Dual-Language Immersion Programs: A Cautionary Note Concerning the Education of Language-Minority Students

• Published in: Harvard educational review Vol. 67; no. 3; pp. 391 - 430
• Main Author: Valdes, Guadalupe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, MA Harvard University 01.10.1997; Harvard Education Press
• Subjects: Academic Failure; Bilingual Education; Bilingual Teachers; Bilingualism; Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods; Education; Educational sciences; English; Immersion Programs; Instructional Effectiveness; Intergroup Relations; Language; Language Minorities; Language of Instruction; Language Skills; Mexican Americans; Minority Languages; Modern language; Spanish; Teaching methods; New York; Chicago Illinois; California; United States > US; Language Teaching; Foreign Language; Bilingual Instruction; Immersion Programme; Immigrant; Teaching method; Teaching Language; School failure
• ISSN: 0017-8055; 1943-5045
• DOI: 10.17763/haer.67.3.n5q175qp86120948

Dual-language immersion programs have received a great deal of attention from parents, researchers, and policymakers. The supporters of dual-language immersion see the promise of providing first-language instruction for children with non-English-speaking backgrounds, while simultaneously offering monolingual children access to non-English languages. In this article, Guadalupe Valdés concentrates on the possible negative effects of the dual-language immersion movement. After reviewing the literature on the success and failure of Mexican-origin children, the author raises difficult questions surrounding the use of dual-language immersion in the education of language-minority students. Among the issues raised are the quality of instruction in the minority language, the effects of dual immersion on intergroup relations, and, ultimately, how dual-language immersion programs fit into the relationship between language and power and how that relationship may affect the children and society.