Bilingual/Bicultural Education is a philosophy of instruction wherein you
use a student's native language as well as the target language. You
also make instructional choices that respect your student's cultural
background as well as the mainstream culture.
"Transitional" and "maintenance," are the two main
approaches to bilingual education.
Transitional bilingual education uses the student's native language as an
instructional bridge to knowledge while also teaching the student the target
language. The eventual goal is to transition the student away from his
native language and into a target language only classroom.
A maintenance approach seeks to help the student learn the new language
as well as maintain or keep his former language.