By Bruce Beattie of Daytona Beach News-Journal

The NYC Department of Education has two main programs to facilitate the learning of English by non-native speakers. The first is Transitional Bilingual Education and the second is Dual Language instruction.

Transitional Bilingual Education aims to move students from classes that are taught only in Spanish into English-only classes as quickly as possible by thoroughly teaching them the lessons in Spanish. The idea is that once they master the subject, whether it is math, science, or others, they will be able to compete with their English-speaking classmates once they move out of their native-language class. Educators believe that this allows students to not only learn the material of the class comfortably , but also be fluent in both Spanish and English eventually.

Dual Language instruction is when students are taught in both English and Spanish according to a well-defined schedule of when the switches take place. This is also called two-way immersion, and this aims to facilitate the learning of a student by supporting instruction in Spanish while still introducing English. Traditionally, the time spent learning in Spanish and English are equal, and as the student progresses to higher fluency in English, teaching in Spanish is weaned off slowly until the class is taught entirely in English. This complete transition takes about three years, allowing the student to be in all English-speaking classes by their senior year of high school.

Both programs aim to develop the student’s fluency in English, in speaking, reading, and writing, while still maintaining or even improving their fluency in Spanish. These programs are not stand-alones, that is, they are not classes that teach Spanish-speaking students how to speak English. These programs are integrated within regular subject classes like math, science, and history, and only the mode of instruction is different from regular classes, not the topics themselves. Essentially, students in English Language Learners’ programs learn three major subjects in each class: the actual subject, the native language, and English.

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