BILUNGUALISM AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

(Types of Bilingual Education, Education for Bilingualism and Biliteracy)

Created by

Andi Sastrianti Lukman

Nurul Khatimah Haidir

St. Rahmatullah

Rezkiani

Ismail

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
2021
 Bilingual education is a term that refers to academic instruction that is
carried out in two languages, the mother tongue and the second language,
according to the program model. Bilingual education is related to general
educational goals: for individuals, communities, regions, and nations. 

The type of bilingual education is based on educational purposes.

1. Transitional: leading children who speak minority languages to the dominant
language, the majority language.
2. Maintenance: maintaining the preservation of minority languages,
strengthening understanding of cultural identity, and providing knowledge of the
rights of ethnic groups in a country.
Also, Ferguson et al. (1977) provide ten different Bilingual Education
goals than the previous ones :
(1) To assimilate individuals or groups into the mainstream of society; to socialize
people for full participation in the community.
(2) To unify a multilingual society; to bring unity to a multi-ethnic, multi-tribal, or
multi-national linguistically diverse state.
(3) To enable people to communicate with the outside world.
(4) To provide language skills which are marketable, aiding employment and
status.
(5) To preserve ethnic and religious identity.
(6) To reconcile and mediate between different linguistic and political
communities.
(7) To spread the use of a colonial language, socializing an entire population to a
colonial existence.
(8) To strengthen elite groups and preserve their position in society.
(9) To give equal status in law to languages of unequal status in daily life.
(10) To deepen understanding of language and culture.

By the list above, it can be conclude that in Bilingual education, the

balance of using two languages in the classroom is not always a topic of
discussion. Other things were discussed, which involved various philosophies and
politics. 

The classification of Bilingual Education

 The classification has a clear concept but still has limitations.
1. Use a stagnant or monotonous model which is not in line with the educational
process (school and class), which must have progressed over time.
2. There are many variations
3. The model offered focuses only at the beginning and the end, not on the
process.
4. Cannot be evaluated because they never discussed the effectiveness of the
program being offered.

Types of Bilingual Education

A. Weak Forms of Education for Bilingualism

1. Submersion Education.
Language minority children are placed in schools where the curriculum is
in the majority's language, without considering the mother tongue of language
minority children. In this program, some policies can harm minorities:
- tend to be stressed, frustrated, demotivated, which in the end can impoverish
their education, politically and economically.

2. Submersion with Pull-Out Class.

Withdrawal of Language minority children from the general classroom to
learn about the majority language. Although this program provides good progress
for Language minority children: they can learn the language well, interact more in
class and free, there are several reasons why this program has been criticized:
speakers of minority languages will be left behind in other lessons, and hostility
towards majority language speakers.

3. Segregationist Education.
Language minority children and Language Majority Children are separated.
Language Minority Children refuse to join and learn together with the Language
Majority Children. Therefore, they were study and attend schools where the
teaching program is following their mother tongue.

4. Transitional Education
This program uses the native language of Language minority children until
they are deemed proficient in the majority language and can join the Language
Majority's education and environment. This program aims to assimilate but with a
different process: to use the majority language in the classroom little by a bit
while reducing the mother tongue's use. Transitional education is divided into:
- Early-exit: use the mother tongue as assistance within the specified time frame.
- Late-exit: The 40% of mother tongue until 6th Grade
Teachers are encouraged to assist in overcoming existing problems continually.

5. Mainstream Education (with Foreign Language Teaching)

In this program, foreign languages are selected as subjects in the
curriculum. The foreign language chosen is a language that is global and
dominates everyday life. It aims to prepare the next generation to compete in
increasingly multicultural and multilingual conditions. This program is not very
successful in creating proficient foreign language speakers due to the biased
estimate of a foreign language's teaching time. However, this is not the case in
Scandinavia, where the program is successful because of high motivation factors.

