Bilingual Program, Policy, and Assessment Issues.

Overview & Synopsis

The challenge of educating the limited- or non-English-speaking (LES/NES) student is discussed in four papers: "Aspects of Bilingual Education for LES/NES Students" by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, "Definition and Measurement of Bilingual Students" by Edward A. De Avila and Sharon E. Duncan, "Bilingual Education for the English Dominant Language Minority Student" by Richard Barrutia, and "Bilingual Education and the English-Speaking Majority" by Thomas Carter (a number of California programs are described in this paper). The findings of these papers include the following: (1) a critical need exists for bilingual bicultural education, (2) bilingual bicultural education is far more complex than heretofore assumed, (3) a need exists for empirically derived definitions of LES/NES and bilingual terms, (4) only a limited number of children are being served even though the need is great, (5) programs must be expanded to serve bilingual and fluent English speakers, and (6) research in bilingual bicultural education is critical. (Author/JB)