The Evolution of Bilingual Schools in Argentina

The Evolution of Bilingual Schools in Argentina Cristina Banfi Universidad Nacional de Co rdoba and ESSARP, Argentina

Raymond Day Universidad de Belgrano, Argentina This paper sets out to provide a preliminary descriptive account of an important subsector of the Argentine education system: those schools locally known as ‘bilingual schools’ or ‘colegios bilinguës’. As the authors will show, the label ‘bilingual’ has, at times, been applied rather loosely to a number of institutions. For current purposes, the authors limit this description to those schools that aim to teach through the medium of two languages. These schools may be characterised both in terms of the shared features that set them apart from other schools in Argentina, and in terms of the distinctions among them, which make this a diversified sub-sector. The authors also argue that these schools have been transformed since they were first founded in the 19th century, evolving from what were originally Heritage Schools to Dual Language Schools and, ultimately, to a new form of Bilingual school that the authors label the ‘Global Language School’. Finally, the paper surveys some recent trends within this sector and suggests avenues for further research. Keywords: Argentina, heritage languages, bilingual schools, schools’ history, immigration, curriculum

Introduction This paper sets out to provide an initial description of an important sector of the Argentine education system; those institutions locally known as colegios bilinguës, i.e. bilingual schools. To be able to chart the evolution of bilingual schools we will firstly attempt to characterise and classify them in relation to existing definitions. At first sight, we can say that what differentiates these schools from others is their teaching of content through two languages. However, this does not mean to say that this is a homogenous group of schools, so we present certain similarities and differences across the Argentine bilingual school sector. We suggest that the evolution of Argentine bilingual schools is closely tied to the historical development of the country. We argue that this involves the change from what were originally Heritage Schools, to Dual Language Schools, and currently to a form of bilingual school we categorise as the ‘Global Language School’.

What is a Colegio Bilinguë? Applying a broad definition of bilingual education, e.g. ‘bilingual education involves using two languages in instruction’ (Garcıá, 1997: 405), it is plausible to conclude that a significant number of Argentine schools fall into this 1367-0050/04/05 398-14 $20.00/0 BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND BILINGUALISM

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category. However, this is not how the label ‘bilingual school’ is actually used in contemporary Argentine society.1 The popular perception stems from a long-standing tradition that has its origins in the private education sector, and that was, at first at least, initiated around immigrant communities. For the purposes of this paper, we will limit our discussion to those schools that teach content through the medium of two languages (Spanish and English, French, German or Italian) and cover areas of the Argentine curriculum and a foreign or international curriculum (for a summary of schools, see Table 1). For the purposes of constructing Table 1, we have applied the criteria above rather strictly, thus limiting the total number of schools under consideration. However, it should be pointed out that the label ‘bilingual school’ is often used by schools as a marketing tool even in cases that, under closer scrutiny, can more accurately be described as schools with intensive foreign language programmes, i.e. schools with programmes that exceed the Argentine national curriculum requirements of foreign language tuition. Although these distinctions are sometimes subtle and schools may (and do) switch from an intensive foreign language programme to a bilingual programme, it is important to note that not everything that is called ‘bilingual’ is in fact bilingual in the sense intended in this paper. In the case of the schools under scrutiny, we refer to institutions that, in general terms, match the criteria proposed by Johnson and Swain (1997) in their study of Immersion Education. In these cases, the L2 is used as a medium of instruction: the immersion curriculum parallels the local L1 curriculum; overt support exists for the L1; the programme aims for additive bilingualism; exposure to the L2 is largely confined to the classroom; students enter with similar and limited levels of L2 proficiency; (most) teachers are bilingual to some degree; and the classroom culture is that of the local L1 community. Even if the focus of our attention is restricted to those schools that comply with these criteria, the sector under study comprises over 150 schools that cater for thousands of children and adolescents. However, in spite of the size of this sector, there is surprisingly little published description or discussion Table 1 Argentine bilingual schools Language

Number of schools (approx.)

Location

Oldest school still in existence

Formal Other links with language(s) government taught of associated country2

English

100

Buenos Aires and other provinces

St Andrew’s Scots School 1838

No

French (in some)

Italian3

6

Buenos Aires

Colegio Tomas Devoto 1937

Yes

English

German

5

Buenos Aires

Goethe Schule 1897

Yes

English

French

2

Buenos Aires

Colegio Franco-Argentino 1945

Yes

English

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Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

regarding how these institutions originated and function. This obscurity can be ascribed to a number of factors, such as: the historical origin of these institutions; the fact that they stem from private initiatives; the relationship established with the public sector (e.g. state schools, universities, education authorities); and the curricular=extra-curricular division of their activities and staffing policies.