6. Separatist Education
This program is almost similar to segregationist education. Language
Minority children break away from Language Majority Children. The reason is
that they want to defend their language, culture, religion from the influence of the
speakers of the majority language, and of course, they want to have independence
over what they already have. What found in the status quo is a transfer of their
children's language from a native language to a foreign language. In the end, the
structure and implementation of an educational process based on what they need.
B. Strong Forms of Education for Bilingualism and Biliteracy

Immersion Bilingual Education

Bilingual education in Canada is directly linked to historical developments

related to Canada’s official policies on bilingualism and multiculturalism. Canada
had its roots in the 1960s, a critical period in Canada’s development toward
official bilingualism in French and English. Bilingual it means that using two
different language by person with other people in environment alternately. So
bilingual children is when the child can use two different language to speak,
adapted with environment, culture, community, and family. And with
bilingualism, the child can use also for have a good relation with other in different
situation.

1. Immersion Education

In immersion education has related with bilingual education. And what is

actually? Bilingual education is involves instruction teaching academic content in
two languages in a native and secondary language. When to make relate between
bilingual children and bilingual education, it means that, children are more able to
get subtle nuances of language. When we see the situation, child can use two
different language in education. So, it means that there is immersion education.

So, immersion education is a system which all academic subjects are

taught in target language, such as French, Spanish, Mandarin, and others.

Aims Immersion Bilingual Education For Students

There are several the stated aims were for students:

 Students become competent to speak, read, and write.

 Students can reach normal achievement levels throughout the curriculum
including the English language.
 Student can appreciate the tradition and culture.
 The most aim is student become bilingual and be cultural without loss of
achievement.

Types Of Immersion Bilingual Education

 Immersion in Canada aims at bilingual in two prestigious, majority

language (French and English).
 Immersion bilingual education has been optional not compulsory. Parents
choose to send their children such as school. The cultural and economic
conviction of parents plus the commitment of the teachers may give the
motivation of students.
 Children in early immersion are often allowed to use their home language
for up to one and a half year for classroom communication.
 The teacher are competent in bilingual.
 Students start immersion education with a similar lack of experience of the
second language.

