Bwriad yr ymchwil oedd archwilio effaithfl,ddysg cyfrwng Cymraeg ac agweddau rhieni a1' sgiliau iaith a gwybyddiaeth plant yng.NghYmru er mwyn ychwanegu cyfraniad gwreiddiol i ymchwil cyfredol yn y maes. Fe gasglwyd data mewn pedair sir yng Ngogledd Cymru (Gwynedd, Mon, Conwy a .-. Dinbych). Roedd tri grWp arbrofol: plant 0 gartrefi ble siaradwyd Cymraeg)in unig (ll Cymraeg); plant 0 gartrefi ble siaradwyd Saesneg yn unig (11 Saesneg); a phI ant 0 gartrefi ble siaradwyd cymysgedd 0 Gymraeg a Saesneg (Cytbwys) - h.y. tri grWp 0 blant dwyieithog oedd yn mynychu ysgolion Cymraegldwyieithog. Cymharwyd y rhain yn erbyn grWp rheolydd, sef plant 0 gartrefi ble siaradwyd Saesneg yn unig ac oedd yn derbyn eu haddysg yn bennaf drwy'r Saesneg (Uniaith) - h.y. plant uniaith Saesneg. Roedd y plant i gyd rhwng 7 ac 11 mlwydd oed. Rhoddwyd casgliad 0 brofion i'r holl blant i brofi eu gallu ieithyddol (geirfa, darllen, sillafu) a gwybyddol (meddwl dargyfeiriol, atal sylw, cyfnewid sylw). Profwyd y grWp dwyieithog ar eu sgiliau iaith yn Gymraeg a Saesneg, a dewiswyd profion uwch wybyddol sydd eisoes wedi eu trafod yn y llyfryddiaeth fel rhai oedd yn dangos manteision i blant dwyieithog. Roedd canlyniadau'r ymchwil yn gymysg, gyda manteision i blant dwyieithog mewn Thai tasgau ond nid mewn eraill. Yn gyffredinol nid oedd addysg cyfrwng Cymraeg yn effeithio 'n negyddol mewn unrhyw ffordd ar sgiliau Saesneg plant II Saesneg, er bod plant 11 Cymraeg a Chytbwys yn adnabod llai 0 eirfa yn Saesneg na 'u cyfoedion. Y n y Gymraeg, roedd tystiolaeth 0 gynnydd i bawb, gyda'r perfformiadau gorau yn cael eu harddangos gan y plant I1 Cymraeg. Roedd agweddau rhieni yn cydberthyn gyda pherfformiad eu plant ar y profion iaith ac yn dra- bositiftuag at y ddwy iaith. Roedd cydberthynas hefyd rhwng defnydd y plant o'r Gymraeg yn gymdeithasol a'u perfformiad ar y profion iaith. o ran sgiliau gwybyddol, nid oedd mantais glir i'r plant dwyieithog a1' y p1'ofion, ond roedd peth awgrym fod plant 0 gartrefi Cytbwys yn uwchraddol 0 ran 1'hai sgiliau cyfnewid. Mae'r canlyniadau hyn yn ychwanegu at go1'ff yr ymchwil rhyngwladol ym meysydd addysg a dwyieithrwydd, ac yn gam yn nes tuag at dda1'bwyllo 1'hieni ac a1'fogi cyd-Iunwyr polisi ynglyn a manteision addysg cyfrwng Gymraeg yng Nghymru.

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The study reported here examines the English language knowledge and performance of bilingual school children of Middle School age in Britain, in particular their acquisition and use of vocabulary. One of the chief premises of the research is that pupils from bilingual minority ethnic backgrounds suffer a major disadvantage while learning from the National Curriculum because they lack the necessary richness of word knowledge, accompanied by the conceptual frameworks expected in learning subjects such as science and geography. Furthermore, it is believed that by raising awareness among teachers and by the adoption of appropriate methods of vocabulary teaching founded on research, the vocabulary learning of bilingual pupils can be greatly increased. The aim of the study is to identify, describe and evaluate methods of vocabulary instruction currently used and to provide recommendations for suitable methods to be introduced. By means of an action research methodology implemented in a middle school, and with the joint participation of some members of staff and some pupils, classroom data was collected over a two and a half year period from teachers of science, geography and English and their pupils, supplemented with semi-structured interviews with teachers and support staff and conversations with children. These data provided material for a detailed analysis of exactly how individual words develop from first introduction into the pupils’ active vocabulary.

This study is a discourse-oriented ethnographic investigation of language-in-education policy in Vanuatu. Following a period of joint Anglo-French colonial rule, education currently follows a dual-submersion model, in which children are enrolled in either English-medium or French-medium schools, while the remaining 106 languages are excluded. A case study of one English-medium school and one French-medium school demonstrates that a single language (either English or French) is constructed as the only appropriate language of each institution, but that this construction is challenged in two ways. It is, firstly, undermined by the heteroglossic reality of daily language practices. Teachers and learners make use of multiple linguistic resources in order to negotiate their school lives, using only just enough English or French to conform to the monolingual ideal. It is, secondly, contradicted by the desire for ‘bilingualism’ in English and French, as the vestiges of Vanuatu’s double colonial heritage have been reimagined in unexpected ways. The dual legacy has been transformed from being a reminder of an oppressive and burdensome past to being both a gateway to double opportunity and a marker of a ‘bilingual’ national identity that should be celebrated. The thesis examines the way participants mediate the tension between competing conceptualisations of ‘language’ and ‘languages’ in education. It considers whether ideological and implementational spaces (Hornberger, 2002) can be found amongst the contestation for the incorporation of alternative or additional linguistic resources. It suggests the need to rethink the notion of media of instruction, and to look for ways to foster the productive use of repertoires of learning and teaching, drawing on whichever resources are available to be used. In so doing, it reorients the problem from an approach to education policy and planning that is driven by language, to an approach to language policy and planning that is driven by learning.

