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How effective is bilingual education?
Elizabeth Howard, Center for Applied Linguistics
The effectiveness of bilingual education is a strongly debated topic in the United States. Evaluation studies attempt to determine how the English acquisition and academic achievement of students in bilingual education programs compare with those of students in other types of programs. These evaluations are complicated, however, by the difficulties in formulating a strong research design. For example, it is difficult, if not impossible, to randomly assign children to different types of programs. In addition, there is a great deal of variation among bilingual education programs, just as there is among mainstream programs. These research design issues seriously limit the ability of large comparative studies to make definitive claims about the effectiveness of bilingual education.
Some research reviews of bilingual program evaluations have concluded that bilingual education makes no difference in the English language development and academic achievement of language minority students (Baker & DeKanter, 1981; Rossell & Ross, 1986; Rossell & Baker, 1996); that is, they found no difference between the English language development and academic achievement of students in bilingual programs versus students who received instruction in English only. Other reviews of bilingual evaluation studies have reached the opposite conclusion (Willig, 1985; Greene, 1998): that is, that there is a positive effect of bilingual education, such that language minority students in bilingual programs outperform their peers in monolingual English programs.
In summarizing the findings from large-scale national studies and research reviews on the effectiveness of bilingual education, a panel of experts convened by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences recommended that future research focus on pinpointing features of effective programs for language minority students, rather than continuing to debate whether or not bilingual education as a whole is effective. (August & Hakuta, 1997). Not only would these smaller studies be easier to design and implement, they would contribute more to our collective understanding about how to educate language minority students effectively. Given the diversity in the language minority student population in this country, and the tremendous variation in local conditions, it is more useful to investigate features of classrooms and programs that are effective in specific contexts, rather than assuming that a single model would be best in all situations.
August, D., & Hakuta, K. (Eds.) (1997). Improving schooling for language minority children: A research agenda. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Baker, K. A., & DeKanter, A. A. (1981). Effectiveness of bilingual education: A review of the literature. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Greene, J. (1998). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of bilingual education. Available: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ JWCRAWFORD/greene.htm
Rossell, C., & Baker, K. (1996). The educational effectiveness of bilingual education. Research in the Teaching of English 30(1), 7-74.
Rossell, C., & Ross, M. (1986) The social science evidence on bilingual education. Journal of Law and Education 15(4), 385-419.
Willig, A. (1985). A meta-analysis of selected studies on the effectiveness of bilingual education. Review of Educational Research 55(3), 269-317.