Similarities and Differences among Argentine Bilingual Schools A classification of bilingual education programmes, such as the one provided by Baker and Prys Jones (1998: 470), when applied to bilingual schools in Argentina, reveals a broad adhesion to a model of enrichment with the expected language outcome of bilingualism, biliteracy and biculturalism. This constitutes a strong form of bilingual education which aims to produce students who are proficient in two languages, biliterate in those two languages and familiar with both cultures involved. Traditionally, these schools have run parallel curricula, i.e. the Argentine and foreign curricula, to different extents. Typically (until a few years ago, when a trend of integration was initiated), the foreign curriculum was delivered as extra-curricular to the national Argentine requirements and, as such, was outside the supervision of the Argentine education authorities. However, it is the foreign curriculum, delivered in the foreign language, that is perceived by society as the most distinctive feature of the schools and this provides their competitive edge. All the schools under discussion are private, fee-paying institutions. Although some of them have close links with the government of the associated country, this only applies to a small minority of schools. These links often include the provision of teaching and managerial staff from those countries, as well as subsidies of different kinds. Another small group of schools also has foreign staff, not through links with a particular government, but by means of private contracts.4 The very nature of the curricular offering of all these schools makes bilingual staff indispensable, whether the members of staff are themselves bilingual, split into two groups of monolinguals, or some combination thereof. Another characteristic of bilingual schools in Argentina that is directly related to their sources of funding is the availability of material resources such as up-to-date technology (e.g. computers, science labs), and bibliographic (particularly imported) material. This creates a very real and, especially in the context of an economic crisis and currency devaluation, widening gap with state-funded schools. In spite of these similarities across schools, the bilingual school sector is by no means homogeneous and the distinctions cut across many of the categories discussed above. In some respects these differences are presented as polarities whereas others can be better understood as a continuum. Immediate distinctions can be made across schools when analysing some simple numerical facts. Firstly, they differ in terms of age. The oldest surviving bilingual school, St Andrew’s Scots School, was founded in 1838 (Escuela Escocesa San Andre´ s, 1988), whereas many other bilingual schools were founded in the 1990s. There are also some schools which were founded some decades ago, and have only recently become bilingual. When, and in what circumstances, the schools were founded, has a direct influence on the traditions the schools draw on, and is


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also linked to another numerical factor: the size of the school. The student population may range from one hundred to two thousand. When founded, the schools often start out offering one or two levels (often kindergarten and primary) and build up from this foundation to cover the whole range of options, i.e. kindergarten, primary, secondary and even tertiary (teacher training). Furthermore, even though all these schools belong to the private sector and are fee-paying, there is great variation in fees across schools and, to a lesser extent, within schools across school years. These variations may be in the range of 300% across schools.5 This range of variation, in turn, has implications as regards the socioeconomic level of the student population because, although scholarships exist, they are few in number. In this respect, these bilingual schools can be said to constitute instances of elite bilingualism (see Banfi & Day, 2001; de Mejıá, 2002). The schools also vary as regards their legal status. Some schools have the status of foundations or non-profit-making civil associations, i.e. charities, and are run by a board of trustees. Others are owned by an individual or a group of individuals in partnership. Others are legally-constituted companies or Sociedades de Responsabilidad Limitada (Limited Companies). There are confessional and lay institutions within this sector, but the latter are in the majority. As private educational institutions they are all regulated by the relevant section of the Ministry of Education, or equivalent, of their jurisdiction, i.e. the Provinces and City of Buenos Aires (see Federal Law of Education – Ley Federal de Educacion N 24195=93). Academically, the schools may vary in terms of the curricular options they offer. As regards the Spanish language curriculum, the schools are governed by the Argentine national curriculum requirements emanating from the Federal Law of Education, the Contenidos B asicos Comunes produced by the Ministry of Education (1995a, 1995b), and curricular directives from their Provincial governmental jurisdictions. Regarding the curriculum delivered in the foreign language there are different options available and each school makes choices that constitute their institutional offering. In this respect, one cannot fail to mention the impact of international certification offered by examination bodies and the different associated governments. The trend among bilingual schools is to attempt to offer a varied and wide-ranging curriculum in the foreign language across school years. It should be pointed out that the larger and older bilingual schools usually provide more options. As mentioned above, another distinction across schools is the presence or lack of foreign contract staff. With few exceptions, the schools that hire foreign teachers either have foreign governmental support and=or more ample financial resources. It should be pointed out that teacher training in Argentina, although very progressive in the training of foreign language teachers,6 has not provided training options which could have, as an outcome, teachers specifically trained for teaching in bilingual schools. This did not pose major problems when the foreign language curriculum was delivered in what were officially considered extracurricular spaces. However, it does have considerable impact on the outcome of curriculum integration as we will see below. A possible explanation for the fact that little if any specific teacher training exists may be found in the fact that foreign language teacher training colleges

