Maintenance Bilingual Education for Heritage Language Learners

Introduction According to the 2010 US census, Latin communities accounted for 16% of the country's population and increased by 43% compared to 2000 (Humes, Jones and Ramirez, 2011). In this vast community, cultures and languages ​​differ greatly from new immigrants to families that have been established for generations in this region (Schreffler, 2007). Most bilingual education courses are designed for learners of English (ELL), with the aim of learning the second language (L2).

Heritage language education is also known as maintaining bilingual education or developing and maintaining bilingual education. The term "heritage language" refers to both immigration languages ​​and indigenous languages. This is a bilingual educational approach. The American Heritage Language Program is structurally different in content and overlaps the 90: 10 pattern of bilingual courses. "Native language of minority students in the language is usually used for over half of the course time, in other models it accounts for 50% of the course time, almost 100% Baker, 2010, p.235)

In today's world there are three powerful bilingual education: bilingual bilingual education, immersion bilingual education, heritage language education. Each of these educational methods has similarities, but it is made unique by the difference. These forms of bilingual education have three expected outcomes: bilingual, bilingual and bicultural. It is worth noting that it is difficult to judge and measure the success of a bilingual education program. Even among researchers, this important aspect of the effectiveness of bilingual education is that this education is influenced by social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds. It is difficult to know whether the success of these courses depends on the course itself, the characteristics of the student, the quality of the teacher, or all courses (Baker, 2010).

Bilingual education is a school course that uses two languages. An example of the legitimate justification of bilingual education is that English is the only linguistic way taught by English learners in the US parenting district in 2001. However, the historical reason for bilingual education is the history of events occurred without receiving bilingual education in the school district. - Even if there is some change in the education of the discussion, there will always be people who object to this change. These critics believe that these problems exist in the concept of multicultural education. One argument against multicultural education is the fear that the lack of a clear definition can confuse the teacher that affects the classroom terribly. Professor Ryan, Professor of Education at La Salle University, says: