Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

ABC’s AND BEYOND:

BILINGUALISM AS AN EDUCATION AND LITERACY FORMULA
Eduarda Amaral

Elisa Marchioro Stumpf

Inglês V
Departamento de Línguas Modernas - Instituto de Letras
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
2021
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 2

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Background and context 3
Problem statement 3
Research questions 4
Relevance and importance of the research 4
Literature review 5
Key concepts, theories and studies 5
Key debates and controversies 6
Gaps in existing knowledge 7
Research design and methods 8
Aims and objectives 8
Methods and sources 8
Practical Considerations 9
Implications and contributions to knowledge 9
Practical implications 9
Theoretical implications 9
Bibliography 10
Reference list 11
Research schedule 12
Research phase 12
Objectives 12
Deadline 12

Introduction
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Background and Context

Bilingualism is an over-studied topic, with studies about the categories and sub-
divisions of learning methods and definitions dating back to the ’30s (BLOOMFIELD, 1933;
MAKCEY, 1970); yet, bilingualism in the literacy process is still a very unexplored area,
with very little discussion about the voluntary teaching of a second language, especially for
children. Many authors agree (ASHER e GARCIA, 1969) that the best age to learn a new
language is at the first five to six years of life when the brain is still growing and the synapses
happen much more frequently; besides, we also have more plasticity in the brain at this age,
which also helps to learn a new language (NEWPORT, 1989).

But, as we can imagine, it’s not easy to teach English to a one-year-old baby. How do
you make them understand a language with which they do not have much contact, especially
when they have as their native language something completely different, like Portuguese,
Chinese, or even Swahili? These languages are as far as possible from each other in a
philology perspective, but with a lot of effort and understanding of kids’ motor and brain
development, you can have them speak English at a very young age, using a simultaneous
bilingualism method of teaching, which means they are thaught to understand the world in
two languages at the same time, while using the same mechanisms we use when interacting
with a baby in their native language: speaking, pointing, singing, etc. Although there is not an
official name for this method, we can use the one created especially for this proposal so we
can refer to it when necessary.

Problem Statement
One of the main questions we are trying to answer here is how we teach English at
such a young age when you don’t live in an anglophone country, and/or don’t have daily
contact with the language. Unlike immigrant children who have to learn a second language in
order to survive at school and other environments (Parmon, 2010), the ones we are focusing
on in this research are those who have an established and healthy life, go to school with other
kids who speak their native language, and in some specific days of the week have English
classes as a complement to their education. According to Pires (2001) these kids, especially
babies younger than 2 years old, need to have a different kind of attention in their education,
working with the five senses and stimulating these together with the second language.

Most of the specialized private English schools, especially in Brazil, only accept
students older than four or five years old, which leads to a huge loss of opportunities to learn
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a new language. What does it happen when you work with a kid from a young age? What
happens when you start to introduce a new language at such a young age? Is it possible to
learn a new vocabulary while being so young? And most important: Does this method of
simultaneous understanding of native and second language work?

Research Questions
The main question of this research is if this method works, and especially if it works
when you are not in an anglophone country, having daily contact with the second
language. In this research, we will also evaluate in which age gaps it works better, and
why, by comparing its efficiency with a three-year-old and a six-month-old, using the data of
both age classes. At least, we will understand how we work with the five senses to
stimulate the child to learn the new language, and discover how many schools around the
country of Brazil are using this method, and if it is working with them.

Relevance and Importance of the Research

This research is important to demonstrate the difference that this method of teaching
can make in an English-student life. With the research, new teachers in Brazil, and around
the world, can understand why it is beneficial to kids to use this method, and what differences
it makes to initiate English education at such a young age. New language schools can adapt
themselves to be able to teach with it, helping to share the knowledge of the simultaneous
bilingualism method of teaching, and also helping more children to become bilingual in an
easy way.

