Forward thinking
Professor Jim Cummins is bringing his three decades of experience as a hands-on educational linguist to the new IB language policy – which means the future is in safe hands, as Crispin Andrews discovers.
When you are one of the world’s foremost experts in the virtues of bilingualism, you need to practise what you preach. Professor Jim Cummins, of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada, does just that. Fluent in French and Gaelic as well as English, he is a living embodiment of how personal characteristics and prior learning can enrich, rather than detract from, language learning.
His accent, an engaging mix of Canadian and Irish – the two countries in which he has spent most of his life – bestows a distinctive individualism to a command of English as distinguished as might be expected of someone who has written and lectured on language development for almost 30 years.
“Both Ireland and Canada have large non-English speaking minorities, but English as the language of the majority has tended to dominate,” he says. “It’s a great language, but given the chance the one thing I would change would be the bizarre sound-symbol relationships [the way word sounds relate to meaning and spelling]. These may give English some of its charm, but can make it pretty difficult for others to pick things up.”
Prof Cummins’ work is all about making English easier to learn as an additional language, but his influential theories are readily applied to other non-native language learners. More students than ever are having to learn additional languages to access educational opportunities. But for Prof Cummins, the presence of large numbers of students with a range of first languages within international schools should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a challenge: “We live in multilingual societies, so what happens in our schools should not just reflect this but celebrate it.”
He has certainly immersed himself in the topic. Few linguists have had such a profound influence on pedagogy: within the circles of educational linguistics, Prof Cummins is almost universally revered for the straightforward way he explains and develops theories on language and learning. Though his work rarely reaches the public consciousness, it has helped develop educational programmes in every corner of the globe, in all manner of schools.
He is notable for taking his theories into the classroom and working directly with teachers, as well as for staying at the University of Toronto despite overtures from some of the most distinguished academic institutions in the world, aiding a new generation of linguists.
Prof Cummins’ most cited work relates to the differences between different levels of educational development. When qualifying language ability, he distinguishes between a student’s Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). “Put simply, it’s the difference between everyday language and the language of academia,” he says.
“While non-native speakers might be able to pick up enough English to interact with their peers and teachers relatively quickly, understanding and utilizing the more complex language of textbooks and curricula is much more difficult. It can take longer for a non-native speaker to catch up academically.”
He says this period can last up to five years, as the native speaker’s own language skills are also developing. Prof Cummins believes that if careful and regular assessments are not made, relative proficiency on a BICS level can mask difficulties students are having with their learning. Unlike interpersonal communication, academic language does not rely on a small number of high-frequency words and there is no facial expression, tone of voice and gesture to support the information exchange.
“Students are dealing with a complex set of language forms to which they have no other access – not at home, on the playground or even on television,” he adds “As they develop understanding of the native language, not only must the language of learning be taught across the curriculum, but opportunities to access the curriculum in ways that do not rely on knowledge of the new language alone must be found.”
Prof Cummins also insists it is vital for a student’s native language to be viewed as a positive, rejecting the idea that the two languages must be kept separate and the student discouraged from using their native tongue. Instead, he advocates teaching for transfer across both languages:
“A student’s own language is a powerful learning tool that allows an individual to show their true intelligence while they are developing their knowledge of the native language.”
It is a cause he first took up in the 1970s, when he was involved with a successful ‘Parents for French’ campaign which encouraged bilingualism in Canadian schools as a way of preserving heritage. Allied to his experiences researching Gaelic speakers in Ireland it has given him a powerful insight into the issues surrounding minority languages.
He advises teachers to look for similarities and differences between languages and provide opportunities for students to write, speak and present in their mother tongue. “Yes, this is about assisting capacity to translate,” he continues. “But it is also about helping the student – who is a young person after all – to feel more confident and proud of who they are, and to motivate them to want to achieve and progress.”
A good teacher, he says, is one who connects with an individual’s background, is curious about students and seeks ways to engage with them and is willing to explore and potentially take risks to do so.
The IB language policy will provide guidance on teaching at both a policy and delivery level. Prof Cummins – part of the working group behind the changes – is impressed and would like to see even more attention paid to providing specific support to students who are in the process of catching up.
He insists that to be effective, the whole idea of multilingualism must be embedded into a school’s ethos as a positive. “This isn’t something that can be left to a support teacher or the languages specialist,” he says. “School leadership needs to ensure all staff are taking responsibility for developing non-native speakers within their own subject areas, are learning from good practice and exploring new possibilities.”
CV Professor Jim Cummins
1949 Born in Dublin, Ireland
1970 First-class honours degree in psychology, University College Dublin
1971-4 PhD thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
1974-6 Research associate, St Patrick’s College, Dublin
1976-8 Research associate, University of Alberta
1980- Hundreds of workshops and keynote presentations worldwide; author of 13 books and editor of eight
1981- Visiting/Assistant/Associate Professor/Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada
