Left: Quadrilingual warning on Tel Avivi manhole cover (Photo: Hyrdlak, cropped) CC0; Right: Sign at the Ministry of the Interior (Photo: עצמי, cropped) CC BY-SA 3.0
Israeli bilingual education expert Dr. Mila Schwartz will discuss the unique language situation in Israel and the educational policies the country has implemented to address the needs of bilingual children.
Wednesday, October 5, 20164:30 PM - 6:00 PM10383 Bunche Hall
Co-sponsored by the Center for World Languages and the Center for European and Russian Studies.
ABOUT THE TALK
Israel’s unique language situation is defined by the coexistence of two official languages, Hebrew and Arabic, the language of the largest ethnic minority in Israel. English serves as a semi-official language that is widely used and there are native languages of large groups of immigrants (e.g., Russian, Amharic, Spanish, French and scores of others). This linguistic and cultural situation is not only interesting in itself, but also promotes studies of multilingualism in language education and allows for comparisons with other countries and societies. In her talk, Professor Schwartz will provide an overview of Israel’s language and language educational policies and then focus on bilingual education in Israel for two populations: 1) second generation Russian-Hebrew speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 2) Arabic and Hebrew-speaking children.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mila Schwartz is an Associate Professor in Language and Education and head of the MEd Language Program at Oranim Academic College of Education (Tivon, Israel). Professor Schwartz is also a Research Fellow at the University of Haifa’s Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making.
Her research interests include language policy and models of early bilingual education; linguistic, cognitive, and socio-cultural development of early sequential bilinguals; family language policy; and bilingual teachers' pedagogical development. Her work focuses on two unique populations: second generation Russian-Hebrew speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Arabic and Hebrew-speaking children enrolled in bilingual bi-national education programs in Israel.
Sponsor(s): Center for European and Russian Studies, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, Center for World Languages