Transforming early years education into a bilingual experience: an exploration of language dispositions in a local authority in Chile

The proposed research project aims to explore the perceptions and attitudes of early years teachers after the recent implementation of a bilingual (Spanish/English) education curriculum in pre-school and primary schools in Coronel (Concepcion, Chile). The study is cross discipline, marrying early years language acquisition with language ideology and linguistic analysis methods. Specifically, the study’s main aims are twofold: firstly to create a space for reflection in which the teaching group can examine the pedagogical value of their practices; and secondly, to undertake a discourse analysis of the dialogue, to determine ideological values which are driving the teacher’s attitudes. It is hoped that, together, both approaches will allow the researchers and teachers to uncover solutions to the challenges faced, through questioning and evaluating the methods used during the early implementation phase of the new curriculum.