may be able to... speak, read, and write fluently in two languages(biliterate) speak, read, and write in one language, but only speak another speak, read, and write in one language, but understand to some extent what is said in another language(passive) http://leap.tki.org.nz/Being-bilingual

8. Bilingual knowledge and ability is stored in the brain. The two languages are kept separate only at the surface level, where they are used to speak, read, write, and so on. http://leap.tki.org.nz/

9. The two languages are like an iceberg, with a single big mass under the surface and two small peaks showing above it. http://leap.tki.org.nz/

10. How do bilingual students learn? Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1 to 4 states that (bilingual) students: ‘imitate identify and face challenges, and overcome problems understand and help set learning goals make connections practise develop the ability to apply their learning and transfer it to new contexts respond to and seek feedback reflect on and regulate their learning’. Ministry of Education, 2003, page 77

11. References http://leap.tki.org.nz/ McCaffery, J. (2011). Course handout. Esol in the classroom. EDPROFST 377. 17-19 October. Faculty of Education. University of Auckland. Ministry of Education. (2003). Effective literacy practice in years 1 to 4. Wellington: Learning Media.