Implications for U.S. Bilingual Education: Evidence from Canadian Research.

A comparison of the salient characteristics of Canadian and United States bilingual education programs suggests various settings where it would be desirable to introduce children to schooling in their home language. These settings include: (1) the various ethnic communities in the United States, (2) multilingual developing countries, (3) parts of Canada where groups of non-English-speaking residents have congregated and where the home language is one of lower ascribed social or economic status, (4) places where there does not exist uniformly high pressure within the home and community to encourage literacy and language maintenance, and (5) places where many teachers in the educational system are unaware of or insensitive to the values and traditions of the minority-group pupils. The schooling should take the form of a carefully developed language arts program integrated into a general curriculum in which content material is also taught in the native language. This will sustain and nurture children's linguistic and cognitive development while teaching the second language and gradually introducing the content materials in the second language, without abandoning the language arts or content material taught in the native language. Immersion in the target language is not recommended, although in some social settings where the home language is highly valued, parents and peer groups actively encourage literacy and native language maintenance, and the children's success is encouraged, schooling can begin in the second language. (MSE)