Bilingualism In Education Essay

Swain and Lapkin discovered that the most effective method was the early immersion bilingual program. One of the concerns of the study was whether the early immersion students would retain the information from the subjects taught in French as well as those taught in English. Testing results suggested there was no difference in understanding between the subjects taught in the different languages; however, the students introduced to the language later did show a difference in understanding of the subject matter (Swain and Lapkin 33). Furthermore, the late emersion students and those with limited exposure to the language showed a much weaker proficiency in the French as a second language. These results suggest that an early introduction to a language the better understanding of the language and the subjects being taught; however, the researchers disclosed the lack of ability to accurately judge the results due to the variables affecting the students enrolled in the different programs. These immersion programs are excellent examples of schools using content-based instruction as a method to facilitate bilingualism in their culture. The students were forced to create meaning and understanding in classrooms from a young age, resulting in …show more content…
al. explain “teacher language awareness (TLA)” is a necessary component for an effective ESL teacher. To have TLA, one must have an understanding of the “systems and structures” of a language and one must have a level of empathy for the language learner. Many teachers have trouble slowing down for ELLs because they so badly want to communicate the knowledge they have of their preferred area of study. The empathy is just not there all the time. Realistically, it is hard to imagine a school district having the funding to hire ESL-trained teachers for every subject; however, at the university level, it is possible. A composition course for international students, such as the one I observed, would be an example of such a