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Literature on teacher beliefs and epistemologies indicates that these constructs strongly influence pedagogical practice as well as teacher motivation to implement curricular innovation. Such is the case with the implementation of Content and Language Integrated learning (CLIL) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This study used qualitative cross sectional research, employing interviews, focus group sessions, observations and analysis of documents to examine teacher beliefs and epistemologies held by two groups of CLIL teachers in the MAG (Madaris Al Ghad) programme within the UAE context, with special focus on their classroom behaviours and praxis. The research was designed to identify the role of teacher beliefs and epistemologies in impacting their attitudes and motivation towards CLIL and its implementation. Analysis of the interview and observation data revealed that unexamined teacher beliefs and epistemologies have created a dissonance between their practice and the demands of CLIL manifested most clearly as teacher resistance to adopting CLIL effectively and the use of counterproductive teaching and learning strategies. On the basis of the emergent findings, a number of recommendations aimed at bringing about necessary improvements in the training and support of CLIL teachers are made. Broadly, it is recommended that key stakeholders should foster teacher participation in decision-making to create ownership of curricular reforms for effective implementation of CLIL. They may also consider the creation of school- based learning communities to facilitate support for and development of CLIL teachers. The thesis also delineates in detail the practical measures needed to effect these changes. In providing insights into the beliefs, epistemologies and motivations of the CLIL teachers in MAG schools, this inquiry serves as a timely and relevant contribution to the sparse literature on the impact of CLIL implementation in the UAE context, thereby providing the means to research this area more extensively and to empower key stakeholders tasked with the job of implementing CLIL at the classroom level.

The aim of this research was to identify the role that minority language media plays in the construction and perceptions of identity during middle childhood, focusing on 10 to 12-year-old bilingual children in Wales. Often referred to as the ‘transition phase’, this period represents an important developmental milestone in the context of identity formation, where ‘the individual who was a child is now en route to becoming an adult’ (Durkin 1995: 508). The focus of this work is to attain a better understanding of how young [Welsh/English] bilingual children in Wales navigate these multiple identities. In order to achieve the aims of this research, the focus was placed on language and identity in relation to children’s use of and engagement with minority-language media. For many bilingual communities, there is a natural interaction that occurs between both languages through code-switching (cf. Wei, 2000). For multilingual children and young people, issues of cultural belonging and cultural identity can add to issues and challenges of self-representation and identity. Language competencies can vary and, for many, confidence in their own language ability can determine language use.

This thesis addresses issues associated with the impact of bilingual education (immersion and language maintenance programmes) and the vitality of minority languages. It explores multiple factors, including parental expectations, that influence the decisions of parents who have chosen to educate their children through the medium of the standard variety of minority languages, specifically Breton and Gaelic. The thesis considers parental choice in terms of their socioeconomic profile, their language background and their patterns of language use. It is anticipated that this will contribute to explaining how educationally-based interventions work at different levels, including the sociolinguistic impact on the vitality of minority languages. The fieldwork was undertaken for Breton in western Brittany and for Gaelic in the core Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland (Western Isles), and was principally conducted by means of a semi-structured interview schedule administered to 51 sets of parents. In both locations, results indicated that most parents were highly qualified compared to the surrounding population and that they were attracted by early bilingualism and its educational benefits. Most parents had a basic level of skill in the minority language. This was especially the case in Brittany, where parents' skill levels were insufficient to sustain use of the minority language within the family unit and outside the home as an everyday language of communication. For most children, their first contact with the minority language was through school, and the language did not appear to be used outside the classroom. In the Western Isles, the majority of the parents were fluent in Gaelic, although Gaelic was seldom the main household language. For the overwhelming majority of children, parents reported Gaelic as being rarely spoken outside school either within their family or among themselves. This suggests that knowing the minority language does not automatically lead to its use outside the formal classroom setting and that bilingual education does not provide a way to produce active speakers when intergenerational transmission is failing.

Multicultural and multilingual education has expanded in scale and scope over the last thirty years, especially in the West. Despite the fact that inclusion is a keyword often heard in this part of the world, multilingual learners still face some issues that impede their home language maintenance. My thesis reports on an eight-month-ethnographic critical exploration of the beliefs, attitudes and practices of three multilingual families interacting mainly with members of their mainstream and complementary schools in the UK. I conducted the research aiming at understanding my participants’ home language experiences emically and etically. My parent’s role and helper’s role in the complementary school have contributed to the emic (internal) perspective on my data and my researcher’s role to the etic (external) standpoint. This makes the study valuable as this type of research is not numerous. Based on a model of different theoretical frameworks such as a socio-cultural learning approach (focussing on interdependence of social and individual processes), family language policy and an ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) consisting of concentric layers of interactions including state, cultures, mainstream and complementary schools as well as the home and wider community, the research presents three case studies reflecting the tensions and contradictions within and between homes, mainstream and complementary schools and state policy in regards to multilingualism that could impede home language maintenance. At the macro level, I reviewed the government policy in England regarding multilingual learners. At the micro level, I organised interviews with mainstream school teachers, multilingual children, a complementary school teacher and parents in their own residence supported by observation, field notes and diaries. An analysis of interviews with the pupils, parents and teachers during a full academic year showed the intricate relations between a range of social actors and the participants. The research findings encompass anxiety among multilingual learners, insufficient training for teachers in EAL (English as an Additional language), the often low priority given to inclusion and government policies in regards to multilingual learners’ linguistic and cultural background, all being obstacles to home language maintenance. My study shows the importance of the links across the layers (divisions of society/see Figure 2.1) and also the complexity, leading to the conclusion that better understandings need to be developed.