Analysis of language policies in the United States: Impact of bilingualism on linguistic performance and academic achievement

The national debate over bilingual education is represented by two major theories: a behaviorist learning theory and a structuralist/cognitive theory. This study is designed to address several concrete testable hypotheses, namely facilitation and threshold hypotheses, derived from the cognitive and behaviorist concepts to predict the linguistic and academic performance of EL students at various stages of English and primary language fluency. Initially this study was designed to test these hypotheses within the context of five common language development programs. However, since only 2% of the students were found to be receiving the linguistic services required by their programs, the hypotheses examined how the linguistic services, instead of the type of language development program, facilitates students' English language development and cognitive growth. The linguistic instructional services students are exposed to are classified into: (1) Sheltered English and English only instruction, (2) English with primary language support, (3) Primary with English language support. The behaviorist perspective predicts students who are exposed to only the English language will always outperform students exposed to two languages of instruction both linguistically and cognitively (measured by academic achievement). The structuralist/cognitive perspective on the other hand predicts that English learners who are being taught their primary language will attain higher English language development levels since their primary language that is being developed will facilitate their English language acquisition. Regarding academic achievement the cognitive perspective makes different predictions depending on the threshold levels students have attained.;Three elementary schools (K-6) of a large Southern California school district implementing various language development programs and services to meet the different needs of students were used as the study population. A "Language Development Service" survey was used to collect data aimed at documenting language development among students at the three schools and services provided to them. In addition, other critical information (such as student intake and outcomes) was collected from the district computer system.;This study finds that language of instruction has a modest impact, in favor of bilingual instruction, on student linguistic and academic achievement. There is some support to the facilitation hypotheses but no support to the cognitive development hypotheses.