An Analysis and Comparison of the Vocabulary of Teaching Materials: Exploring Bilingual Programmes in Secondary Education

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse how Bilingual Education has been implemented in Spain, more specifically in the Region of Murcia. This paper investigates whether textbooks designed for bilingual programs focus more on the form or the content of the different subjects that make up the curriculum of bilingual programs. The main instruments to carry out this research were surveys given to teachers, classroom observation and the analysis of textbooks designed for both bilingual education programs and traditional ones. The research results suggest that bilingual programs are not working as initially expected and that the textbooks designed for BE are inferior in content and activities to those used in standard programmes.

The Challenges and Solutions in Bilingual Education

“…Furthermore, these challenges related to learning materials impose an additional burden on bilingual educators. They find themselves compelled to invest extra time and effort in crafting teaching materials due to the inadequacy of available resources [20,26]. This supplementary responsibility not only impacts educators' job satisfaction but also directly influences the quality of instruction provided to bilingual learners.…”

“…Based on the importance of bilingual teachers in bilingual education programs, the need for appropriate teacher training is particularly urgent [3,19]. As Sá nchez and Herná ndez [20] said, bilingual teachers can be given lessons in English if their English proficiency is B2 under the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR), they supposed that teachers need to have at least a C1 under CEFR. Breeze and Laborda [3] gave the same ideas in response to a previous study done by Sá nchez and ndez [20], Breeze and Laborda [3] claimed that teachers have to receive support so as to become more professional and fully competent in both languages, students' first language and their target language, on both a social and an academic level.…”

“…As Sá nchez and Herná ndez [20] said, bilingual teachers can be given lessons in English if their English proficiency is B2 under the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR), they supposed that teachers need to have at least a C1 under CEFR. Breeze and Laborda [3] gave the same ideas in response to a previous study done by Sá nchez and ndez [20], Breeze and Laborda [3] claimed that teachers have to receive support so as to become more professional and fully competent in both languages, students' first language and their target language, on both a social and an academic level. Bilingual teachers have to be equipped with abundant knowledge of the target language, because bilingual teachers need to adapt to teaching content courses, such as history, in a language that the students are not academically proficient and generally fluent [3].…”