Читать книгу English in Inclusive Multilingual Preschools - Kirsten Birsak de Jersey - Страница 22

Last but not least, an area that may be seen as a potential constraint for teachers to integrate English in their daily preschool life are the demands of their contexts of work. From my experience with the preschool context, I felt that it might seem to be challenging for preschool teachers to imagine integrating English as an additional component of the preschool curriculum because of the logistics of accommodating this new subject in the preschool’s timetable. Data referred to in this chapter resulted from the following question (data also includes any other relevant comments made by teachers in the questionnaire elsewhere, which relate to the issue of accommodating English in the preschool context):

May the reasons (against introducing English in your preschool) be related to the general situation of your preschool, such as coping with daily life in preschool and the logistics of running the morning? (Liegen die Gründe in der Allgemeinsituation des Kindergartens, zum Beispiel das tägliche Kindergartenleben und der Ablauf des Morgens?) (question 4c-3).

The majority of teachers saw the general situation in preschool and the logistics of running the morning as the major constraints for them to teach English (76.9%) (→ statistical data 21). Not even a quarter of the preschool teachers felt that these contextual factors were not an issue in their decision to refuse to offer English in their preschool (23.1%) (→ statistical data 21).

Figure 22:

Statistical data 21: Logistical problems accommodating English in the state preschool context

Teachers’ comments proved that they felt their morning routine was already densely packed with things they needed to do to fulfil the regular everyday requirements and meet new challenges of the educational plan, which was why teachers felt there was no space to dedicate extra work to teaching English. They also clearly complained about the growing number of challenges and responsibilities that were put upon them to bring up the children socially, which should be a shared responsibility with the parents. At the same time there was a lack of provision of equivalent staff, which would allow them to meet their tasks in a personally satisfying and professional way. Teachers were consequently – and quite understandably – concerned if they would be able to commit themselves to introducing English:

“Es wird immer schwieriger alle Förderbereiche ausreichend abzudecken und bei großer Kinderanzahl in der Gruppe dem Bildungsplan gerecht zu werden und andere Lehrprogramme zu integrieren!” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Pädagoginnen müssen sehr viele Bereiche abdecken (siehe z. B. BildungsRahmenPlan, Tischmanieren…) Ich finde es sprengt den Rahmen” (qu. 4a).

“Bei intensiver Bildungsarbeit und Förderung der Kinder (Integration) bleibt meiner Meinung keine Zeit, um auch noch Englisch anzubieten” (final comment).

“Andere Schwerpunkte haben Priorität, unmöglich auf alles gleichermaßen einzugehen” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Zeitliche Einteilung oft schwierig” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Davon bin ich nicht begeistert. Der Kindergartenalltag ist so schon sehr überfüllt” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Es würden mehr Vorbereitungsstunden benötigt werden, beziehungsweise wäre eine Schulung in diesem Bereich sinnvoll” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Von den Kindergartenpädagogen wird bereits verlangt den Kindern Soziales beizubringen, was zu Hause versäumt wird” (qu. 4c-4).

“Die Kindergärtnerinnen kämpfen genug damit den vielen fremdsprachlichen Kindern etwas zu vermitteln! Besk + Besk – Daz, etc”1 (qu. 4c-4).

“Der Vormittag ist oft zu kurz für zusätzliche Angebote!” (qu. 3a: no answer).

“Zeitmangel, zu viele Kinder, Mangel an zusätzlichem Personal!” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Können kaum den BildungsRahmenPlan einhalten, da viele Kindergartenanfänger Kleinkindniveau haben! Zusätzlich läuft ein Projekt im Kindergarten plus wöchentlich Deutschförderung” (qu. 4a: burden).

“[Es wäre eine Belastung] da die Anforderungen an die Pädagoginnen ständig wachsen, und man nicht jede Verantwortung als Eltern abgeben soll. Der Lohn wächst nicht mit den Aufgaben” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Die Betreuerinnen können nicht alles abdecken. Erziehen, Sprachunterricht unterschiedlicher Art und so weiter” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Die Differenzierung ist schwierig. Einerseits lernt ein Kind eine Fremdsprache nie mehr so leicht wie im Alter von 3-6 Jahren. Anderseits ist die Einleitung / Organisation im Kindergartenalltag schwierig (Gruppentrennung, keine Flexibilität)” (qu. 4a: burden).