Literature review

Key Concepts, Theories and Studies

The central concept of this research proposal is about simultaneously bilingual
literacy to kids younger than 6 years old. We can compare this method with some of the more
traditional ones, such as the Direct Method (learning by everyday sentences) or the Audio-
Lingual Method (repetition of sentences over and over), which may work for older students,
who have a deep understanding of sentences and clauses, but not for younger ones, like
babies and kids. In these methods, the kid, usually older than six to seven years, gets offered
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 5

exercises and repetition activities to try to memorize the new language while translating
words and phrases of their native language to the new one. It is clear by this that learning
about grammar rules is not helpful to a two-year-old kid, so we need to find new ways to
teach English to young students without teaching them explicitly.

In this research, the use of the five senses to acquire and understand the language is
really important, since that at this age, between one and six years old, kids use a lot of smell,
taste, touch, hearing, and vision to understand their surroundings (Pires, 2001). Freud (1923)
is a great reference in this part because of his research about the oral phase of babies and
kids, as well as Skinner (1953), with the Behaviourism school and the process of
understanding the kids and their surroundings, and as Piaget, with the Constructivism School
and the Genetical Epistemology (1950), allocating the child to the center of the process, so
that we can understand their choices and give options so that they can choose what they
prefer.

In the book “Bebês na Escola: Observação, Sensibilidade e Experiências Essenciais”

(2015), the authors bring many important information that is useful for the teaching of a
second language to babies, discussing about their necessities and what the environment
should be like for them. For example, they explain, age by age, what are the educational
actions suggested for the development of the language, and how different they need to be so
that they can be useful for each age gap. With babies up to one-year-old, we need to focus on
repeating the verbalization while pointing to what we are talking about, and also on using
toys with language sounds, because at this age range the brain catches anything that makes
some noise, so music, laugh, talking, are very important to the development of the child.
Differently from that, when the kid already is one year and is heading to the two-year-old
mark, we need to work with speech, so everything must be taught to develop their voice.
Some options can be pointing to objects so that they can say what they want, and if they say it
wrongly, correct it. When playing hide-and-seek with toys, they must say the name of what
they are looking for, like “Duck, duck!” when searching for a duck toy. So, in this age,
speech is more prevalent than sound, but it is important to remember that sounds are not less
important, and that we can join them both and have more productive learning. The book
follows on each age until four years, and we see with these pieces of information that we can
teach babies a second language, in the same way that we use their native one.

With a different approach, the book “Alfabetização: Estudos e Metodologias de

Ensino em Perspectiva Cognitiva” by Scherer and Pereira (2019) brings a linguistic
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perspective to the matter, with phonological and syntactic analyses of the language and the
literacy process. Using technical terms from the linguistic circle, such as [+voice] and [-
voice], differences between /f/ and /v/, or /p/ and /b/, and also with explanations of the child’s
brain and how it functions, the authors bring a new perspective to the teaching of babies and
children. With great explanations and a lot of theoretical material, this book is essential to
every teacher and researcher that wants to work with the simultaneous bilingualism method
of teaching, because even if it brings a more conceptual view and doesn’t have a practical
application in class like the first book, it is very important to a teacher to know this
information so that when they are teaching, they can observe and analyze the best options for
the children development.

Key Debates and Controversies

Some points of conflict in this research may be about the abundance of research about
English teaching, and how this is a common topic to talk about in academic circles. We do
have many scholars looking into the effects of teaching English with this method, such as
Santos, Tonelli, and Justina, with their book “Línguas Adicionais para Crianças:
possibilidades teórico-práticas” (2021), which explains how games, puppets, and stories can
enhance the teaching of English to kids.

Another important book, about teaching a second language to children, known as

“Teaching Young Second Language Learners: Practices in Different Classroom Contexts”
(2018), by Oliver and Nguyen, which brings a lot of valuable information about how to deal
with kids in the classroom when teaching a second language. We can not forget, of course,
the Master’s dissertation of Simone Pires, who reports a case study where she uses the
method and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of teaching that way. In conclusion,
there are many books, papers, and dissertations about this method of teaching, but what we
don’t have is a full analysis of how this can impact kids' education.

