There is increasing uptake of the term ‘bilingual school’ globally, particularly in private education. Bilingual schools can be beacons of excellence but sometimes the term ‘bilingual school’ is used for commercial or political purposes that transcend provision of quality education.
Increasingly the questions arise:
when is a bilingual school a bilingual school?
how can genuine bilingual schools be distinguished from those that are pseudo?
how do educators work towards establishing a genuine bilingual school?
Although legislation differs across countries, there are fundamentals which can determine the attributes of a quality bilingual school (or school that operates a quality bilingual stream).
In January 2024 a consultation process was started through MED, Finland to determine if consensus can be reached on guidelines that would determine identification of high-quality bilingual schools in different continents.
Initial discussion reveals the following:
Please Note: The term “content” here means the subjects, topics, knowledge, information, or skills students are expected to learn, which are not usually covered in traditional language learning
Bilingual Schools
- are characterized by having a specific integrated curriculum, in which certain subjects, or parts of subjects, or cross-curricular topics are taught in one of two languages with intended learning outcomes that are both language and content related.
- provide content teaching through application of bilingual pedagogical methodologies.
- provide a continuum of bilingual learning, the implementation of bilingual learning being continuous, and which can be loaded to different levels at different stages.
- provide content teaching and learning at a minimum of 20% during a school year in addition to time allocated for learning the additional language as a subject, and a maximum of 50%. Time allocated may be subject to asymmetric distribution depending on goals and student needs, so although percentages may differ year-on-year, the cumulative figure should be minimum 20%.
- include a minimum of 30% full school population in bilingual learning programs/classes.
International Schools
- that teach all subjects in one language, e.g. English, should not be considered as bilingual schools.
Schools that offer extended time for additional language learning
- should not be considered as bilingual schools unless the annual curriculum includes minimum 20% of content learning in the language using bilingual pedagogies.
Schools that offer extra-curricular time for additional language learning
- should not be considered as bilingual schools unless the annual curriculum includes minimum 20% of content learning in the language using bilingual pedagogies.
Schools that use online platforms and/or digital applications for language learning
- should not be considered as bilingual schools unless the annual curriculum includes minimum 20% of content learning in the language using bilingual pedagogies.
Schools that provide minimum 15% teaching and learning of content through an additional language as elective, or extra-curricular for a minority of students
- can be viewed as schools that have ‘bilingual streams or programmes’, but not as bilingual schools.
Private entities that offer out-of-school additional language learning educational services
- irrespective of teaching approaches used, should not be considered as bilingual schools.
Teacher Language Skills
Please Note: The scales used here are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
If a teacher is responsible for more than 20% for teaching content in a bilingual class programme/course, then the minimum additional language fluency levels are:
KG-Primary B2
Lower Secondary C1
Upper Secondary C1
Student Language Skills
Most students (in a class or program) who have minimum 20% of curricular time learning content through an additional language should achieve minimum language levels during the educational cycle at the end of:
Primary A2+
Lower Secondary B1+
High School B2+
Teacher Professional Standards
Standards describe the knowledge, skills and practices which are needed to achieve excellence in professional sectors such as education. They serve to improve practices; help guide practitioners in their professional growth, and schools develop as high-functioning professional communities. Bilingual schools need to adhere to a specific set of teaching standards as the educational environment differs considerably from monolingual schools. A bilingual education teacher needs both sufficient linguistic fluency and competence in using bilingual pedagogies. Fluency in the language is not sufficient for optimizing successful student learning. In addition, it is optimal if the teacher has some degree of fluency in the school’s dominant first language.
A summary example of bilingual educator competences, based on The European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education (Marsh, Mehisto, Wolff, Frigols Martín, 2010) can be downloaded here.
Photo – credit to Fabiola Olmos de la Cruz