2. Developmental Maintenance And Heritage Language Bilingual Education

Children still use their mother tongue in teaching learning process.
Examples Navajo and Spanish in the USA. Not only that, in the other country it
happens the same case. In New Zealand, the Maori language has been used in
schools with some indications of positive outcomes in achievement. A similar
promotion of Aboriginal languages is occurring in heritage language education in
Australia. Same case In Ireland, Irish medium education is often available for
children from Irish language backgrounds. So children in their country still use
their native as a medium of instructional.
In the USA, some people create ethnic community mother tongue schools.
Schools have existed using the mother tongue of the following varied
communities: Arabs, Africans, Asians, French, German, Greek, Haitian, Jewish,
Russian, Polish, Japanese, Latin American, Armenian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Irish,
Rumanian, Serbian and Turkish. This organization can maintain children mother
tongue as a mediun of instruction.
 The state school US example is called maintenance bilingual education or
developmental maintenance bilingual education. These are few in number with
Navajo education being one major. Also In Canada, the term used to describe such
education is heritage language education. However, in Canada, there is a
distinction between heritage language lessons and heritage language bilingual
education. (1) Heritage language programs give around two and a half hours per
week language teaching, currently in more than 60 languages to about 100,000
students. These lessons often happen during dinner-hours, after school and at
weekends. (2) In provinces such as Manitoba, British Columbia, In essence,
developmental maintenance language education refers to the education of
language minority children through their minority and majority language. In most
cases, the majority language will be present in the curriculum, ranging from
second language lessons to a varying proportion (e.g. 10–50%) of the curriculum
being taught in the majority language. So the heritage language can’t lose but it
still exists because they provide time to learn it.
The term ‘heritage language’ can also be called ‘native language’, or, in
French, ‘languages origin’. The danger of the term ‘heritage’ is that it points to the
past and not to the future, to traditions rather than the contemporary. Partly for
this reason, the UK term tends to be ‘community language’ or ‘where English is
an additional language’. The heritage language may or may not be an indigenous
language. Both Navajo and Spanish can be perceived as heritage languages in the
USA depending on an individual’s perception of what constitutes their heritage
language. Heritage language programs in the USA and elsewhere vary in
structure and content and overlap with the 90:10 model of dual language
education. Some of the likely features are as follows:
(1) Almost all, but not necessarily all of the children will come from language
minority homes. At the same time, the minority language maybe the majority
language of a local community. In certain areas of the USA, Spanish speakers are
in a majority in their neighborhood or community. In North Wales, where the
minority language (Welsh) is often the majority language of the community,
developmental maintenance programs are prevalent. The children may be joined
in most programs by a small number of majority language children.
(2) Parents prefer sending their children to mainstream schools or to
developmental maintenance programs. Ukrainian, Jewish and Mohawkian
heritage language programs in Canada, for example, gave parents freedom of
choice in selecting schools.
(3) The language minority still provide in curriculum time. The Ukrainian
programs in Alberta and Manitoba allotted half the time to Ukrainian, half to
English. Mathematics and science, for example, were taught in English; music, art
and social studies in Ukrainian. There is a tendency to teach technological,
scientific studies through the majority language. Other models use the student’s
home language for between 50% to almost 100% of curriculum time.
(4) small language is used for big language of classroom time, the justification is
that children easily transfer ideas, concepts, skills and knowledge into the
majority language. Having taught a child multiplication in Spanish, this
mathematical concept does not have to be retaught in English.
(5) a minority language is easily lost a and a majority language easily gained in
development maintenence. Children tend to be surrounded by the majority
language. Television and train advertisements, shops and signs, videos and visits
often provide or induce bilingual proficiency. Thus bilingualism is achieved by an
initial concentration on the minority language at school. In the later stages of
elementary schooling, increasing attention may be given to majority language
development, ensuring that full bilingualism occurs. Developmental maintenance
programs will quickly be seen to fail if students do not become fully competent in
the majority language.
(6) most of Developmental maintenance are primary schools. This need not be the
case. In Wales, for example, such schools are available to the end of secondary
education and the heritage language can be used as a medium of vocational and
academic study at College and University.
3. Dual Language Bilingual Education
1. Definition of Dual Language Bilingual Education.
Dual language (or two way) bilingual education is an effective
approach to developing language proficiency and literacy in English and a
partner language. In the United States typically occurs when
approximately equal numbers of language minority and language majority
students are in the same classroom. I should be the equal between the
students who speak a language, for example the students who speak
English and Indonesia in that class should be equal. They will learn,
interact together. By the time the languages will balance. Students who
speak English will understand about Indonesia and the students who speak
Indonesia can understand English.
Dual language programs tend to share the following features:
i. A non-English language (the minority language) is used for at least
50% of instruction which lasts for up to six years.
ii. In each period of instruction, only one language is used, but must be
challenging and intensifying.
iii. Both English and non-English speakers are balanced numbers. The
English and non-English speakers are integrated in all lessons.
Dual language bilingual classrooms contain a mixture of language
majority and language minority students. A language is balance close to
50%–50%. To make the students feel fear and equal, in the classroom
everything should be balance, even the switch language. The teacher
should use 50% Indonesia and 50% English. If the students can balance
their language well, they will switch their language automatically. When
imbalance happened, among students may result in one language being
used to the exclusion of the other. Only that language that always used will
be spoken by the students, and the students who do not speak that
language will become sidelined. In dual language education, language
balance is very important.
1. Monolingual school vs. dual language bilingual school.
There are situations where attracting language majority students to
a dual language bilingual school are difficult. The monolingual school is
more attractive to prospective parents rather than bilingual school.
Recruitment to dual language bilingual schools may initially be a
challenge. For parents, allocation of their children to such dual language
bilingual programs will be voluntary and not enforced. It is the same in
Indonesia. Parents prefer ask their students to school in government school
rather than in the international school or private school, but if we see from
the quality. There are a lot of students success from the international
school because start from the very younger or in the first grades they
already learn English, but in the national school, they should follow the
curriculum. In Elementary school of national school, there is no English
subject, so the students difficult to become bilingual.
2. Dolson and Meyer (1992) seven major goals in dual language programs:
a. Students should develop high levels of proficiency in their first
language. Before join in dual language bilingual education, those
students are expected to have a higher understanding about their first
language because they will influence their friends.
b. Students should achieve high levels of proficiency in their second
