Chinese-English dual language bilingual education in the United States美国中英双语沉浸式教学

Abstract

ABSTRACT This special issue examines dual-language bilingual education (DLBE) programmes in North America that provide emergent bilinguals with instruction in two-way and one-way bilingual programmes. We use the term Dual-Language Bilingual Education to emphasise the end-goal of bilingualism and reclaim the critical and social justice orientation of bilingual education. Currently, scholarship surrounding DLBE programmes in North America focus primarily on Spanish-English and French-English language combinations, and lack in Chinese-English DLBE programmes. Still, research in this language area is garnering more attention, yielding findings that are both unique to the Chinese partner language and generalisable to other la-nguage combinations. To frame this special issue, we provide a systematic review of Chinese-English DLBE research from peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2000 and 2021. Twenty-eight articles were analyzed for trends and themes. Together with the six studies in this special issue, these articles discuss various issues in Chinese-English DLBE research including (but not limited to) learning outcomes, stakeholder perspectives, language development, and pedagogical supports, while adopting different research designs. We envision this special issue will diversify the language area in current bilingual education research and critically engage with interdisciplinary research narratives to examine opportunities and challenges in Chinese-English DLBE research.