Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grants

Project Title: Bilingual education: students’ perspectives and learning within an innovative program

Chief Investigator: Dr Paul Molyneux

Funded by: 2008 Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme

Project Summary: Only four of the 15 Victorian government schools offering bilingual learning opportunities cater principally for students from language backgrounds other than English.  Serious study of these innovative programs is lacking, particularly in relation to the attitudes and perspectives of students learning English as an additional language, whilst receiving instruction in their first language.  As such, this study aims to investigate the learning perspectives and learning outcomes of students from language backgrounds other than English within these four programs.  Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, clearer understanding of students’ perceptions of the benefits, challenges, advantages and shortcomings of bilingual education linked to their learning achievement offers new insights around student engagement, motivation and achievement for policy makers, teachers and teacher educators concerned with language and literacy education.