English-Only or Bilingual Instruction?

They’re Young! They will learn quickly and easily.

The Language Learning Myth Younger learners are better than adult learners. Not true - young learners usually have better learning environments. Adults are better at grammar. Young learners are better at pronunciation.

Early Bilingual Programs The US – 1700 to Miami Florida s “Mother tongue” – initial reading instruction 1974 – Lau vs Nichols (US Supreme Court) English Only – Arizona & California

Bilingual Programs T.B.E. Bilingual immersion Dual Language Instruction

National Literacy Panel (2003) August & Shanahan (2006) conclude ".... by and large, for language-minority children, word-level components of literacy (e.g., decoding, spelling) either are or can be (with appropriate instruction) at levels equal to those of their monolingual peers" (p. 13)

National Literacy Panel ".... this is not the case for test-level skills, like reading comprehension, which rarely approach the levels achieved by their monolingual peers" (p. 13). second language oral proficiency is significant in second language literacy development.

National Literacy Panel "Language-minority students who are literate in their first languages are likely to be advantaged in the acquisition of English literacy" (p. 17). ".... language-minority students instructed in their native language (primarily Spanish in this report) as well as English, perform on average, better on English reading measures than language-minority students instructed only in their second language (English in this case)" (p. 17).

Which Approach is Superior? Unfortunately, it seems clear that the claims that one instructional approach is superior to any other appear to be founded on limited or questionable evidence.

What is Your View?