The Study On The TWI Program Of The American Bilingual Education

The United States, a country composed of immigrants, has the characteristics of multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-lingual. Because of the convergence of different languages as well as the collision of different cultures and the complicated relationship among the races, bilingual education which is regarded as a way to solve the language problems of immigration and as a means to enable Americans to acquire and develop foreign language ability has become a social focus gradually. Two-Way Immersion program is an effective approach of education which can satisfy the bilingual needs of the majority language students as well as the minority language students. Fixing the proportion of bilingual service time in a certain way, it makes them study together in one classroom and participate in various kinds of activities. Through this way the students can learn different knowledge and obtain bilingual ability at the same time. From the perspectives of language education and ethnic relations, this article focuses on TWI bilingual education program with aims of understanding the current situation of bilingual educational reform of America better and using its effective methods and experience for reference.This article can be divided into four parts. The first part defines basic conceptions such as bilingual and bilingual education. The Second part introduces the history of bilingual education and analyses the historical, social and educational background of TWI program. Besides, the defects existing in traditional bilingual education and the theoretical foundation of TWI program have also been pointed out. The third part summarizes and analyzes the establishment, purpose and content of TWI program. Finally, after analyzing the current situation and the problems existing in bilingual education of China, this article analyses what highlights we should get from TWI program.