Bilingual Education

Bilingual education is an approach that teaches students in two or more languages, using both as the medium of instruction across different subjects such as math, science and history rather than teaching a second language only as its own subject, with the goal of fluency and literacy in both languages achieved through strategies such as translanguaging and recasting. It takes several program forms grouped by their goals: maintenance bilingual education, which aims to keep building proficiency in both languages throughout schooling and includes dual language programs run on models such as ninety-ten or fifty-fifty splits between languages, and transitional bilingual education, which uses a student's native language at first to prevent falling behind academically while the student acquires a second language, before shifting to single language instruction once proficiency is judged adequate. It is distinct from English as a second language instruction, which teaches English as the primary goal rather than aiming for literacy in both languages, and research on bilingual education has grown since 2008 alongside increased attention to translanguaging and culturally responsive teaching within it.