Bilingual Educational Programs
CFN 107 supports our schools with the implementation of various ESL services, including bilingual educational programs.
Transitional bilingual education (TBE):
Maintenance or developmental bilingual education:
Submersion Programs:
Structured Immersion Programs:
Alternate Immersion Programs:
Concurrent Translation Programs:
Adapted from Crawford, J. (1991). Bilingual education: History, politics, theory, and practice, Second Edition. Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Educational Services, Inc.
Please contact Tzong-Jin Lee for more information regarding ESL services.
Transitional bilingual education (TBE):
- The goal is to prepare students to enter mainstream English classrooms (a transition usually completed within two or three years) by providing a portion of instruction in children's native language to help them keep up in school subjects, while they study English in programs designed for second-language learners.
- The bulk of federal Title VII grants must support this approach, requiring only that some amount of native language and culture be used.
- TBE refers to a range of approaches from stressing native-language development to nothing more than the translation services of bilingual aides.
- Studies have shown that English is the medium of instruction from 72 to 92 percent of the time in TBE programs.
- TBE is referred to as a compensatory model meaning it is compensating for students' needs or as subtractive bilingualism attempting to replace a child's native tongue with English as quickly as possible
- TBE is associated with low level of proficiency in both languages and underachievement in school.
Maintenance or developmental bilingual education:
- The goal is to preserve and enhance students' skills in the mother tongue while they acquire a second language.
- Maintenance bilingual education is considered an enrichment model, adding to students' linguistic abilities or additive bilingualism, continuing the development in both languages.
Submersion Programs:
- Submersion is also referred to as "sink or swim.
- Students who speak languages other than English receive no special language assistance.
- Submersion is a violation of federal civil rights law based on the U.S. Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols (1974).
Structured Immersion Programs:
- Structured immersion programs focus on developing second language abilities of students who speak a minority language (Spanish speakers learning English).
- Structured immersion programs are supported by some U.S. Department of Education officials.
- Structured immersion programs can easily become submersion programs because they rely heavily on the use of English over developing or maintaining the first language.
Alternate Immersion Programs:
- Alternate immersion programs are most often referred to as "sheltered English."
- Students receive second-language instruction that is "sheltered" from input beyond their comprehension, first in subjects that are less language-intensive, such as math, and later in those that are more language intensive, such as social studies.
- Lessons can be presented in one language one day and then the second language the next day.
Concurrent Translation Programs:
- Teachers shifts between languages to communicate each idea.
- Concurrent translation programs are wide spread.
- Researchers have discredited concurrent translation programs.
- Children often ignore the second language.
- Teachers tend to favor one language or the other, usually not developing both languages.
- Teachers tend to not make English intelligible.
Adapted from Crawford, J. (1991). Bilingual education: History, politics, theory, and practice, Second Edition. Los Angeles, CA: Bilingual Educational Services, Inc.
Please contact Tzong-Jin Lee for more information regarding ESL services.
