Bilingual Education

Bilingual Education is an umbrella term used to refer to various types of programs and models. It is a term used in two ways:

1.       For education that promotes academic and linguistic development in two languages.

2.       To denote programs that include students who speak languages other than English.

Submersion: The default mode for education English learners in the United States Classrooms and provides no provisions made for the language and academic needs of English Learners. Students receive instruction in English with English monolingualism as the goal.

ELD- English instruction is delivered in different ways.

Pull-out ELD: English learners leave their home classroom and receive instruction in vocabulary, grammar, oral language, and spelling for separate half hour to one hour per day classes with trained ELD teachers.

ELD class period: Students in the secondary school often have separate ELD classes that help them with their English skills. The effect of such segregation is that students may not receive academic rich instruction.

Content Based ELD: Students learn English through academic content in a curriculum organized around grade-level academic objectives. The mose effective of these models is when ELD teachers collaborate with content area teachers.

Sheltered Instruction: is instruction provided by teachers who have both content background and knowledge of best practices in second language acquisition. Lessons have content, language, and learning strategy objectives.

Transitional or Early-Exit Bilingual Education: goal is to mainstream students into English only classrooms. In these programs students receive initial instruction in most, if not all, content areas in their home language while they are being taught English.

Maintenance or Developmental Bilingual Education: supports education and communication in the students primary language as well as student heritage and culture. The major assumption in such a program is that bilingualism is a valuable asset, not only for the individuals who are bilingual but for society.

Immersion Bilingual Education:  provides academic and language instruction in two languages, ideally from grades K-12. The goal of immersion programs is for student to be proficient in both languages.