Bilingual education: models, outcomes, and implementation strategies

Bilingual Education

The Sociology of Bilingual Education -- an integrative solution

One of the most politically controversial issues in America today is bilingual education. The political debate is often framed in terms of the question as to whether America should be a mosaic of other cultures and languages, or if immigrants should be quickly forced to join the melting pot of American identity. Two different, polarized approaches are usually used in the bilingual education of children. The first is a gradual introduction, for example, having half the day devoted to English-intensive instruction in subjects such as reading and social studies, but educating students in more difficult, less linguistically-based subjects such as math and science during the other half of the day, and only integrating students with native speakers when they achieve a certain minimal level of fluency. The other approach is that of total immersion. Unfortunately, the relative merits of both approaches are often lost in the heat of the debate, and both have their detriments, as the first approach can be isolating and the second approach does not provide enough academic support for students struggling with the burdens of learning academic subjects in a foreign language.

From a sociological perspective, there is a strong argument for an immersion approach. "Research indicates that racially and ethnically mixed settings can have a positive influence on cross-cultural relationships, language attitudes....Bilingual program graduates indicated that the lack of interaction with members of the Anglo culture prior to exiting into a grade-level classroom was a major barrier to becoming full members in the standard curriculum classroom (de Jong, 2006:1). However, concerns about estranging students from their home cultures have motivated educators create an integrated approach to bilingual education called "TWI" or two-way immersion (de Jong, 2006:1). This shows that "bilingual education can be enrichment education for all students" and that "bilingual programs do not always have to be segregationist, as its opponents allege" (de Jong, 2006:2). In one such program, students were grouped by their own homeroom "(the monolingual or the transitional bilingual classroom) for morning activities, social studies, and ESL but were integrated for reading and language arts, math, and science. Flexible grouping practices were important to the success of the program: students had access to Spanish-only, English-only, or bilingual instruction throughout the school day depending on their individual linguistic and academic needs" (de Jong, 2006:3).

This ensured grade-level content learning in most academic subjects, but still allowed for ESL instruction, and social studies content that reinforced their home cultures. Also, bilingual teachers were paired with grade-level standard curriculum teachers to discuss the individual student's different rates of progression and to create an effective, evolving curriculum that supported both ESL and traditional academic instruction. It also gave students support from students experiencing similar struggles as themselves with learning English in a supportive environment combined with exposure to fluent native English speakers later in the day. Non-native speaking children were also paired with same-age learners in class who could give them aid when needed (de Jong, 2006:4).