Bilingual Education

Definitions

Simply defined, bilingual education is instruction that uses two languages as media of instruction. By extension, multilingual education programs aim for proficiency in more than two languages. These programs are implemented in many different forms in countries all over the world and respond to national and local contexts, student needs, and available resources.

In this entry, native language will be used to refer to the language in which the child has been raised, although it must be noted that in multilingual environments this can be more than one language and it may not always be the same variety as the (standard) language variety taught in school. The dominant or societal language is the predominant language used for communication in the students' nation (including government, education, media). It generally has a high-status standard variety that is used and taught in schools. A second language is a language learned at a later stage than the native language. This often occurs outside the home through school or the media. Heritage language is the language used by a particular ethnic group. Minority or dominated languages are languages used by language groups who are politically and socially placed in a minority situation but may not necessarily be numerically in the minority. In many school districts in the United States, Spanish is a minority language even though Spanish-speaking students may constitute the largest student group. Majority language speakers are speakers of the dominant, or societal, language. They are increasingly a numerical minority in urban schools.

The definition of bilingual education as instruction in and through two languages does not consider foreign language classes as a form of bilingual education because, even though some form of bilingual proficiency is reached, the foreign language is only taught as a subject. This entry also excludes out-of-school efforts for native language maintenance through community-based organizations that complement monolingual education in the societal language; although this situation results in de facto bilingual education, both languages are not used within the same instructional approach. Finally, it must be noted that much research has described bilingual education at the elementary grades, though interest in preschool and secondary models is increasing.

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