Dual language

Dual language is a form of education in which students are taught literacy and
content in two languages. Most dual language programs in the United States teach
in English and Spanish, but programs increasingly use a partner language other
than Spanish, such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, or Korean.
Dual language programs use the partner language for at least half of the instructional
day in the elementary years.

Dual language programs generally start in kindergarten or the first grade and extend
for at least five years, but many continue into middle school and high school. The
programs aim for bilingualism, the ability to speak fluently in two
languages; biliteracy, the ability to read and write in two languages; academic
achievement equal to that of students in non-dual language programs; and cross-
cultural competence. Most dual language programs are located in
neighborhood public schools, but many are charter, magnet, or private schools.

The initiation of dual immersion programs in the United States is characterized by

the coalescence of local politicians and community members. Coral Way
Elementary, a K-8 school in Dade County, Florida, is cited as the first two-way
bilingual school, beginning in 1963 [1]. The program was started by Cuban citizens
who were seeking refuge in Florida from the Castro regime and believed that their
children would eventually return to Cuban schools [2]. The Ecole Bilingue, a
French/English school in Massachusetts, was formed around the same time [3]. In
1968, the passing of the Bilingual Education Act served to address the reality
that Limited English Proficient(LEP) students were in need of proper instructional
support to achieve academic gains and, in turn, provided federal funding for primary
language instruction in local school districts [4]. The Lau v. Nichols ruling of 1974
further affirmed a student’s right to educational opportunity via appropriate
instructional services (Calderón, 2000). Schools were now charged with the mission
to implement programs suitable to the needs of their language minority students.
The number of dual immersion programs remained relatively low throughout the mid-
1980s, but later, more attention was given to the need to provide challenging, yet
comprehensible (Calderón, 2000), instruction to English language learners (ELLs),
which triggered a substantial growth in the number of programs. In 2002, for
example, the implementation of the English Language Acquisition, Language
Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act of the No Child Left Behind
Act made it requisite that schools with large numbers of language-minority students
provide instruction that facilitates their acquisition of English to perform well on
standardized tests consequently [5]. There are now 398 two-way immersion
programs in 30 states and the District of Columbia[6].

The number of programs has increased significantly in the last decade, despite
efforts made in states such as Arizona and California to eradicate bilingual education
programs in favor of English-immersion, with the passing of Proposition
203 and Proposition 227, respectively. It is estimated that 94% of the dual immersion
programs are Spanish/English, with the remaining 6% being Chinese/English,
Navajo/English, Japanese/English, and Korean/English programs (Bae, 2007).