Integrating language minority education in elementary schools

This study presents a framework for a whole-school approach to language minority education that makes it an integral part of the school environment. Such an integrated approach avoids the current marginalization of language minority programs and provides bilingual students with a quality education by giving them academic, linguistic, and sociocultural continuity and consistency.;A descriptive qualitative research study explored student integration as one aspect of a whole-school approach. It focused on nine classrooms in schools with bilingual programs, where language minority and language majority students were integrated for academic and sociocultural purposes. Four integrated approaches based on existing Transitional Bilingual Education programs and two Two-Way Bilingual classrooms participated, representing four language groups (Spanish, Haitian-Creole, Russian, and English). Data collection occurred through four interviews with seven bilingual teachers and five grade level monolingual teachers, and by weekly observations in each classroom during integrated times over a period from two to four months. The analysis of the data focused on the trends and issues that emerged as teachers shaped the academic, language, and social dimensions of the student integration process.;Integrated classrooms create unique dilemmas: they raise the issue of providing access to curriculum content for all students; of creating second language learning opportunities using native peer and adult models; of equalizing the status between the two languages in monolingual and bilingual contexts; and of bringing two groups of students together to collaborate on academic tasks. Student integration needs careful planning in order to succeed. It has clear advantages for the purpose of second language learning and sociocultural integration, provided that teachers formulate explicit goals and deliberately organize their instruction accordingly. Access to content matter, however, may be hindered when there is a lack of access to quality instruction in the minority language. Meeting academic goals requires flexible grouping, allowing bilingual students extensive opportunities to access content matter in their stronger language. The study concludes that successful student integration has occurred within the context of a whole-school approach that values bilingualism and biculturalism (for all students) and that takes a comprehensive view of a bilingual student's educational needs.