Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom (original) (raw)
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is an international, multidisciplinary series publishing research on the philosophy, politics, policy, provision and practice of language planning, Indigenous and minority language education, multilingualism, multiculturalism, biliteracy, bilingualism and bilingual education. The series aims to mirror current debates and discussions. New proposals for single-authored, multiple-authored, or edited books in the series are warmly welcomed, in any of the following categories or others authors may propose: overview or introductory texts; course readers or general reference texts; focus books on particular multilingual education program types; school-based case studies; national case studies; collected cases with a clear programmatic or conceptual theme; and professional education manuals. All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed.
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Introduction: Key Concepts and Issues in Bilingual and Multilingual Education
2015
What is bilingual and multilingual education? In the simplest definition, bilingual education is the use of two languages for learning and teaching in an instructional setting and, by extension, multilingual education would be the use of three languages or more. In a narrower definition, literacy is developed and/or specific content areas are taught through the medium of two or more languages in an organized and planned education program. In most cases, one of these is the "home," "native," or "mother-tongue" language, and one is the "dominant" societal language or a "powerful" international language. In multilingual education set tings, the other languages may be dominant regional languages. However, as will be shown throughout this handbook, even these basic concepts such as language, home language, dominant language, native speaker, bilingual, multilingual, and bilingual and multilingual education are highly complex and contested constructs; thus considerations about which languages or varieties of languages to use as media of instruction are not always straightforward. Because education is most often the responsibility of nation states with artificial (and contested) geographical boundaries encompassing many-and oftentimes dividing-linguistic groups, decisions about bilingual and multilingual education are highly political, and influenced by a variety of historical, economic, and sociocultural factors. For example, in 1998 a formal debate over bilingual education was held at California State University Long Beach, in the context of the Proposition 227 Campaign to pass a law restricting the state's bilingual programs through mandates for English-medium instruction. The first author (Wright) was present during the heated exchanges, and listened incredulously as the local chairperson for the Proposition 227 Campaign-an elementary school teacher in Orange County-claimed that bilingual education was a "failed experiment," that "we only do bilingual programs for Spanish speakers," and that "other countries don't do bilingual education, only the United States!"
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