BEA - Bilingual Education Assessment Bilingual Education Program Models Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A school district has a significant population of native Spanish-speaking students and native English-speaking students. The district wants to implement a program with the goal of developing high levels of academic achievement, bilingualism, and biliteracy for both groups of students. Which bilingual education program model best aligns with this goal?
- Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE)
- Two-Way Dual Language Immersion (Correct answer)
- ESL Pull-Out
- Sheltered English Immersion (SEI)
Correct answer: Two-Way Dual Language Immersion
A Two-Way Dual Language Immersion model is the most appropriate choice because its primary goal is to foster bilingualism, biliteracy, and academic achievement in both a minority and a majority language. This model integrates language-minority and language-majority students for academic instruction in both of their native languages. TBE aims to transition students to English-only instruction, ESL Pull-Out focuses on English language skills in a separate setting, and SEI focuses on making content comprehensible in English, none of which have the goal of biliteracy for both language groups.
Question 2: Which of the following is the primary goal of an Early-Exit Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program?
- To develop full bilingualism and biliteracy in students' native language and English.
- To provide content-area instruction in English while adapting language to the students' proficiency level.
- To move students into mainstream, English-only classrooms as quickly as possible. (Correct answer)
- To offer intensive, small-group English instruction to students for a portion of the school day.
Correct answer: To move students into mainstream, English-only classrooms as quickly as possible.
The defining characteristic of a Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) program, particularly an early-exit model, is its focus on rapidly transitioning students into mainstream English-only instruction. The native language is used as a temporary support to help students keep up with academic subjects while they acquire English, but the ultimate goal is not to maintain the native language. This is often referred to as a subtractive model.
Question 3: A third-grade student, who is a native Mandarin speaker, spends most of her day in a general education classroom. For 45 minutes each day, she goes to a different room with a certified ESL teacher and a small group of other multilingual learners to receive targeted English language instruction. This scenario describes which program model?
- Developmental Bilingual Education (DBE)
- ESL Pull-Out (Correct answer)
- One-Way Dual Language Immersion
- Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)
Correct answer: ESL Pull-Out
This scenario is a classic example of an ESL Pull-Out model. In this model, students are 'pulled out' of their mainstream classroom for a portion of the day to receive specialized, small-group instruction in English as a Second Language. This differs from other models where instruction is integrated into the content classroom.
Question 4: The primary difference between a Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) model and a Developmental Bilingual Education (DBE) model is that...
- TBE programs serve only one language group, while DBE programs serve multiple language groups.
- TBE is a subtractive model aiming for English proficiency, while DBE is an additive model aiming for bilingualism and biliteracy. (Correct answer)
- TBE programs use only the native language for instruction, while DBE programs use only English.
- TBE is exclusively for elementary students, while DBE is for middle and high school students.
Correct answer: TBE is a subtractive model aiming for English proficiency, while DBE is an additive model aiming for bilingualism and biliteracy.
The core philosophical difference lies in their goals. Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) uses the native language as a bridge to English, with the goal of transitioning students to English-only instruction, making it a subtractive model. Developmental Bilingual Education (DBE), also known as maintenance or late-exit bilingual education, aims to develop proficiency and literacy in both the native language and English, making it an additive model.
Question 5: A classroom is composed entirely of native Spanish-speaking students. The teacher provides 90% of the instruction in Spanish and 10% in English in kindergarten, with the amount of English instruction increasing each year. The goal is for students to become fully proficient in both Spanish and English by the end of elementary school. This model is best described as:
- Two-Way Dual Language Immersion
- ESL Push-In
- Sheltered English Immersion (SEI)
- One-Way Dual Language Immersion (Correct answer)
Correct answer: One-Way Dual Language Immersion
This is a One-Way Dual Language Immersion model (also sometimes called Developmental Bilingual Education). It is 'one-way' because the students all share the same native language. The program's goal is additive bilingualism and biliteracy, distinguishing it from transitional models. The 90/10 instructional split that gradually moves toward 50/50 is a common feature of this model.
Question 6: Which of the following program models focuses on making grade-level academic content, such as science and social studies, more comprehensible to multilingual learners in an English-language setting, rather than on teaching the native language?
- Sheltered English Instruction (SEI) (Correct answer)
- Late-Exit Bilingual Education
- Two-Way Dual Language
- Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE)
Correct answer: Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)
Sheltered English Instruction (SEI), also known as Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE), is a content-based approach where teachers use specific strategies (e.g., visuals, adapted speech, graphic organizers) to make grade-level content taught in English accessible to multilingual learners. The primary focus is on mastering academic content, with language development as a secondary, integrated goal.
