Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa

Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

Visiting a Bilingual School

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

- Immanuel Kant

The bilingual school Anglo Americano which is located in Pereira-Risaralda was the school

that I visited with my professor and classmates. We attended three plenaries around two and a

half hours with the principal of the school and two English teachers. Besides, we could have a

short tour of the school which showed itself very peaceful and close to nature. It was the first

time that I go to a bilingual school and it was very significant for me since it allowed me to

reflect and have a better understanding about English immersion. That is why I want you to

know through this paper what I could learn, feel and think with this remarkable and particular

experience.

Before arriving at the school, my classmates and I had different expectations because nobody

knew that place. When we were there, some of them were curious and enthusiastic about it so we

talked a little bit about what we were thinking of having that experience. As I said before, one of

the plenaries, which was in Spanish, was held by the principal of the school whose name was

Javier Ospina Velasquez. This plenary comprised different aspects and features of the school:

vision and mission, English immersion, bilingual teachers, students’ schedule and classes. Also,

he talked about national policies, evaluation and goals.

 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

We held this first meeting in the multimedia room where there was a circle of chairs for the

participants and a desk in the middle for the principle of the school. Minutes later, he came to the

room and gave a warm and affable welcome. To begin with the plenary, he started talking about

the school foundation, which according to him, carried out with different difficulties since there

were some issues in its economical investment. He also mentioned that he decided to set up a

new private school due to the fact he was interested in it. ‘‘Like a taxi driver who wants to have a

taxi company’’. That was the analogy that he used in order to let us know why he wanted to start

with a new project even when he did not have the enough experience in that area. In spite of this,

nowadays the school is 15 years old, there are 300 students and it has an evident successful

development.

After an overall description of the school foundation, Javier Ospina gave us an overview of

the mission of the school which consisted of graduating students with a linguistic competence

that permits to get along in a professional context. The purpose of this mission is focused on the

utilitarian objective: learning a foreign language do not focused so much on its cultural and

cognitive development motivations, and turns into another intention to build a better curriculum,

get better job and human capital (Guile,2006).

Another relevant point mentioned during the plenary was the English immersion within the

school. As a bilingual school, it provides different approaches for learning the foreign language

such as the language immersion. This methodology is implemented by teaching some subjects in

English such as Social Studies and Mathematics. In other words, it is concerned to how ‘‘(...)

language instruction is more effective if the second language is not taught merely as subject
 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

matter, but rather is used as the medium of instruction for the standard school curriculum’’

(Snow, 1986,p.1).

Later on, Ospina explained what teachers were hired for teaching in that bilingual school.

Time ago, when the school was getting experience, foreign people were teaching at the time.

They were native speakers who were from English countries and had excellent English language

skills. However, they did not have so much cultural awareness, and according to Cohen (2003)

‘‘Intercultural phenomena includes culture shock, cultural adaptation, cultural adjustment, and

the fact that people from other cultures may interpret similar situations differently’’ .To

illustrate, in a celebration of the school, some girls danced a song called ‘‘Calimeño’’ which is a

type of music from Colombia with a particular cultural meaning. This caused a ‘‘Cultural

shock’’ within the school since a foreign teacher rejected that kind of behavior, and she left her

job immediately.

After some cultural issues, they became aware that teaching English not only demands

excellent English language skills, but also requires a high level of cultural distinction. For that

reason the school started having Colombian teachers with a good English level and cultural

awareness. As a result, this brought changes into the relationships among students and teachers.

On the other hand, the school attempts to reach pre-advanced level of English in the graduated

students. That means students will be able to use English with B2 level in accordance with the

CEFR. For example, according to Council of Europe in this level student ‘‘can interact with a

degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite

possible without strain for either party’’ (2001).

 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

Having the above information, I could notice that there are two types of bilingualism

presented in this school: ‘successive early bilingualism’ and ‘additive bilingualism’, but the

school is focused more on the latter which was coined by Lambert (1974) and ‘‘refers to the

addiction of the second language to the already existent one as an enrichment.’’ This means

English will be the second language that students will learn in order to be a bilingual person.

Afterwards, the principal was talking about other advantages of the school. For example, the

school is trying to foster children to love reading. Moreover, as students study from 7:00 a.m. to

3:00 p.m., they do not do so many homework assignments, and they develop homework that they

can get through successfully and easily.  

Lastly, there was a short time for asking questions to the principal of the school. One of these

questions was related to the school vision. He stated that its vision was to set realistic goals that

students can successfully achieve, to evolve through experiences and to offer services more

affordable and innovative. After this, he left the room and we were thankful with him for

spending time and sharing information about the school with us.

After that, we had another plenary with the English High School Area leader of the school

whose name is Danny Andrés Hoyos and who seemed congenial with us. Throughout that time,

he talked a little bit about teaching to students in high school and we were allowed to make

questions. Hoyos explained which levels (basic, intermediate and upper-intermediate) were

implemented in accordance with the national standards in high school. He also mentioned that

even though the upper-intermediate level was achieved in some cases, the school did not apply

any test for certificating the graduated students.

 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

The last plenary was held by Luz Matilde Guevara who was the English Primary School Area

leader. She looked very friendly and sociable. She talked and answered only some question since

she had to give classes minutes later. She referred about the bilingual process as a hard procedure

due to the fact that some children in primary school have not even developed and learned their

mother tongue thoroughly. Moreover, the teacher talked about the use of several techniques such

as visual aids and videos for the purpose of making the classes and lessons more meaningful. She

also specified that teachers had to design some lessons for different subjects taught in English by

themselves taking into account the national standards given by El Ministerio de Educación.

Last but not least, we had a short tour of the school. I could perceive a place which was very

close to nature and had suited facilities. For example, the classrooms looked comfortable and

airy. After this, we left the school with a pleasant attitude and very grateful for having that

experience.

In conclusion, the Anglo Americano School attempted to show us the importance of

bilingualism and how the school mission and vision were joined to it. Also, how English

immersion allowed students and teacher to have a strong teaching-learning process and how they

have been involved with this approach. This experience showed me how important is being a

bilingual person nowadays, and the value of bilingualism seen from the three perspectives given

by Rosenberg (1987): social psychological perspective, Cognitive perspective and the societal

perspective. That means, it is very gainful in different areas and contexts, and if we encourage

people to be bilingual, this will have a positive effect in the social and intellectual growth.
 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

REFERENCES

Language immersion. (n.d). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 14,2015,from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_immersion

How do I analyze Kant's philosophy? (2004, February 9). In CliffsNotes. Retrieved March 15,

2015, from http://www.cliffsnotes.com/cliffsnotes/literature/how-do-i-analyze-kants-

philosophy

Snow, M. (1986). Innovative Second Language Education: Bilingual Immersion Programs (p.

13). Los Angeles, California: Center for Language Education and Research, University of

California, Los Angeles.

What is CLIL? (n.d.). In One Stop English. Retrieved April 13, 2015, from

http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/what-is-clil/

Teaching across cultures. (n.d.). In Eberly Center. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from

http://eberly.cmu.edu/teaching-across-cultures/culture-shock

Raising Cultural Awareness in the English Language Classroom. (n.d.).  Retrieved March 13,

2015, from http://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/51_4_2_frank.pdf

Council of Europe.(2001).Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:

Learning, teaching, assessment (p. 260). Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University press.
 Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
Applied Linguistics
Sorany Hincapie Cruz

Niemeier, S. (1999). A Cognitive View on Bilingualism and ''Bilingual'' Teaching and

Learning. Journal of English Studies, 165-185.