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are overwhelmingly found in the public sector, whereas bilingual schools are in the private sector. The lack of specific teacher training is not a situation unique to Argentina, on the contrary, it is a pervasive problem as Baker (1995: 203) points out. Different permutations can thus be found when analysing the background of teachers teaching in bilingual schools. An ‘ideal’ profile might be a teacher who is qualified to teach in the language of instruction, e.g. he=she is a teacher of English, as well as in the academic discipline being taught, e.g. Physics. Individuals with a foreign language teacher’s degree who are graduates of teacher training colleges may be found teaching a number of different subjects, such as English Language, English Literature, History, Geography, etc. to children in the primary and secondary school. In some cases these choices are related to subjects that were, to some extent, covered in their training; in others, linked to other (partial) studies that the teachers may have undertaken, or some in-service training specifically provided by the schools (for example, see courses provided by ESSARP – The English-Speaking Scholastic Association of the River Plate7). There are also cases of schools that hire their own secondary school alumni to teach in the early years of primary schools; another option is hiring an alumnus who has gone on to study Law or Veterinary science, to teach History or Biology respectively. A component that is usually missing from the formal training of all these individuals is specific reflection on bilingualism and bilingual education and the teaching of content through the medium of a foreign language.8

The Evolution of Bilingual Schools: From Heritage to Dual to Global Argentine bilingual schools have undoubtedly changed over time, largely in response to changing social and economic circumstances, both locally and internationally. Here we present an outline of this evolution. The paradigmatic case is perhaps that of English–Spanish bilingual schools. We present the trends applying mainly to English–Spanish bilingual schools and leave open for future research the question of whether this analysis can be extended to the others. We propose that English–Spanish bilingual schools were initially founded as what may be labelled Heritage (or Community) schools in the sense proposed by Cummins (1995). As we have mentioned, the oldest surviving school is St Andrew’s Scots School (f. 1838), but there are reports of other schools that were founded at this time which did not survive (see Graham-Yooll, 2000: 133, 140, 178, 189). There are also official reports that allude to equivalent Italian and German schools (see Puiggr os, 1996; Solari, 1972). This situation parallels what happened in the United States throughout the 19th century, when schools were organised by different ethnolinguistic groups (Perlmann, 1990). In Argentina, a considerable number of schools were founded around the turn of the century9 coinciding with the largest waves of European immigration arriving in the country, and with specific projects, such as the building of the railways, conducted by foreign commercial enterprise (Graham-Yooll, 2000: 268). These Heritage schools aimed at providing an education for the children of immigrants, in some cases for the immigrants themselves, and in others, those who were Argentine-born but had grown up within the immigrant community where the language spoken was not Spanish. The situation is parallel