From the data, it became obvious that in addition to the complexity of tasks that their daily routine already involved, teachers saw the lack of staff as a paramount issue that prevented them from considering introducing English in the first place. Teachers often work to their full capacity, which leaves little to no room to include yet another educational offer:

“Zu wenig Personal vorhanden für weitere Angebote” (qu. 4a: burden).

“[Es ist eher eine Belastung für die Pädagoginnen], weil wir aufgrund des sehr knapp bemessenen Personalstands froh sind, wenn wir überhaupt Bildungsangebote verwirklichen können” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Eine gruppenführende Kindergärtnerin ist schon genug ausgelastet. Wenn Englisch lehren, dann eine weitere Kollegin” (qu. 4c-4).

“Da immer mehr von den Pädagogen erwartet und verlangt wird, sehe ich es als zusätzliche Belastung” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Das Englisch würde ich auch gerne übernehmen, jedoch haben wir leider viel zu wenig Personal. Es wäre dann keine in meiner Gruppe (qu. 4c-4). Ich würde Englisch als Fremdsprache im Kindergarten als Vorteil sehen für die Schulvorbereitungskinder. Es würde nur mit mehr Personal funktionieren” (final comment).

“Auswärtige Betreuung: wir haben selber genug zu tun” (qu. 4a: burden).

“Mit dem derzeitigen Personalstand lässt sich das nicht vereinbaren, dazu müsste z. B. einmal in der Woche jemand mit der entsprechenden Ausbildung in den Kindergarten kommen” (qu. 4c-4).

As staff is allocated regionally to state preschools by the Personalamt des Magistrats Stadt Salzburg, it is not within the authority of the heads of the preschools to increase their staff members to be able to meet new educational challenges or to introduce innovations such as English in their preschool. As teachers’ comments have unanimously demonstrated they all felt that provision of staff was already tightly calculated. For the preschool teachers that took part in the survey who could not imagine introducing English in their preschool this clearly proved to be one important factor.

For those teachers, on the other hand, who subscribed to the view that English would enrich children’s education, the already packed preschool timetable did not seem to be an issue that would stop them from accommodating English in their timetable. It is interesting to note that the preschool teachers who were in favour of English were already integrating English in their daily routine. In the data they argued that they were convinced that the children were capable of absorbing a new language with ease and that they acquired the new language with no effort whatsoever in a playful way and were generally very interested in new learning experiences at this age. They also pointed out that German-speaking children might experience and consequently become aware of how hard it is for children to learn German and consequently empathize with these children. Another dimension of this line of thought is the advantage that teachers see for all the children to be exposed to the same situation of being beginners when they learn English together (this had already been stated as a response to question 3b-4 above):

“Im Kindergarten geht’s noch spielerisch, sie sind noch sehr interessiert an Neuem (qu. 3a: advantage). Ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn der Kindergarten die Möglichkeit bekommen könnte, Englisch zu lernen” (final comment).

“Es wäre schön 1x in der Woche Englisch ohne Mehrkosten für Eltern anbieten zu können!” (final comment).

“Es ist ein Vorteil, weil die Kinder in diesem Alter sehr aufnahmefähig sind und leicht lernen (qu. 3a: advantage). So haben auch jene Kinder, die Deutsch nicht gut können, die Möglichkeit eine Zweitsprache (English) auf der gleichen Stufe zu lernen wie jene Kinder, die Deutsch schon gut können: Englisch können beide gleich wenig” (qu. 4a: advantage).

“Es geht nicht um Deutsch. Sie sollten zuerst irgendeine Sprache lernen. Es gibt jedoch auch Kinder die zweisprachig aufwachsen und deshalb ist es sicher eine Bereicherung und sie lernen ja nicht perfekt Englisch zu sprechen! (qu. 3b-1: no). Die Kinder sind sehr stolz, etwas in einer anderen Sprache sagen zu können (qu. 3b-3: no). Außerdem verstehen die Kinder mit Muttersprache Deutsch dann, wie schwer es für Kinder mit Fremdsprachen ist, Deutsch zu lernen. Und umgekehrt sind alle Kinder mal auf dem gleichen Level! Auch Kinder mit nicht Deutsch-Muttersprache können zeigen was sie können, ihr Auffassungsvermögen ist sehr gut (qu. 3b-4: yes). Mir macht es Spaß und den Kindern auch. Es braucht nicht viel Aufwand, man kann es gut in den Tagesablauf oder die Planung integrieren” (qu. 4c-4).

