What is Bilingual Education?

1. What is Bilingual Education? • An educational approach that involves the use of two languages of instruction; • In the USA, bilingual education assumes use of English and another language for instruction, regardless of the amount of native language instruction, which sometimes may be used up to 90% of the curriculum.

2. Thus, • “Programs that do not provide significant amounts of instruction in the primary language and development of literacy LA in that language are not included under the rubric of BE.

3. ESL: English as a Second Language Development of literacy in English, that is, learning the fours skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening in English.

4. Rationale for Bilingual Education Developing ELL’s (English language learner’s) native-language skills leads to higher levels of academic achievement and linguistic competency. If one learns to read and write in the first language, one may learn to read and write in general. That ability is transferred to the second language. It does not make sense to learn content in a language that we do not understand. Academic knowledge acquired through the first language transfers to the second language.

5. Bilingual: • Individual or person who has age-appropriate language skills in two languages (Celce-Murcia, 2000).

6. Population served by BE programs: • Any type of students: English speakers, international, immigrant children, language minority; • Classrooms may be composed entirely of ELLs or they may include native English speakers who are learning Spanish, Chinese, Navajo, or some other language.

7. Language Used: • Native language (heritage language) and the second language. (the majority language); • Use of languages vary –amount and on how many years program uses language instruction.

8. BE Program Models: • Additive program, maintenance models. • Transitional, developmental, or two-way bilingual education; • 50/50, 90/10, 80/20, 10/90 depending on amount of language instruction; • transition to the all-English mainstream is rapid (one to three years) or gradual (five to six years).

9. BE Goals: • Learning English; • Fostering academic achievement; • Acculturating immigrants to a new society; • Preserving minority groups; linguistic and cultural heritage; • Enabling English speakers to learn a second language; • Developing national language resources; Or a combination of the above

10. Relashionship between ESL and Bilingual Education • All BE models feature some form of ESL instruction: • sheltered instruction/content-based ESL to teach the language through academic content; • direct English instruction; • English-only programs such as English immersion do not meet the definition of BE; • ESL should be part of any bilingual program in an English-speaking context.

11. Language Minority • In the US, individuals living in households in which a language other than English is spoken. A language-minority child may be bilingual (biliterate in two languages), limited-English proficient (LEP) or English monolingual (Lesson-Hurley, 1991) • Dominant language is the language with which the speaker has greater proficiency and-or uses more often (Baker, 1993). • Native Language is the primary or first language spoken by an individual.

12. Immigrant: • ‘Immigrant children and youth’ is defined as, “individuals who are aged 3 through 21; were not born in any state; and have not been attending one or more schools in any one or more states for more than 3 full academic years. (See P.L. 107-110 Title III, Part C, § 3301(6).) Federal definition of immigrant, under the NCLB act , used for PEIMS reporting purposes (E0797 IMMIGRANT-INDICATOR-CODE).

13. Immigrant: • Any Limited English Proficient (LEP) student who has resided outside the fifty United States for at least two consecutive years and who may qualify for exemption from the State Assessment if additional criteria as specified on the LPAC Decision-Making Procedural Manual are met. STUDENT ASSESSMENT DEFINITION For the sole purpose of the statewide Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Texas Education Agency, LPAC Decision-Making Procedural Manual, Fall 2002). 19 TAC §101.1005, 101.1007, 101.1009 .

14. LEP: Limited English Proficient Student—the term used by the federal government, most states, and local school districts to identify those students who have insufficient English to succeed in English-only classrooms (Lessow-Hurley, 1991). • A limited-English-proficient student is an individual, age 3 to 21, who is enrolled (or about to enroll) in a U.S. elementary or secondary school and meets these two requirements. • 1. Belongs to one of the following categories: • • Was not born in the United States or speaks a native language other than English; • • Is a Native American, Alaska Native, or native resident of outlying areas and comes from an environment where a language other than English has had a significant impact on the individual’s level of English language proficiency; or • • Is migratory, speaks a native language other than English, and comes from an environment where a language other than English is dominant.

15. 2. An LEP student may be unable, because of difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language, to: • Score at the proficient level on state assessments of academic achievement • Learn successfully in classrooms where the language of instruction is English; • or participate fully in society