What are bilingual education theories?(3)

7. Sociocultural Theories

• Key Idea: Social interaction, culture, and community are central to language learning and bilingual education.
• Implications:
  • Programs should recognize and value students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
  • Scaffolding and collaborative learning can enhance bilingual development.

8. Cummins’ Four Quadrants of Cognitive and Language Demands

• Key Idea: Tasks in bilingual education can be categorized along two axes: context-embedded vs. context-reduced and cognitively undemanding vs. demanding.
  • Quadrants:
    • Quadrant 1: Context-embedded, undemanding (e.g., casual conversation).
    • Quadrant 2: Context-embedded, demanding (e.g., hands-on science experiments).
    • Quadrant 3: Context-reduced, undemanding (e.g., vocabulary lists).
    • Quadrant 4: Context-reduced, demanding (e.g., academic essays).

• Implications: Effective programs should support learners as they move from Quadrant 1 to Quadrant 4 tasks.

9. Two-Way Immersion (TWI) and Dual Language Theories

• Key Idea: Bilingual education is most successful when both languages are used equally and valued equally in the classroom.
• Implications:
  • Programs should provide equal exposure to both languages.
  • Promote bilingualism and biliteracy, not just L2 acquisition.

(To be continued)