403

to that discussed in Garcıá (1997) in the US context. These children grew up speaking English (or one of the other immigrant languages) in the home and were taught Spanish at school. Testimony to this situation is the fact that at St Andrew’s Scots School, tuition was initially conducted solely in English, and only in 1841 was the teaching of Spanish introduced (Escuela Escocesa San Andre´ s, 1988: 36). The schools were set up by the community of immigrants, often linked to the community church, in response to an interest in providing their children with an education equivalent to the one they would have received ‘back home’, and often with the medium to long-term goal of returning home, in mind. In other cases (such as Northlands School and St Hilda’s College), the founders of the school were English governesses who had travelled to Argentina to teach the children of a wealthy family. Once the children had grown up, they remained in the country and were helped by their employers to found their schools.10 If one compares the number of immigrants from different countries with the number of bilingual schools corresponding to each community, we find little correlation, with certain languages over-represented, e.g. German; and others, virtually non-existent, e.g. Polish. This can be clearly seen if we compare the Italian and English communities. The number of Italian bilingual schools is negligible in relation to the fact that 39% of foreigners in Argentina in 1914 were of Italian origin, compared to only 1% who were of British origin. Currently there are only six Italian schools and 100 English–Spanish bilingual schools (for details of number of immigrants in Argentina in 1914 see Solberg, 1970: 38). In this respect, we could consider the situation as a reflection of a hierarchy of languages: certain languages have had a much better chance of achieving the status required to have bilingual programmes, whereas others have not. (See Verma et al., 1995 on immigrant languages in the UK; and Helot & Young, 2002 for the case of France.) As the flow of immigration began to slow down in the course of the first half of the 20th century, the number of Argentine bilingual schools did not decrease, as might have been expected. On the contrary, the number of schools (particularly English–Spanish bilingual schools) increased. Their student population changed significantly, however. The situation reported at St Andrew’s Scots School is a case in point: in 1939, out of 310 pupils enroled, 21 were born in the British Empire, 66 were born in Argentina to two British parents, 68 were born in Argentina to one British parent and the remaining 155 were other nationalities, including Argentine (out of these, two-thirds were English-speaking, with British grandparents). As these figures reveal, the school had started incorporating non-English-speaking children and, at the same time, was experiencing loosening ties with the close-knit, homogeneous founding community, altered by intermarriage and generational separation with the original immigrants (Escuela Escocesa San Andre´ s, 1988: 76). As they evolved, Argentine bilingual schools had to adapt to the reality of this changing student population and situation. In some respect, this stage can be described in terms of Dual Language Programmes (see Lindholm-Leary, 2001) in the sense that there was a combination of language minority and language majority children in different proportions at different stages, but gradually tending towards an increase in majority language children.

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Complementing this demographic change affecting Argentine bilingual schools during the first half of the 20th century was the impact of the growth and development of the national education system. Garcıá (1997: 408) discusses a similar development in the US. Law 1420 was passed in 1884 and is a landmark in the process of organising the Argentine education system, which gathered momentum around the turn of the century. The development of the state’s educational policies implied a greater degree of supervision which was felt in bilingual schools, and the number of hours of tuition in Spanish had to be increased. At this stage, the pattern of the foreign and national curricula run side by side was set. The official supervision and review were concerned with the Argentine Spanish-language curriculum only. This situation encouraged the development of parallel Foreign and Spanish language structures within the schools, particularly at managerial levels, since the Heads and other school authorities had to comply with national requirements in terms of qualifications, requirements that did not apply to the curriculum delivered in the foreign language. In contrast, the delivery of the foreign language curriculum allowed for considerable flexibility in terms of hiring foreign teachers or individuals with different qualifications to teach the non-Spanish curriculum. As time passed, the situation that saw the schools shift from a Heritage to a Dual-language model was intensified by the decline of European immigration and the increase in the number of bilingual schools. Thus, by the end of the 20th century, most bilingual schools catered for children whose home language was Spanish and who learnt the second language at school from scratch. At present, only a few schools have a small proportion (5% at most) of foreign children who do not speak Spanish. In general, these children are members of internationally mobile families and their parents usually have short (e.g. threeyear) temporary contracts in Argentina. In some of these cases, the language of the home is neither language of the bilingual school, but a third language (e.g. French, Dutch, German). There is evidence to suggest that English is the language of choice of parents for their children’s education, even if it is not the language of the home, because it is regarded as more easily available as a language of instruction in possible future destinations as well as a language of opportunity for the future development of those children (Banfi & Day, 2001). The number of internationally mobile families increased substantially during much of the 1990s, a period of rapid growth for Argentina as trade opened up and large-scale privatisations led to significant increases in foreign investment, foreign ownership of Argentine companies and the transfer of foreign personnel to Argentina on temporary contracts. This trend decreased sharply in 2001 and reversed in 2002 as the Argentine economy contracted. A further trend that can be observed in the evolution of schools can be found in the adaptability shown. For example, the geographic distribution of schools has been greatly influenced by their following the movement of the student population. Already, as early as 1944, this concern is evident when St Andrew’s Scots School created a committee to study the best location where a high concentration of English-speaking people were to be found and to organise the relocation of the school to this area. This study resulted in a move


