Bilingual instruction and coursework entails a system of using a student’s primary or native language in conjunction with second one as part of the academic process. The majority of bilingual education programs in America are Spanish and English. However, some programs include languages such as French, Chinese and German.
It was in the late 20th century, with the increase of the U.S. Mexican-American population that the country saw developments and improvements in bilingual education. Now, there are even online education degrees that are bilingual.
While there were various types of bilingual education present as early as the 1840s, with World War I, there was a negative opinion of non-English speaking people and bilingual education and practices were stopped. However, the influx of immigrants from other countries did not cease.
In 1968, the Bilingual Education Act was passed and also gave funds to create programs to help students with limited English skills. A pivotal 1974 court case — Lau v. Nichols — helped to include students other than Spanish speakers within the federally funded bilingual education programs.
The number of students requiring bilingual programs continued to rise throughout the end of 20th century. The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was rescinded in 2001 and was replaced by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Currently, the majority of students in American high schools are required to take some form of a second language course. Depending on the school, this can either be a one or two year requirement. A lot of schools also use the foreign language in elementary schools (FLES) program.


