In the last five years, the demand for individuals who can speak more than one language in the business world has doubled and 9 out of 10 employers have started to prefer candidates who can speak two or more languages. According to the UNESCO report, the number of students who go abroad for language acquisition in our country exceeds 47 thousand. Izmir-based Eraslan School sheds light on the needs of today and the future with its bilingual education program from the age of 4.

Especially in our rapidly digitalizing lives after the pandemic, borders began to disappear in both education and business world. While access to information has become easier, the participation of candidates in the business world has become independent of country borders with remote working models. The understanding of studying abroad, which has existed in our country for a while, has become even more evident due to this increasing competition. According to the report published by UNESCO, it is understood that the number of students from Turkey who went abroad for education exceeded 47 thousand. While one-fifth of these are undergraduate and graduate programs and specialization training, it is estimated that an annual education cost of a student is 20 thousand dollars, and about 1 billion dollars are invested in education abroad per year.

Eraslan School, which opened its doors in 2016 with the family’s 30-year educational background in Izmir, managed to come to the fore in a short time with the bilingual education program it offers to its students from the age of 4. Behind this success is the aim of determining today’s needs well and providing students with future-oriented competencies. Pointing out that foreign language is the number one competency at the gateway to the world, Eraslan School Deputy General Director for Education Nur Canbaz said, “We are witnessing the surprising results of early language acquisition. It is exciting that students from the age of 4 attend classes with two teachers and soon they can communicate in the language they speak with bilingual teachers. When designing the Bilingual Learners program at Eraslan, we predicted that we would achieve these results because we created this program in cooperation with the most competent linguists and American universities. At the moment, we are experiencing the outputs of this unique program with great enthusiasm.”

They apply the bilingual education model from kindergarten

Stating that they designed a creative environment for the kindergarten students to continue their school life in two languages, Canbaz said, “Every student is accompanied by a classroom teacher and a bilingual teacher throughout the day. Our Bilingual Learners training program is carried out by two teachers at the same time. The use of both languages is supported by successive or simultaneous activities. While all activities are carried out individually, in groups or in station order, we also offer mathematics, science and life studies lessons in primary school in two languages, within the scope of the same program. We adopt an integrated education model that supports each other vertically at every stage of their education.”

While academic courses are taught in English in secondary school, university credits can be obtained in high school.

Stating that they teach secondary school courses in English at Eraslan, Canbaz said, “With the CLIL technique, which means Learning with Integrated Content and Language, we offer our students academic achievements in two languages. In this way, when our students move from middle school to high school, they can continue with the Advanced Placement (AP) education program of the College Board, of which our school is a member, and they can get university credits at the high school age with the success they get from the courses they take in this program. Pointing out that the bilingual education program trains students to be good thinkers and individuals with high problem-solving skills, Canbaz said, “In order for our students to discover their areas of interest early and to stand out as well-equipped individuals in the business world, they have been studying economics, philosophy, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence for 4 years, starting from the 9th grade. We offer electives such as international relations, art history, and psychology. We apply these lessons every week with the academicians we invite from the university, as built into the curriculum of our school. In this way, our students begin their career planning by benefiting from a deeper knowledge pool and stand out as well-equipped individuals when they go to university.”