405

of the school to Olivos, a northern suburb of the city of Buenos Aires, and led in turn to a pattern of similar moves by other schools (Escuela Escocesa San Andre´ s, 1988: 86). A related phenomenon is what we might label ‘branching out’. Probably one of the first schools to pursue this policy was St George’s College. As reported in St George’s College (1998: 95), when the school was founded in 1898 it was located in a southern suburb of Buenos Aires called Quilmes. This was related to the student population who came from that area, since a sizeable number of English-speaking immigrants had settled there in connection with the development of the railway (Graham-Yooll, 2000: 268). Nearly a century later the school board decided to establish a branch, St George’s North, in Polvorines, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires, closely linked to a property development where the families of potential pupils had moved and were in the process of moving. The development of private estates or ‘gated communities’ in the suburbs of Buenos Aires throughout the 1990 s led to a parallel expansion of branches of existing and prominent bilingual schools to service the new and prosperous suburban populations. The presence, or planned presence, of the school also enhanced the value of the property market in the development.11 Another way in which schools have adapted has involved moving from single-sex to co-educational provision. Although a few retain their singlesex admissions policy, some of the most traditional single-sex schools have felt the need to adapt to changing demands.12

Bilingual Schools Now At this stage in their evolution, we might characterise Argentine bilingual schools as going through a ‘global language’ period or as ‘Global Language Schools’ (Banfi, 2001), meaning that many of the key features that characterise Argentine bilingual schools now may be connected with the processes of globalisation that have developed over the last decade. Whereas in the Heritage Schools stage, cultural roots were clearly identifiable and connected to particular traditions, these links were weakened as the schools evolved and the student population and context changed. This did not mean that the links were severed. On the contrary, they became even more central and were greatly facilitated by increasing international travel and developments in communications technology.13 The change was in the purposes and diversity of the links that imprinted an international outlook on the educational offering of the schools. The schools now aim to provide a broad educational programme that prepares children to take part in the decision-making stratum of a globalised world (see for example, Belle-Isle, 1986; Gellar, 1981). This international perspective has ramifications for the curricular decisions made by the schools. A further aspect of this development is the impact of English as a global language (Graddol, 1997). On the one hand, this partly explains the proliferation of English–Spanish bilingual schools as the perceptions of the importance of English spread across the society. On the other hand, we can see the impact of English on the other bilingual schools where English is included in the curriculum and presented as an important complementary aspect of school’s programme.

406


A key development at this stage is the greater move towards the integration of the local and foreign or international curricula, formally sanctioned in official resolutions, such as those of the City (Resoluci on 2008, 1999) and Province of Buenos Aires (Resoluci on 7102, 1996). These instruments make it possible to avoid some degree of duplication and overlapping present in the parallel curricular situation, when, for example, subjects like Mathematics and Chemistry were taught in both Spanish and the second language. The authorisation to integrate and the concomitant recognition of bilingual status make it possible to reduce, to some extent, what used to be a long school day. Another side-effect of integration is the possibility of reducing teaching staff numbers, always bearing in mind that this integration imposes official requirements on integrated subjects, thus posing new recruitment challenges. Complementing these developments is the increase in the range of curricular offerings bilingual schools now give their pupils. This is particularly evident in the older and larger bilingual schools which are able to offer choices of subjects that permit a degree of specialisation, especially in the last years of secondary school. Often these choices are conditioned by another development that has increased in relevance: foreign certification. Almost without exception, bilingual schools in Argentina offer some kind of foreign certification, particularly in terms of school-leaving certification. This foreign certification is awarded by international examination bodies (e.g. UCLES – the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, and the IBO – the International Baccalaureate Association) or foreign governments (e.g. Abitur in German schools, Diploma di Maturita Scientifica in Italian institutions). These certifications cover language ability accreditation and, more significantly in the case of bilingual schools, subject-specific accreditation at different levels. Two main bodies provide subject-specific accreditation. UCLES has been providing examination services in Argentina since the beginning of the 20th century,14 specifically it is Cambridge International Examinations (CIE)15 within UCLES that administers examinations of the kind we are concerned with here. Apart from Language and Literature papers, CIE examinations are written in English. There are two main levels at which they are taken; the International General Certificate of Secondary Education and the Advanced International Certificate of Education (IGCSE and AICE). Currently there are around 150 schools in Argentina that offer IGCSE certification and around 35 that offer AICE.16 Another body that offers subject-specific foreign certification is the IBO.17 In 2002 there were 45 schools in Argentina offering the IB Diploma.18 Not all these are bilingual schools, as some institutions offer the Diploma in Spanish or in French (the other two official IB languages).19 Part and parcel of the process of globalisation is the expansion and accessibility of information technology. This development has had a considerable impact on education in general. In the case of Argentine bilingual schools, the availability of resources to purchase technology and the schools’ relative autonomy have implied a significant change as regards the use of technology. This use applies both at the organisational level (communication of management with staff, of schools with parents, information management within the school, etc.) and in the realm of pedagogical activities. The ready


