Bilingual Education

Bilingual education refers to the instructional use of two languages in school. Although bilingual programs are implemented in education systems worldwide, the goals and pedagogical approaches vary widely. Therefore, much debate surrounds efforts to implement bilingual programs. Within the United States, recent educational policies have been generally unsupportive of bilingual education. There are three general models of bilingual education. They differ in terms of their goals concerning students' language skills, cultures, and positions in society. Within each model, educators employ a range of program types with the aim of meeting the respective model's goals. Program types vary in a number of respects, such as: the student populations they serve (e.g., only minority language students, or all students), the proportion of instructional time and the kinds ...