Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Auguste Meyrat
Dual-language (DL) instruction is like any other kind of instruction, in
that the same strategies that works for one discipline will likely work
for another. Even if the approach to language acquisition is different
from other bilingual programs, the fundamentals of good teaching
remain the same. As with any other successful educational program,
an effective DL program requires well-qualified teachers, instructional
consistency, regular assessment and feedback, and frequent practice
(Castro, Paez, Dickinson, & Frede, 2011). If done well, a DL program
can help create big improvements in bilingual education; if done
poorly, it will soon revert to less effective forms of English remediation
(Freeman, 2000).
As mentioned, most DL programs start with a 90:10 model, in which
the teacher will instruct ninety percent of his or her content (in all
subject areas, not just language arts) in the native language of the
students, and ten percent in the new language currently being
acquired. Eventually, the students would transition into a 50:50 model
in which half the instruction would be in the native language and the
other in English.
Ideally, such a program would begin in the early grades of elementary
school when the vocabulary and content would not be necessarily
simplified for the purposes of language comprehension (Castro, Paez,
Dickinson, & Frede, 2011). For example, a native English speaker will
be in the same class with English language learner (ELL), and at the
beginning, their teacher will have to use a very basic form of English
and the ELLs language in order to have the two students follow along
in some meaningful way. An administrator hoping to implement the
program must be careful that neither group is under-challenged or
over-challenged, but that both continue to build fluency in their native
language as well as the new one. In many cases, one must prioritize
either teaching a foreign language to English speakers or teaching
English to ELLs, thus resulting in mixed success for the students
general education (Valdez, 1997).
Most of the success of a DL program rest on the teacher. Besides
having a mastery of two languages, the teacher must create an
environment that helps encourage both groups of learners. The beauty
of DL instruction versus remediation programs is that ELL students do
not need to feel like outsiders. Rather, they feel as though they are
part of something, and this has practical consequences for the
students learning. However, it is important to give time to the program
since it may take a few years or more before the benefits of the