language. After joining in dual language bilingual education, the
students are expected to have a higher and deep understanding about
their second language or the language that they got from the school.
c. Academic performance should eventually be at or above grade level in
both languages. The students are expected have an equal academic
performance. It should be balance between minority language and
majority language. If the students got 90 is majority language, it
should be also 90 in minority language.
d. Students should demonstrate positive cross-cultural attitudes and
behaviors. After joining this program, the students are expected to
have a good cross culture understanding about both languages. The
 students from majority language should understand the culture from
minority language. The students from minority language should
understand the majority language. Everything should be balance.
e. Students should show evidence of high levels of personal and social
competence. The students are expected to have a good personal and
social competence because they learn two cultures. They not only learn
about theirs but also others.
f. Schools should have programs of academic excellence for language
majority and language minority students. School should prepare like an
extracurricular or any other program to develop their students
competence.
g. Beneficial for the society. A student from dual language bilingual
education program is expected to have a benefit to the society. The
society will proud to have a member of society like that.
3. Bilingual, literate and multicultural children
One of the special aims of dual language bilingual schools is to
produce bilingual, illiterate and multicultural children. Language minority
students are expected to become literate in their native language as well as
in the majority language. At the same time, majority language students
should make ‘normal’ progress in their first language (Christian et al.,
1997; Lindholm-Leary, 2001). To achieve these aims, a variety of
practices are implemented in dual language bilingual schools:
a. The two languages of the school have equal status. Both languages will
be used as a medium of instruction. Math, Science and Social Studies,
for example, may be taught in both languages. However, care has to be
taken not to be repetitive, not to teach the same content in both
languages. Strategies of separating, allocating and integrating two
languages in the classroom are considered. The subject like math,
science, chemistry, sport and the other subject should be teach equal
with both languages. If this week the students learn math by using
English, so the next week math should be taught in Indonesia.
 b. The school ethos will be bilingual. Everything in the school should be
bilingual or use equals that two languages. Announcement, event,
extra-curricular activity should be use two languages. For example in
the announcement board, if the teacher gives announcement it should
be in two languages. The first is Indonesia and there is a translation
into English.
c. Staff in the dual language classrooms is often bilingual. To help the
teacher implemented bilingual in the school, the staff in that school
should also speak or understand a little bit about both languages. The
students will found that everything in the school is bilingual, so they
are used to with a bilingual. What we have to underline is equal
language.
d. The length of the dual language bilingual program needs to be longer.
It will be very good understood about those two languages if the
students feel or join in the dual language bilingual education program
minimum 4 years. Length of experience of a dual language bilingual
program is important to ensure a full and deep development of
language skill.
4. Central idea in dual language bilingual schools
A central idea in dual language bilingual schools is language
separation and compartmentalization. In each period of instruction, only
one language is used. Language boundaries are established in terms of
time, curriculum content and teaching. These will each be briefly
considered:
a. A decision is made about when to teach through each language.
There will be a regulation or instruction about what language
should be used in that day. On the door of the classroom may be a
message about which language is to be used that day. For example,
Bahasa Indonesia is used one day, English the next, in a strict
sequence. Alternately, different lessons may use different languages
with a regular change over to ensure both languages are used. For
example, Bahasa Indonesia may be used to teach Mathematics on
Monday and Wednesday and Friday; English to teach Mathematics on
Tuesday and Thursday. During the next week, the languages are
reversed, with Mathematics taught in Bahasa Indonesia on Tuesday
and Thursday. There are other possibilities. The division of time may
be in half days, alternate weeks, and alternate half semesters. The
essential element is the distribution of time to achieve bilingual and
illiterate students.
The amount of time spent learning through each language
varies from school to school. Often, a 50%–50% balance in use of
languages is attempted in early and later grades. In other classrooms,
the minority language will be given more time (60%, 75%, 80% and
particularly 90% is not uncommon), especially in the first two or three
years. In the middle and later years of schooling, there is sometimes a
preference for a 50%–50% balance, or more accents on the majority
language.
Whatever the division of time, instruction in a dual language
bilingual school will keep boundaries between the languages.
Switching languages within a lesson is not considered helpful. If
language mixing by the teacher occurs, students may wait until there is
delivery in their stronger language, and become uninvolved at other
times. When there is clear separation, the Indonesian speakers, for
example, may help the English-speakers on Indonesian days, and the
English speakers help the Indonesian speakers on English days.
Interdependence may create cooperation and friendship, as well as
learning and achievement.
However, the two languages will, in reality, sometimes be
switched or mixed in the classroom (e.g. in private conversations, in
further explanations by a teacher, and internal use of the dominant
language). Use of languages by children, especially when young
 (Elementary or kindergarten students), is not usually consciously
controlled. Switching language can be as natural as smiling.
b. Bilingual teachers ensure that they do not switch languages.
The teacher should be consistent to their language use. Children
hear them using one language (during a lesson period or during a
whole day) and are expected to respond in that same language. As in
many forms of ‘strong’ bilingual education, there is a shortage of
bilingual teachers, a pairing of teachers may ensure language
separation. A teacher using Bahasa Indonesia only will work in close
association with a teacher who only uses English with the same class.
Such teamwork requires teachers to be committed to bilingualism and
multiculturalism as important educational aims.
c. Language boundaries may be established in the curriculum.
This may occur according to which ‘language day’ it is.
Alternatively, in some schools, different parts of the curriculum are
taught in different languages. For example, Social Studies and
Environmental Studies may be taught in Indonesia, Science and Math
in English. Such a policy establishes separate occasions where each
language is to be used, and keeps the two languages apart. Christian et
al. (1997) found in research in two-way (dual language) schools that
the separation of languages differed in the schools studied. Schools
varied in how strict or flexible they were about language separation.
For example, when a student did not understand curriculum content or
instructions, a teacher might naturally move into the child’s stronger
language to explain. However, the danger is that students learn that
they do not need to understand the second language because the
teacher or peers will translate for them.
One danger in language separation is when the allocation of
languages is by content. For example, the majority languages are used
for science and technology and the minority language is used for social
studies. In this example, the majority language becomes aligned with
 modern technology and science, while the minority language becomes
associated with tradition and culture. This may affect the status of the
language in the eyes of the child, parents and society. The relationship
of languages to employment prospects, economic advantage and power
thus need to be considered.

