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Certificate for Teachers in Bilingual Education

Overview

What is bilingual education?

We use the term ‘Bilingual Education’ to refer to the practice of studying typical school subjects, like Geography and Maths, through a second or additional language. In classrooms where subjects are taught and studied through an additional language, teachers need to be experts in a subject, to be linguistically aware and have a good understanding of the difficulties students may encounter in this learning process. This understanding of bilingual education is linked to other educational concepts such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and dual-language education.

Benefits

The Certificate is a practice-based qualification for the continuing professional development of practising teachers working, or preparing to work, in a bilingual education programme.

Teachers may be planning to teach for the first time, or may have recently started teaching in a bilingual school or programme and are looking for ways to make lessons more effective. The Certificate has been specially designed for teachers with little or no experience of teaching through an additional language, who wish to gain confidence and develop the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding. The Certificate helps teachers to improve their practice to support meaningful and effective learning in a bilingual education context.

The Certificate is intended for teachers in a range of educational establishments. We have designed the Certificate to be flexible, so that candidates from a variety of teaching backgrounds have the chance to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understanding. These can range across:

Cambridge International Certificate for Teachers in Bilingual Education
at a glance

There are seven learning areas within the Certificate syllabus. These are all set within a bilingual education context where subjects are taught through a language that is additional to the learners’ first language.

Candidates complete one assignment that covers all seven criteria. The assignment is made up of a number of practical tasks, based on day-to-day professional work. The assignment is externally assessed by Cambridge and feedback is provided to the Centre.

1 Prepare for teaching in a bilingual context
2 Select resources to support learning
3 Adapt and sequence resources, teaching and learning activities
4 Support and stimulate learners’ understanding
5 Support learners’ active participation and production
6 Support learners’ progress
7 Evaluate teaching and learning in a bilingual context

How is the Certificate assessed?

Candidates are required to provide practice-based evidence drawing on day-to-day teaching activities and experiences. The Certificate encourages teachers to experiment, and then reflect on and evaluate their professional practice. Candidates complete an assignment of around 3000 words covering a number of practical tasks. The assignment is marked and graded by Cambridge examiners and we award a Pass or Distinction grade for successful performance. The Certificate is designed to take between 90 and 120 hours for preparation and completion of the assignment. At present the assignment must be completed in English.

Find a Certificate Programme

The Certificate for Teaching in Bilingual Education is being offered for the first time from September 2010 in three Centres in the Netherlands. For information on these programmes please email international@cie.org.uk

Become a Centre

If your Centre is interested in offering the Certificate for Teaching in Bilingual Education enquire about becoming a Centre for Cambridge Professional Development qualifications – this link will also give information on the basic requirements for becoming a Cambridge Centre.