Maintenance bilingual education is where the student is exposed to their native language longer before going into an only English speaking classroom. The student’s native language is used in a maintenance classroom for about 40 percent of the time in an elementary setting. The maintenance classroom usually is at a slower pace than a transitional classroom. In a transitional classroom the object is to get the student into a English only classroom as quickly as possible. This process usually takes around three years. With this method a bilingual teacher would teach the student(s) subjects such as math, science, and social studies in their native language. I’m not really sure which one seems more appropriate. They both have valid points to them. The transitional method seems to be faster in some cases but is it as effective? The maintenance method seems to be more thorough in my opinion. However it does take longer to accomplish the goal of transferring the student into an English only classroom. The transitional method has good points too. By learning subjects in their native language the student can easily transfer the skills learned into the English language when they learn it fluently. So I guess overall I would have to say the transitional method is the more appropriate.
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