4. Bilingual Education In Majority Languages

Bilingual education in majority language consists of the used of two or

more majority languages in school. The aims of this kind of school usually covers
the bilingualism or multilingualism, biliteracy and cultural pluralism. Bilingual
education in majority language means that some curriculum content studied
through students’ second language.
Bilingualism in regional language and International language (e.g.
French, English) is the aim and the result of the formal education. Generally, that
such school will contain the most language children with varieties in the language
heterogeneity or language homogeneity in the classess. Contoh negara Asia atau
daerah which have the dominant native language with desire to introduce a second
international language such as English to the school. International Language will
be used as medium of instruction the native language. The aim is for bilingual and
biliterate students through enrichment bilingual education program.
Two special examples of bilingual education in majority languages will

be considered, starting with International School Movement and continuing with

European School Movement.

International School
International school is a collection of diverse schools around the world.
One language which usually in school is English. International School which use
English as the only one medium to transmitting the curriculum that can not be
included into the heading of Bilingual Edcuation in majority languages. That such
school become a bilingual when national or international language is entered in
the curriculum. Sometimes, second language taught is only taught as a language
for students who has over 12 years old. In other school, second language used as
media to teach in a part of the curriculum. Some school possible their students to
master the third and the fourth languages. In generally, international school
languages is majority language with international prestige. Minority languages are
rarely found in that such schools. The primary and secondary International
Schools tend to reflect United States, British also local tradition as well. The
teachers are from various countries, usually with a pletiful supply of British and
American trained staffs.

European Schools Movement

European School Movement is one example of Bilingual Education of

Majority Language in Europe. Mostly for the relatively elite workers of European
Community (EC), that such schools are multilingual and have 15.000 children
from around the countries of EC. That Europe School have up to 11 different
language part which reflecting the first language of students (and this can be
increased when other countries join the European Community). Younger children
use their native language as medium to learn but also receive second language
learning (English, French or German) in primary school years. Older children take
part from their school in their native language and part through medium of
‘vehicular’ or ‘ working’ language. The ‘vehicular’ language usually will become
‘majority’ second language for selected children from English, French or German.
These language will be taught by native speakers. The native students speakers
will also be present as language models in the school. The ‘vehicular’ language
used to teach mixed language groups of student history, geography and economic
from the third year of secondary education. Besides, students taught the third
language for minimum 360 hours.

Integration and harmonization of students from different country or nationality is

officially achieved in ‘European Hours’ lessons with using vehicular language.
European hours is an important curriculum component from primary education.