Into the Classroom | Bilingual Teaching in Year 1

Discovery

Pupils at this age are naturally curious about the world around them, and bilingual teaching can help them explore that world in both languages. For example, bilingual co-teachers might use both English and the pupils' native language to teach about animals, plants, or other natural phenomena. This helps pupils build their vocabulary in both languages while also learning about the world around them.

Literacy

By teaching reading and writing in both languages, children develop their literacy skills in both languages simultaneously. This is particularly helpful for pupils who, while learning the second language and struggling with reading and writing in that language are then able to generalise skills like comprehension and sentence structure, from their mother tongue to the target language. Bilingual co-teachers use a variety of techniques to teach literacy, including reading books in both languages, writing stories in both languages, using bilingual flashcards as writing aids and singing songs in both languages to help pupils learn new words and embed concepts.

Maths 

Maths is a subject that can be challenging to learn in a second language. However, bilingual teaching helps to make maths more accessible and engaging for pupils whose second language skills are still developing. Bilingual co-teachers might use both languages to teach basic maths concepts like counting, addition, and subtraction. They might also use bilingual materials like charts, graphs, and diagrams to help pupils visualise mathematical concepts.