407

availability of technology has made it possible to aim for a cross-curricular application of IT. To summarise, we can say that, as a general principle, Argentine bilingual schools aim to provide a broad educational experience with the individual aim of bilingualism=biculturalism and the concomitant societal aim of pluralism and enrichment. In this respect they constitute strong forms of bilingual education.

Conclusion This paper has attempted to provide a preliminary characterisation of what are popularly known as colegios bilinguës, i.e. bilingual schools, in Argentina. As we have shown, this sector presents significant similarities and, at the same time, a pattern of diversification across schools. The main shared feature is the teaching of content through the medium of the foreign languages, with features that resemble those proposed for Immersion Education by Johnson and Swain (1997). We have also argued that Argentine bilingual schools constitute a form of e´ lite bilingualism as proposed in the definition given by de Mejıá (2002). We have proposed a characterisation in terms of stages of evolution of the schools that are mainly related to the demographic changes in the student population and general societal changes. These stages have borrowed from models of bilingual education programmes proposed for other contexts, i.e. Heritage Schools and Dual Language Schools, and a new label has been proposed to describe schools as they are now: ‘Global Language Schools’. These stages are linked to the fact that Argentine bilingual schools have changed considerably over time. Originally, they were schools established by the immigrant communities which had maintained very close links to them (board members, investors etc.), but over the years they have seen a considerable weakening in their connections with these communities. Paralleling this process has been the changing nature of the immigrant or foreign communities, especially in their size. The schools have responded to these demographic changes by incorporating children from outside the original immigrant community, for example, and by changing the languages offered as the student population has altered; from initially Spanish as a Foreign Language to a foreign language, such as English or French as a Foreign Language. To this extent the schools have become more ‘Argentine’ and have repeatedly demonstrated their great ability to change and adapt according to demographic and curricular trends, and cultural changes in the community they serve. Connected also with this process of constant adaptation are idiosyncracies in the development of the school curriculum. A central or unified way of organising the curriculum is often absent. It is influenced by multiple factors. Certain areas of the curriculum are defined by the jurisdictional prescription (i.e. the national and=or provincial educational authorities). Other parts are defined by what one, or more, international body prescribes, as is the case with the influence of international examining bodies. Yet other parts are defined by ad hoc decisions made by Heads, Coordinators and Teachers. As staff in these positions fluctuate, these curriculum areas may be unstable and subject to constantly changing priorities. Always present is the reality that, as private sector

