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Recent Research

Three key issues

The research is unambiguous in relation to three issues:

1. the distinction between conversational and academic skills in a language
2. the positive effects of bilingualism on children's awareness of language and cognitive functioning
3. the close relationship between bilingual students' academic development in their first and second languages (L1 and L2) in situations where students are encouraged to develop both languages.

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Time Needed to Catch Up

Conversational and Academic Proficiency Research studies since the early 1980s have shown that immigrant students can quickly acquire considerable fluency in the target language when they are exposed to it in the environment and at school but despite this rapid growth in conversational fluency, it generally takes a minimum of about five years (and frequently much longer) for them to catch up to native-speakers in academic aspects of the language.

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Use of Primary Language Helps Students Learn English

During this period, especially for younger students, conversational fluency in the home language tends to erode. This is frequently exacerbated by the temptation for teachers to encourage students to give up their first language and switch to English as their primary language of communication; however, the research evidence suggests that this retards rather than expedites academic progress in English.

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Implications for Instruction

The major implication of these data is that we should be looking for interventions that will sustain bilingual students' long-term academic progress rather than expecting any short-term "quick-fix" solution to students' academic underachievement in English.

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