Bilingual Education
... Bilingual education came into existence with the help of the government. Partially as a swing off the Civil Rights Movement, in 1968, Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act mandating schools to provide bilingual education programs anytime twenty or more children spoke the same foreign language, and were found to be limited in their English proficiency. ... Bilingual education is a must if children are going to succeed in the academic environment and in becoming productive adults. The debate between bilingual education and English immersion programs bilingual education is defined as any school program that uses two languages. ... The definition of a coordinated, developmental bilingual approach has emphasized the goal of being equally fluent in both languages. Realistically, this has not been the goal for most K-12 bilingual schools in the United States. More commonly in the United States we are using the words “bilingual program” to describe a program that will provide literacy and content in the primary language, while building English fluency, to the point where all instruction will occur in English. These programs are label transitional bilingual programs as their ultimate goal is to transition all students into an English only learning environment. ... All transitional bilingual program uses the students home language, in addition to English, for instruction. ... Students in bilingual programs are grouped according to their first language, and where teachers are proficient in both English and the students home language. ... Transitional Bilingual Programs may be “Early-Exit” or “Late-Exit” programs depending on how fast L. ... In “Early-Exit” Transitional Bilingual Programs students are provided English Language Development lessons which is known in schools as ESL, English as a Second Language, academic and literacy instruction are through their primary language, and S. ... According to Collin Baker, author of Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, the early-exit model also known as submersion is a sink or swim type of program that is supposed to promote rapid oral English development, has a lot of downfalls.