Abstract:

Nowadays, at the beginning of the XXI century, bilingual education is considered to be quite a promising area. Over the course of time, multiple countries around the world have accumulated vast experience of bilingual education in the field of international education, starting from primary school stage. One of the leading programs in this area is the International Baccalaureate program which enables primary school students to acquire not only subject-related competences and language competences, but also to develop cognitive abilities and higher-order thinking skills. The positive effect of bilingualism on the development of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) of primary school students may only be achieved through a purposefully constructed developmental educational system involving two languages, the way it is practiced at the International schools.

The article presents an overview of the results obtained in the course of a research project conducted at the International School of Kazan (Russia) which operates according to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP). The article describes the means and results of measuring the level of cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) development (cognitive, academic and language competences) of students within three semesters of study. It also provides a forecast of results for the fourth semester.

Keywords:

Bilingualism, bilingual education, International Baccalaureate, cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP).