Bilingual Education

Central to Center for Applied Linguistics’s (CAL’s) mission is the conduct of research that applies directly to the improvement of practice. CAL’s work with UCLA on the Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR), 1985 to 1989, focused on integrating language and content instruction for ELLs and bringing together bilingual and foreign-language program models in a form of what is now called dual-language education.

This research was carried forward at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in two subsequent collaborative efforts: the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning (NCRCDSLL), from 1990 to 1995, succeeded by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), from 1996 to 2004. Major studies of newcomer programs and two-way immersion education documented current practice and examined features that make those approaches effective program alternatives for ELLs.

One of the major products of CREDE was a review of research, published in 2006, on language learning and academic achievement of ELLs. Among its findings was a generally positive relationship between primarylanguage instruction and academic success. In addition, the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) approach, a model of sheltered instruction that promotes both content and language learning through a second language, was developed in collaboration with researchers at California State University Long Beach.

Another long-term program of research, starting in the mid-1990s, has focused on literacy learning. A series of studies examined cross-language literacy transfer for Spanish-speaking students learning to read in Spanish or English. The findings included evidence that Spanish skills predict reading ability in English for students who receive formal reading instruction in Spanish, pointing to advantages for students learning to read in their native languages.

Other studies in the program examined the factors that influence English literacy development among native Spanish speakers, including type of educational program. In a complementary effort, CAL managed the work of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth, a comprehensive synthesis of the literature on literacy development in this population. The report, published in 2006, pointed to the benefit of oral proficiency and literacy in the first language, among other important findings relevant to bilingual education policy and practice.