The analysis of the contextual factors of the macro level of the case study that affect the potential introduction of English in the multilingual inclusive state preschool has clearly demonstrated that there are serious constraints which prevent preschool teachers from introducing English regularly in preschool. They relate to three main issues: lack of experience to be able to judge whether the children actually would benefit from an early language start in English; preschool teachers’ low level of communicative English language competence; lack of English language teaching education and finally lack of contextual support in the areas of provision of sufficient and qualified staff and provision of professional education for preschool teachers to develop in-service.

Despite these obvious constraints, the teachers’ responses also demonstrated that the context offers potential to introduce English if teachers’ attitudes are reviewed in more detail. Two conflicting points of view relating to teachers’ attitudes towards introducing English in preschool emerged from the data. On the one hand there is the group of teachers who clearly believe that adding English to the timetable would definitely be a burden and that therefore this group of preschool teachers could not imagine – even if support was provided – that it made sense to introduce English. On the other hand, there is the group of teachers who believe that it is possible to accommodate English in the preschool routine. Interestingly, teachers belonging to this latter group are already experimenting with introducing English in their preschools. Therefore, despite obvious heterogeneous preschool teachers’ dispositions and needs, a first conclusion to draw for the set-up of the teacher education project is that it would need to be organised in situ, that is, it would need to be strongly related to preschool teachers’ contexts of work for them to be able to experience ‘that it works’. In other words, that it is clearly a benefit for the children, which was their principal concern in the survey. The relevance of practical experience can also be concluded from the data that addresses preschool teachers’ concern to give priority to learn German first: the data revealed that it would be a misconception to conclude that teacher opt to exclude foreign language learning (including English) in preschool. They simply believe that the children need to learn German first. If teachers would experience that incorporating English in the daily routine is manageable and that children’s language development, including German, would benefit from the additional language learning experience, their attitude might further be developed in support of foreign language education.

An obvious further conclusion for the set-up of the teacher education project that the macro level questionnaire survey demonstrated is that the factors affecting teachers’ attitudes are also clearly related to their competences in both their language skills and their English teaching skills. A viable strategy for the teacher education project therefore would need to provide ample initial support (both on the language and methodology levels) and it would then need to find ways to enable preschool teachers to take over and to continue offering English during the week for the by integrating it in their weekly timetables independently.

Approaches and models of professional teacher education that address these contextual demands will be elaborated in chapter 5 when research on professional teacher development is drawn on to develop a teacher education project, focusing on a support system which addresses the needs of this particular context.

For the meso level of the case study a preschool needed to be identified that would fulfil two criteria: it would need to qualify as representing the context of the multilingual inclusive state preschool both as regards the children who attend it and the team of teachers that educate the children. It would also need to identify a team of committed preschool staff that is generally in favour of ‘giving it a try’ as they see generally the potential of early English language education. This question of sampling is addressed in chapter 6.

After contextual affordances, constraints and preschool teachers’ attitudes and needs have been reviewed, the following chapter 4 will turn to research on professional language teacher education. It will both summarize what research has identified to be appropriate principles to set up language teacher education programmes both for language teachers in general (→ chapter 4.1) and early language teacher education in particular (→ chapter 4.2). This review will provide the basic principles for the set-up of the preschool teacher education project presented here. This will be followed by a survey on the competences early English language teachers need that research has identified. It will be divided in teachers’ communicative English language competence (→ chapter 4.3.1) and their pedagogical content knowledge (→ chapter 4.3.2).

As will be seen, there is an impressive overlap between the needs that preschool teachers addressed in the questionnaire survey and what teacher development studies have identified to be requirements for an appropriate set-up of teacher development projects that aspire to bring about change in the contexts of practice for which they have been designed.