The Acquisition of Academic English by Children in Two-Way Programs: What does the Research Say?

Two-way bilingual programs are those in which majority language children and minority language children attend the same classes at the same time, the idea being that majority language children will acquire the minority language and minority language children will acquire the majority language. There has been a great deal of excitement about these programs; claims have been made that twoway has been shown to be the most effective form of bilingual education, and the best possible program for language minority children in general. It is important that we take a careful look at the research to see if these claims are supported.