In this file, I have tried to explain about different kinds of bilingual education and theories behind them.

1. Lecturer : Javad Ghasemi

2. A brief historical introduction to bilingual education
Mackey (1978) bilingual education:
thousands of years old
the invention of alphabet
Mass education: a century or two
the teaching of languages were the study of classical and
foreign languages for academic purposes & it moves to a basic
social and economic necessity.
 the roots of contemporary forms of bilingual education :
experimental classrooms such as:
St Lambert French immersion kindergarten, the Dade
Country two-way immersion program, and the first
European School

3. Current state of debate about
bilingualism
Bilingual immersion education
Bilingualism & nationalism
Language ecology & revitalization movements

4. Bilingual immersion education
The longest debate: “does it work?”
Bilingual immersion education: 50 percent of
curricular content is delivered through the medium of
the second language.
The concerned parents of French bilingual children
“ felt their children were being shortchanged and
should have the opportunity to became bilingual with
the school system”. They wanted ‘normal’ education and
it should lead to bilingualism by the end of elementary
school with no deficit in the mother tongue.

5. Bilingualism & nationalism
Nationalism: one language, one nation and signaling
the unification of a nation-state through a common
language. ( Hornberger, 2001)
The root of bilingual education: political ideology
rejects : singularity of cultural vision
& works toward :
understanding across cultural and linguistic difference.

6. Language ecology & revitalization movements
6700, oral languages around the world
Over 5000 of them are spoken in just 22 countries, and many
of them are under threat of extinction( Tove- Skutnabb-
Kangas).
11.5 percent of world’s languages have fewer than 150
speakers, 30 percent have fewer than 1000 speakers
(Daniel Nette).
Bilingual education can be both saboteur & guardian of
”biolinguistic diversity”.
It is a tool for spreading world languages(international
popularity of English), a vehicle for language maintenance
programs where children's home languages are reinforced
through literate study at school.

7. It can be a critical mainstay in language revitalization
programs where children are educated in a threatened
language, offering a means of language regeneration.
Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) mentioned that schools
alone cannot save endangered languages, but they can
kill them.
The political engineering of language and literacy
competencies through educational and economic
reward can be to the detriment as well as the support
of language revitalization and maintenance efforts.

8. Contexts of Bilingual Education
Sociocultural
Political
1) Language policy
2) Language planning
3) Language standards
Psychological
1) Attitudes

9.  Sociocultural:
 Language signals cultural identity
 Variable contexts for bilingual education
 The micro-context of the home could be monolingual
and monocultural, monolingual but bicultural, bilingual
and bicultural, or multilingual.

10.  Language policy: language politically be perceived as a
problem, right, and resources.
 In the American “melting pot,” bilingualism is envisioned as
a transitional state: minority language speakers must pass en
route to majority language adoption.
 subtractive bilingualism : where the replacement of second
language (L2) to the first language (L1), is reinforced. this is
language shift rather than any kind of bilingualism.
 Additive bilingualism :where the addition of L2 to the L1
occurs, is encouraged in such a political climate.
 where individual and societal languages are not equally
supported, bilingual education can be either additive or
subtractive, depending on the learner’s L1.

11. Models of Bilingual Education
Learning a second language
Bilingual and multilingual education
 Baker’s (2001) characterization of education programs for
bilingual learning:
 strong : the intended outcomes of the program : are additive
bilingualism and biliteracy.
 Weak: In education programs additive bilingualism is not an
intended outcome of the program.

12. Bilingual education programs may be aimed at:
 enrichment education for majority language speakers
(L2 = minority language),
 maintenance education for bilingual speakers (L2 =
minority language),
 compensatory education for minority language
speakers in a majority context (L2 = majority
language),
 transitional education for minority language speakers
in a majority context (L2 = majority language),
 revitalization education in an endangered language
(L2 = endangered minority language).

13. Strong bilingual education programs
 Content-based learning: L2 is used as the medium of
instruction to teach and learn curricular content. The
term content-based language teaching normally refers
to programs in which less than 50 percent of the
curriculum is taught through the medium of the L2;
 immersion program: where 50 percent or more of the
curriculum is taught through the L2.
 Total immersion programs: introduce the second
language immediately and use it for 100 percent of
course work for a specified period of time leading to
gradual introduction of the first language.

14.  Two-way immersion programs: integrate a majority
and a minority language community in a bilingual,
bicultural program providing instruction through
the media of both languages.
 This model of bilingual education is designed for
bicultural rather than multicultural social contexts.

15. Weak second language education programs
If the aims of L2 medium education are not additive
bilingualism, then the program is submersion (the opposite
of immersion in that it provides no L1 support for children
being “immersed” in an L2).
 Transitional education: treats bilingualism as a transient
phenomenon, in accordance with the political aims of
assimilation. Transitional education aims to introduce
basic literacy and numeracy in the minority L1 alongside
introduction to the majority L2.
 Language object programs: offer formal language study.
 L2 is not used as a medium for content learning. Exposure
to the L2 is limited in this model, and traditionally focused
on form rather than meaning.

16.  Assessment and evaluation practices:
 A problem in assessing and evaluating bilingual
education programs is in defining bilingual
proficiency.
 How much and what kind of each language is enough
to label bilingual? Is there an end point or
determining set of skills in language proficiency?
 language and literacy competencies may be
differentially evaluated, educationally, socially, and
politically.
 Without acquiring the language and literacy
competencies contemporary society sees students are
deemed to have failed educationally.
Evaluation of Bilingual Education

17. Evaluation of bilingual education
is complicated; assessment needs to take account of
multiple viewpoints:
the individual child
the class as a whole
the school
and the type of educational program.
Measures of success in bilingual education programs are
dependent on the aims and goals of the program.