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INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL |
PARTICULAR ADVANTAGES |
PARTICULAR CONCERNS
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Bilingual Education: |
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Early-Exit Transitional |
- Berman (1992) notes that early-exit TBE:
- makes efficient use of limited bilingual teachers by concentrating
them at early grades
- maintains native language oral fluency
- builds in bilingual communication with parents
- Ramirez (1991) found that limited English proficient students in TBE improve their skills in mathematics, English language, and reading better than expected in comparison to at-risk students in the general population.
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- Berman (1992) notes native language skills may not be fully developed to allow transfer to English.
- Ramirez (1991) found most students remain in this program longer than expected.
- Brisk (1998) notes that success of early-exit TBE measured more by speed at which students are mainstreamed than content-area learning.
- Cummins (1998) maintains "quick-exit transitional bilingual education is an inferior model based on an inadequate theoretical assumption; this model aspires to monolingualism and does little to address the causes of bilingual students’ underachievement."
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Late-Exit Transitional/Developmental or Maintenance |
- Encourages proficient bilingual students
- Strong promotion of students’ primary language literacy skills not only develops a conceptual foundation for academic growth but also communicates clearly to students value of the cultural and linguistic resources they bring to school (Cummins, 1998).
- Increased involvement of minority-language speaking families in children’s education because of home language use.
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- Students entering late or exiting early from the program (transience)
- Maintaining continuity of program model across grades and schools
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Bilingual Immersion |
- Appears to improve language arts achievement compared to transitional bilingual programs (Brisk, 1998).
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- Students may be unprepared for transition to mainstream classrooms.
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Integrated TBE |
- Increases academic and social contact of minority and majority students through integrated classrooms.
- Supports bilingual students who have been mainstreamed
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- In practice, may become submersion with primary language support, if teachers and language do not have equal status (Brisk 1998).
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Dual language Immersion (aka two-way bilingual)
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- Students learn language and acquire positive cross-cultural attitudes from each other and teachers.
- Integrates minority children and English-speaking peers
- Evaluations indicate effectiveness in promoting academic achievement and high levels of language proficiency for both groups of students.
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- Language used in early grades of immersion may be modified to accommodate English speaking students, impacting language development of language-minority students (Valdés, 1997)
- Privileged status may be conferred on participating language-majority students (Valdés, 1997).
- Unknown effect of programs using languages with different alphabets (i.e. Cantonese/English).
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Immersion Education: |
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ELD (English Language Development)/ESL (English as a Second Language) Pull-Out |
- Students with different primary languages can be in the same class.
- Flexible in accommodating small numbers of ELLs with diverse languages.
- Teachers do not need to be fluent in primary language(s) of students.
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- Very costly as additional ESL resource teachers must be used.
- Does not build on students’ primary language for academic development
- Pull-out may stigmatize students or have them miss content instruction
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Structured Immersion
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- Allows for English content instruction for intermediate ELLs.
- Students with different primary languages in the same class.
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- Complex subject matter content could be diluted.
- Rapid mainstreaming before development of sufficient English proficiency.
- Much variation in models
- Definitional blurring common in research
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Submersion with Primary Language Support |
- Provides some support and access to comprehensible input
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- Largely a "sink or swim" method
- Neglects literacy development
- Insufficient access to academic content
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Canadian French Immersion |
- Students achieve a high level of fluency in second language.
- Students score at or above norm of English speakers in monolingual English programs in tests of reading and mathematics.
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- Students’ second language is "fossilized" since there is no contact with native French (L2) speaking peers
- Limited interpersonal communication skills
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Indigenous Language Immersion (e.g. Navajo) |
- Programs shaped and supported by local people with authority to mold social environment of the school
- Rock Point Community School students (AZ-Navajo/English) improved academic achievement, scoring higher than neighboring schools, other Navajo-speaking students on reservation, and other Indian students on CAT reading test (Holm, 1995).
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- Few texts and curriculum available in indigenous languages.
- Few programs extend beyond elementary school.
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