Teaching for Cross-Language Transfer in Dual Language Education: Possibilities and Pitfalls

Abstract

Bilingual education and second language immersion programs have operated on the premise that the bilingual student's two languages should be kept rigidly separate. Although it is appropriate to maintain a separate space for each language, it is also important to teach for transfer across languages. In other words, it is useful to explore bilingual instructional strategies for teaching bilingual students rather than assuming that monolingual instructional strategies are inherently superior. The paper explores the interplay between bilingual and monolingual instructional strategies within dual language programs and suggests concrete strategies for optimizing students' bilingual development.