This research is about the teaching of the language together with the literacy process,
while in the kid’s native country and language, and without there being daily contact with the
second language. A lot of studies on this topic revolve around immigrant children, which is
understandable, but here we are talking about a native Brazilian kid, who has no contact with
the other language except when in class, and that has no need to learn a second language in
order to survive.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 7

This is why this research is important: it discusses about more than just a method of
teaching English; it talks about child development, the biology of the kids’ brain and senses,
and also the possible consequences of using it. It is more than just research about “how to
teach English to kids”, as it aims to bring a new way of understanding them and their literacy
and development processes.

Gaps in Existing Knowledge

What is missing today in the English Teaching circles is a concrete methodology, with
results and analyses, showing if the method works, and how it works, with the kids today. We
do have a lot of research about English teaching, and about this method as well, but to the
best of our knowledge, such specific research considering the topics listed here, that answers
most of the questions, and that acknowledges all the environment we live in (Brazil), does not
exist yet.

Research design and methods

Research design
This research will be conducted with the qualitative method, using data from schools
around the country that apply the simultaneous bilingualism method of teaching in real life. It
will also contain primary and secondary sources to support and/or dismiss narratives about it,
such as statistical data, as mentioned before, as well as articles, journals, other research
papers, books, etc. Furthermore, this research can be seen as descriptive, for its observation
and study of a number of cases, in addition to a particular part where we can say that it has a
correlational side, where we are going to observe the variables and try to predict what will
happen in the following years.

Methods and Sources

This research is going to happen through the analyses of data from five different
schools around the country that use the method cited in this proposal; the tools for this will be
about communication (phone calls, email, fax, etc), data reading (papers and graphics) and
also interviews with teachers from around the country. Participants should include all the
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 8

teachers who will be going to be interviewed for the research, both who use this method and
those who do not, and also directors and CEOs of different schools. The data we will obtain
will be compared to other sources, such as papers and studies from other scientists from many
areas, from linguistics to biology and sociology.

Moreover, this research should occur in the time course of six months, with the
possibility of carrying it on if everything succeeds. All of this depends on how deep we want
to dive into the data collection and analyze it. The place for it to happen needs to be in Brazil
but it can also be applied to other countries and cultures, so that data can be compared. The
data should be generated through theoretical readings of the material, data collection, and
interviews with professionals of the selected schools, evaluating through their own utilized
tests and written records the evolution (or not) of the children's English performance when
using the method cited in this proposal.

Practical Considerations
Some probable obstacles will be the permission from the parents to have their
children participating in the research, but it needs to be guaranteed that the kids will have
their education as usual, with no interference from the scientist, and that none of their
personal data will be used and/or released for the general public, only their sex, and age, with
imaginary names if necessary. The contract of data release with schools needs to be well
revised by a lawyer so that no problems should arrive later in relation to the law.

Implications and contributions to knowledge

Practical Implications
The results and findings of this research will help to amplify the simultaneous
bilingualism method of teaching through the academic and teaching community, improving
the way that we teach English to kids around the globe. It will also help teachers understand
the biology and social development of kids so that we can eliminate the image of the kid
being a mini-adult; children have a completely different way of seeing life, so we can’t
expect them to act and react just like adults.

Theoretical Implications
This work will help to strengthen the theory of the simultaneous bilingualism method
of teaching and challenge current assumptions that kids learn the same way as adults. More
research can be done in the future basing themselves on this one, each one of them reporting
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data from around the globe if the method was successful and how it worked with different
languages and cultures.

Bibliography

CAMERON, L. Teaching Language to Young Learners. Cambridge: CUP, 2001

UYSAL, N. D.; YAVUZ, F. Teaching English to Very Young Learners. Procedia - Social
and Behavioral Sciences, v. 197, p. 19–22, jul. 2015.

LAKE, Vickie E.; PAPPAMIHIEL, N. Eleni. Effective Practices and Principles to Support
English Language Learners in the Early Childhood Classroom. Childhood Education,
v. 79, n. 4, p. 200-203, jul. 2003.

