Language policy and equal status: A change from monolingualism to bilingualism in a small district in California
Abstract (summary)
The issue of how to best educate the language divergent child came to the forefront in 1974 when the US Supreme Court decided unanimously in the Lau vs. Nichols case that public schools must provide special assistance to students who enter school with limited English proficiency. Districts have attempted to address this issue with a variety of instructional approaches ranging from submersion completely in English to maintenance of primary language through sixth grade.
One model not often implemented is a two-way bilingual model where English and Spanish speaking students learn together how to speak, read and write a second language. The program, in short, is oriented toward an enrichment of children's linguistic and cultural experiences and is not compensatory in nature.
This study examined the feasibility of a two-way bilingual program as an educational alternative for both ethnolinguistically diverse students and English only students. This study also analyzed selected factors in the change process that took place in the implementation of this two-way bilingual model.
The study investigated (1) the interrelationship of selected variables in determining if the academic skills of reading and mathematics of English Learners who had participated in a two-way bilingual program were any different than EL students who had been in a different type of bilingual program; (2) the interrelationship of selected variables in determining if the academic skills of reading and mathematics of EL students who had participated in a two-way bilingual program were different than other ethnically and culturally diverse students of the same SES background who had not been in a two-way bilingual program but had been in the same educational environment; (3) the academic skills of reading and mathematics of English only (EO) students who had participated in a two-way bilingual program were different than EO students who had not been in the bilingual program; (4) if there was a common underlying proficiency between English and Spanish; (5) the salient features of a two-way bilingual program; and (6) the steps taken to change from monolingualism to bilingualism in a small school district.
Indexing (details)
School administration;
Educational administration
0455: Multicultural Education