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Towards an Optimal Bilingual Language Instructional Model in Preschool Years
(BLIMP) 

BSF 2020263

2021-2025

PI1 - Sharon Armon-Lotem

PI2 - Carmit Altman

BIU

PI3 - Laida Restrepo
SFU

The growing number of bilingual children worldwide presents a challenge in education and intervention. It is necessary to identify the best way to support the two languages of bilingual children. Instructional models in education, either focus on one language only or alternating the two languages. In our project we focus on children learning how to tell stories, a skill that is critical for success in school. The novelty of the proposed study lies in comparing different ways of teaching language skills. We investigate the difference between teaching the same skills in each language separately for several weeks, or alternating the language of teaching within the same week, and what helps the child use the knowledge from one language in the other.  Bilingual narrative intervention will be used to improve bilingual preschool children’s knowledge of words and how to express feelings, to train them is using level more complex sentences and tell more organized and coherent stories in both languages. We examine immediate gains, improvement over time, and retention in both languages. The contribution of this study is in the novel comparison between the different modules and conditions, for the different skills. This comparison will increase our understanding of the best learning mechanisms in bilingual language settings, and will provide evidence for the best way for teaching and learning each of the language skills in the two languages of bilingual preschool children. We expect this project, if successful, to make a significant impact on how bilingual preschool children are schooled.

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