Bilingual education is where it's at

As a multilingual individual, I am an advocate and strong believer in bilingual education. My interest peaked even more after reading an article assigned in one of my graduate classes by Claude Goldenberg that CREDE (the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence) researchers "concluded that the longer ELLs [English Language Learners] received instruction in a mix of their first language and English, the better their achievement in English[i]”.

Due to this interest in bilingualism and my obvious love for education, I was thrilled to be offered a job at a bilingual school in Brazil. Turns out that this school, located in the capital, is the country's fifth largest, accredited, international, bilingual and co-ed K-12 day school! Awesome, huh? Needless to say, I think that I will feel "in my element" at such a school, one where the instruction is in both English and Portuguese.  

In order to kind of celebrate bilingualism and bilingual education, I wanted to share a little bit of information from my research on bilingual educational programs. This exert is from a paper that I wrote two years ago.

"....Educators have studied bilingual research for years and have come to the conclusion that students who develop and learn reading skills in their L1 can transfer this knowledge to their L2 to help them become better readers in English (Goldenberg 2008). Therefore, if teachers have the ability to educate their students in their L1 at the same time they instruct them in English, ELLs will be offered primary language support as needed. Goldenberg notes that students can be taught the skills to succeed academically in a bilingual or dual language education program (2008). In fact, a group of researchers have found that of all of the models created to educate ELLs, “bilingual education is consistently superior to program models that follow English-only approaches” (Honigsfeld 2009).  In educating students in both languages, educators work on scaffolding students, teaching them in their L1 in order as to not fall behind their American peers.....
In bilingual education, the students are taught their academic subjects in both languages as a means of maintaining academic achievement in all subjects. Sanchez explains that "bilingual education has been shown by sound research to be the best means for promoting the academic success of English language learners" (2008). This is ultimately the goal of all educators, to promote academic success of all students, not only those who speak English as their first language."

The question, then, that we are left with is... 

Research tells us that yes, it does.

[1] Goldenberg, Claude, (2008). Teaching English Language Learners, American Educator, p. 11

Sanchez, H, & Sanchez, M. (2008). The politics of illegal immigration, bilingual education, and the commodity of the post-technological society. The Educational Forum, 72(4) 329-338.