FACELLA, Melissa A.; RAMPINO, Kristen M.; SHEA, Elizabeth K.. Effective Teaching
Strategies for English Language Learners. Bilingual Research Jounal: The Journal
of the National Association for Bilingual Education, v. 01, n. 29, p. 209-221, 22 nov.
2010.

CAREY, Susan; BARTLETT, Elsa. Acquiring a Single New World. Child Language
Development, 15, p. 17-29, 1978.

CRAIS, Elizabeth R. Mapeamento Rápido: uma nova perspectiva sobre a aprendizagem de

palavras. In: Processos e distúrbios na aquisição da linguagem. Porto Alegre: Artes
Médicas, 1996.

KENT, Raymond. Desenvolvimento fonológico como biologia e comportamento. In:

Processos e distúrbios na aquisição da linguagem. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 1996.

LA TAILLE, Yves de; OLIVEIRA, Marta Kohl; DANTAS, Heloysa. Piaget, Vygotsky,
Wallon: Teorias psicogenéticas em discussão. São Paulo: Summus, 1992.
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RUSSO, Iêda; C, Pacheco; SANTOS, Teresa M. Momensohn. A Audição e o

desenvolvimento da linguagem. In: Audiologia Infantil. 4 ed. São Paulo: Cortez,
1994.

CAIRUGA, Rosana Rego; CASTRO, Marilene Costa de; COSTA, Márcia Rosa da. Bebês na
Escola: observação, sensibilidade e experiências essenciais. Porto Alegre: Editora
Mediação, 2015. 238 p.

SCHERER, Ana Paula Rigatti; PEREIRA, Vera Wannmacher. Alfabetização: estudos e

metodologias de ensino em perspectiva cognitiva. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2015. 285
p.

References

HOFFMAN, Charlotte. An Introduction to Bilinguism. New York: Pearson Education Limit,

1947.
PIRES, Simone Silva. Vantagens e Desvantagens de ensino de língua estrangeira na educação
infantil: um estudo do caso. 2001. 131 f. Dissertação (Mestrado) - Curso de Letras,
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2001.
PARMON, Patricia. "Educating Immigrant Children: Bilingualism in America’s Schools".
Social Sciences Journal: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Artigo14. 2010
Teaching approaches: the grammar-translation method. Disponível em:
<https://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology-the-world-of-elt/teaching-
approaches-the-grammar-translation-method/146493.article>. Acesso em: 23 nov.
2021.
BLOOMFIELD, L. (1961). Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (Trabalho
original publicado em 1933.)
OLIVER, R.; NGUYỄN-BÍCH. Teaching young second language learners : practices in
different classroom contexts. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Group, 2018.
SANTOS, Leandra Ines Seganfrado; TONELLI, Juliana Reichert Assunção; DELLA
JUSTINA, Olandina (org.). LÍNGUAS ADICIONAIS PARA CRIANÇAS::
possibilidades teórico-práticas. Mato Grosso: Unemat, 2021. 331 p.
CAIRUGA, Rosana Rego; CASTRO, Marilene Costa de; COSTA, Márcia Rosa da. Bebês na
Escola: observação, sensibilidade e experiências essenciais. Porto Alegre: Editora
Mediação, 2015. 238 p.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL 11

SCHERER, Ana Paula Rigatti; PEREIRA, Vera Wannmacher. Alfabetização: estudos e

metodologias de ensino em perspectiva cognitiva. Porto Alegre: Edipucrs, 2015. 285
p.
ENGLISH TEACHING METHODS. Disponível em:
<https://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology-the-world-of-elt/teaching-
approaches-the-grammar-translation-method/146493.article>. Acesso em: 03 dez.
2021.

Research schedule

Research phase Objectives Deadline

Research Readings Acquire as much knowledge one month

as possible, reading and

studying everything

available on the subject.

Data collection Go after data on as many one month

schools as possible, talk to

the directors and see what

arrangements can be made.

Data analyses Read everything that got one month

collected and compare it

with the research papers

read before.
Writing the paper Write about what you found Three months.

out, describing all the data,

interviews, analyses,

everything.