Transferring to English: Grades 3-4-5 at Lajamanu School

Extract

In this paper we wish to examine some of the issues raised by the situation in a Bilingual program when the children transfer from literacy in the vernacular to literacy in English, and to outline what we consider to be some of the reasons for the success of the Lajamanu program in this area.

Theoretically, the virtue of education for children in their first language first is that they develop a surer grasp of new concepts and skills taught and greater confidence in using them. It follows that, if children can read and write confidently in their first language and they have a sufficient knowledge of a second language, they will learn to read and write in the second language quickly and without undue effort on their part.