Applying Recent Research to ESL in the Bilingual Classroom

Abstract

Abstract Bilingual education has moved from a position of documenting its successes to studying the reasons for its success. It is now up to teachers and administrators to apply that research in systemmatic ways. One model for implementing the latest research in second language education takes advantage of native language instruction, as described by Cummins (1981), while developing lessons along the lines of the notional/functional syllabus. In this model the teacher plans the ESL curriculum by taking into consideration program objectives, students’ language needs, the nature of the linguistic task, and prescribed textual and supplemental materials. Emphasis on grammatical accuracy, so prevalent in ESL materials, gives way to specific language use necessary in the school domain. The implementation of the model relies on the cognitively-based linguistic functions in Sampson’s (1972) language arts approach as well as the language-rich environment.