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competing institutions, the decisions Argentine bilingual schools make about staffing, resources and the curriculum are also linked to the schools’ efforts to market themselves. As a consequence of the influences and changes referred to above we conclude that the bilingual school sector in Argentina is richly varied. Even though the Colegios Bilinguës are perceived as being a homogeneous group based upon key similarities, they are in fact highly diversified (in size, in curriculum, in age and traditions, in staffing, in resources, and in connections with an associated country. We also suggest that self-analysis on the part of Argentine bilingual schools, as institutions, is uncommon. Their role as institutions has not been examined systematically or analysed. Members of these institutions themselves (be they teachers, administrators, or members of governing bodies) do not reflect upon themselves and their activity in a structured fashion, and, even though there is a variety of informative and promotional published material, there is a notable absence of analytical publications about the schools. Therefore, there is considerable scope for further research in this sector in the light of increasing curricular complexity and diversity and the need for teacher development programmes that deal with the specific needs of teachers working within the field. Acknowledgements This article has benefitted from discussion with audiences at the 46th Annual Conference of the International Linguistics Association at New York University in 2001 and the Third International Symposium on Bilingualism at the University of the West of England in Bristol in 2001. We would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions. And last but certainly not least, our thanks to the editor of this volume for her commitment to this innovative project. Needless to say, any errors still contained in this paper are our sole responsibility. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Cristina Banfi, ESSARP Centre, Esmeralda 672 piso 7, C1007ABF, Buenos Aires, Argentina (cbanfi@ essarp.org.ar). Notes 1. In fact, in the layman’s application of the term, some programmes that could be seen as falling into this category, such as programmes for Indigenous Languages or bilingual education for the Deaf, are not really included. 2. We employ the term ‘associated country’ to refer to the country that a bilingual school may consider its linguistic parent (in terms of the foreign language the school uses as a medium of instruction). This country may, for example, have been the place of origin of the immigrant community that founded the school. Alternatively it may be a country that the school considers itself most culturally, as well as linguistically, bound to outside Argentina. 3. In a recent update of the Italian Consulate website in Buenos Aires (www. consitalia-bsas.org.ar=espanol=scolastiche.htm) only four Italian schools are listed catering for 2225 pupils and with a staff of 309 teachers. These four schools have ‘ministerial’ teachers (22 of them in four schools), i.e. teachers employed by the Italian


4.

5.

6. 7. 8.

9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19.

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government to teach at these schools. The total number of Italian schools is slightly higher if we take into account those schools without these direct diplomatic links. This trend, along with others in relation to bilingual schools, has been considerably affected by the economic crisis in Argentina, particularly as a consequence of the devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002, which has made it virtually impossible for schools to be able to offer internationally competitive salaries. For some indicators of yearly fees of all private schools in the City and Province of Buenos Aires, see reports prepared by the Argentine Ministry of Economy. www.minproduccion.gov.ar=secdef=basehome=precios.htm, access 12=09=02. Note that this list includes non-bilingual schools. As early as 1904, an institution was founded specifically to train foreign language teachers; this institution is the Instituto de Ense~ nanza Superior en Lenguas Vivas ‘Juan Ram on Ferna˜ ndez’, (Vanbiesem de Burbridge & Bruno de Zamacona, 1982). www.essarp.org.ar, access 14=09=02. Some attempts have been made to address this problem within ESSARP courses, for example: ‘Understanding Bilingualism: from home to school and society’ course taught by Christine Helot in 2002. www.essarp.org.ar=course2002.html, access 14=09=02. ‘Introduction to Bilingualism and Bilingual Education’ course taught by Cristina Banfi in 2002. www.essarp.org.ar=course2002.html, access 14=09=02. ‘Bilingual Education in Primary Schools in Alsace, France’ course taught by Christine Helot in 2001. www.essarp.org.ar=course2001.html, access 14=09=02. ‘An Overview of Immersion Education’ course taught by Myriam Met in 2001. www.essarp.org.ar=course2001.html, access 14=09=02. For example. Barker College (f. 1897), St George’s College (f. 1898), Villa Devoto (f. 1908), Goethe Schule (f. 1897). See Graham-Yooll (2002) on itinerant teachers as well. Other examples can be found, such as the Northlands School extension to Nordelta: a new development north of Tigre (to the North of Buenos Aires) emulates similar moves by schools like St Catherine’s-Moorlands. Cardinal Newman College still admits boys only and Michael Ham Memorial College continues to admit girls only. Conversely, Northlands School, a traditional girls’ school is in the process of becoming co-ed, having opened its primary school to boys in 1999. The international links of the schools have specific concrete events and programmes. These include examples of exchange programmes of staff and students, sports and cultural trips. St Andrew’s Scots School reports its preparation of pupils for Cambridge Local Examinations as early as 1909 (Escuela Escocesa San Andre´ s, 1988: 62). See www.cie.org.uk for a general overview of certification offerings. Litty Mora. Argentina Representative for Cambridge International Examinations, Personal Communication. See www.ibo.org for more information on curricular offerings. The IBO website shows 55 Argentine schools offering their programme but some schools appear more than once if they offer more than one of the three IBO programmes (the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme, and=or the IB Diploma). When we control for this factor we find that there are approximately 45 IB diploma schools in Argentina. For a broader overview of IB penetration into South America throughout the 1980s and 1990s see Fox (1998: 237). Although the IB listing provides the languages of instruction used in each school there are some inaccuracies.

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