B. Definitions
Bilingual education
In a paper prepared for the inquiry, Professor Joseph Lo Bianco, Chief Executive of Language Australia, set out four broad categories of the use of more than one language in education. These are immersion education, submersion education, bilingual education and foreign/second or additional language teaching.
1. Immersion education
Immersion education refers to a methodology for the teaching of second languages in which the second language is adopted as the medium of instruction. The objective of immersion education is the mastery of the target language, which for reasons of pedagogical efficiency is selected as the medium of instruction.
There are various gradations of immersion education ranging from partial to full depending on the proportion of curriculum time devoted to the two languages and the duration of the program. The most extensive programs involve the entire span of a child's education imparted equally or close to equally in two or more languages.
Typically immersion education refers to the induction of 'mainstream' or even 'elite' members of the society in a second prestige and desired language. The most well known immersion programs are the Canadian programs which aim to teach English speaking Canadians French, by conducting a part or all of the education of these children in and through French. Full and partial immersion programs are also popular in European Schools (these are EU schools not national schools in Europe).
2. Submersion education
Submersion education refers to the 'sink or swim' approach to the teaching of linguistic minorities. No special effort is made to teach learners the general language of the curriculum, not pedagogical or methodological adaptations are made to ensure that the medium of instruction is learned by the students. It is assumed that these children will 'pick up' the language in the regular course of participation in the school's activities.
3. Bilingual education
Bilingual education involves the use of the language spoken by language minority students as the medium of instruction of the regular school curriculum. There are many gradations and types of bilingual education. Some of the main ones are: transitional bilingual education, mono-literate bilingual education, bi-literate bilingual education and full maintenance bilingual education.
Transitional bilingual education refers to the most common approach to bilingual education. The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) of the United States, as subsequently litigated in Lao v Nichols (1974) and Castaneda v Pickard (1978) establishes transitional bilingual education as a required educational approach for 'limited English proficient' children in the United States. (Proposition 227 in California adopted by public referendum in 1998 contravenes the BEA provisions). Essentially transitional bilingual education involves the limited and strictly time bound use of the mother tongue of non-English speaking children for only such time as is necessary for such children to master sufficient English to permit their general learning in English. This is usually the years of the early primary school. These programs are sometimes called early exit bilingual instruction.
Mono-literate bilingual education may last longer than transitional bilingual education and is distinguished from it in that literacy activities are only ever developed and conducted in the second or mainstream language, while the first language mother tongue, is used only for oral language purposes.
Bi-literate bilingual education involves long duration or late exit programs which seek to impart dual literacy mastery in the mother tongue and the language of the regular curriculum, where these are not identical.
Full maintenance bilingual education can resemble the full immersion programs. Only social differences among the learner categories distinguish them.
4. Foreign (or second) language teaching
Foreign or second language teaching refers to programs of instruction in which the object of instruction is the language itself, the target language. This means that there is little or no use of the target language to teach general subject matter. In practice such strict adoption of the principle of the target language being the object of instruction is extremely rare. It would be most unusual for foreign or second language education programs not to include subject matter not strictly about the language itself. However, the distinction is maintained in that this subject matter is not usually the regular curriculum of the school imparted via the target language (a substantial proportion of such teaching would constitute an immersion methodology).
In foreign or second language programs the purpose is not therefore the more efficient learning of the wider curriculum nor the maintenance of general conceptual development while a learner acquires the language of the curriculum, but the acquisition of an additional language. ESL is the most relevant kind of foreign language education for our present purposes. It is useful to distinguish between ESL and English as a Foreign Language. ESL applies to contexts in which the learners may encounter English in the informal and surrounding environment. In foreign language contexts English would be completely absent. The presence of English in the 'informal environment' means that learners are able to acquire or have direct encounters with English, leading to inductive learning of the language. It also means, however, that social and regional varieties of the language may be present, perhaps in the learners' direct environment, and these may carry identity functions for the learners. This is often the case with indigenous children in Australia who encounter or speak and identify with non-prestige forms of Australian English.
The use of a second language for instructional purposes is an essential condition for defining the category of bilingual/immersion education. Although in foreign language programs the 'target' language may also used as a medium of instruction this will be limited in time and scope compared to its use in bilingual/immersion programs. In foreign language programs the target language is the principal object of study. Its use to convey concepts, ideas and to engage learners in communicative activities that may constitute its use as a medium will not typically seek to impart the regular curriculum.
