In bilingual education, students are taught content areas like math, science, and history in two (or more) languages. Numerous countries or regions have implemented different forms of bilingual education.
Africa
A 1990 study of linguistics within African countries noted that 22 out of 34 countries used African indigenous languages as an official media of instruction in primary schools. However, out of those 22 countries, only 3 extended this usage to secondary schooling. In general, schooling in an indigenous language is limited to around the first 3–4 years of school, with countries like Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi enforcing a 3 year period, and countries like Uganda, Namibia, and parts of Nigeria enforcing 4 years.
Presently, countries such as Mozambique have taken the lead in bilingual education. The Ministry of Education and Human Development has made primary education fully bilingual in 2017. Children will be taught 16 Mozambican dialects during their early years of schooling. Many African states introduce mother languages as subjects, and education tools along commonly spoken international or foreign languages. Mother language instruction is terminated immediately during the schooling cycle, and leaves only the international language established. It becomes a disadvantage that contributes to substantial lack of motivation on the part of teachers, students, and parents.
Senegal
Although bilingual schools exist, the majority of Senegalese schools teach in French and follow the French system. However, studies have shown that approximately 80% of teachers use a 'local language' to communicate with all of their students.
Asia
China
In the autonomous regions of China many children of the country's major ethnic minorities attend public schools where the medium of instructions is the local language, such as Uyghur or Tibetan. Traditionally, the textbooks there were little different from merely a translated version of the books used in the Chinese schools throughout the country; however, as of 2001, a move was on foot to create more teaching materials with locally based content.
Classes of Mandarin as second language are also offered in these minority schools, and the central government makes increasing efforts to make them more effective. A law passed in February 2001 provided for the Mandarin-as-second-language classes in the ethnic-minority schools to start in the early years of elementary school whenever local conditions permit, rather than in the senior years of elementary school, as it was practiced before.Zhou (2004), pp. 119–120
On the other hand, it has been reported that Chinese has been used as the medium of instructions in some autonomous counties even though less than 50% of the population "spoke and understood some Chinese"; this mismatch was thought to have contributed to the low grades earned by the students on the math and Chinese exams.Zhou (2004), p. 88
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong where both English and Cantonese are official, both languages are taught in school and are mandatory subjects. Either English or Cantonese is used as the medium of instruction for other subjects. Increasingly, there are a large number of Mandarin Chinese-speaking schools in operation throughout Hong Kong as well since 1996. Study of Mandarin is mandatory in junior years (from Grade 1 to Grade 9). Hong Kong also has a bilingual education program using both Cantonese and Hong Kong Sign Language.
Macau
Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages of Macau, but English plays an unofficial and highly prominent role. English is the language of instruction at the University of Macau and at some secondary schools. Other schools use Cantonese as the language of instruction. there was one private Portuguese-medium school. Starting in the 2017–2018 school year, the government started offering bilingual Chinese–Portuguese classes in two public schools: Escola Oficial Zheng Guanying and Escola Primária Luso-Chinesa da Flora.
Tibet
Education in the Tibet Autonomous Region is provided in Tibetan and in Standard Mandarin Chinese. The Chinese government intended to maintain language diversity while increasing the Mandarin language skills of Tibetan students. However, it is alleged that the education system downplays the importance of Tibetan, and that mathematics, science and social studies classes are only taught in Mandarin. It has been alleged that a reduction of the use of Tibetan in bilingual education is a human rights issue.
Iran Until 2022, Iran had a couple languages; in July 2023, six new languages have been added: Chinese, Russian, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Italian.
Japan
In Japan, the need for bilingualism (mostly Japanese and English) has been pointed out, and there are some scholars who advocate teaching children subjects such as mathematics using English rather than Japanese. As part of this proposal, subjects such as history, however, would be taught solely in Japanese.
On the island of Hokkaido, the indigenous and endangered Ainu language is receiving newfound interest with establishment of a small number of bilingual Ainu–Japanese elementary schools.
The largest non-Japanese, non-native to Japan minority are the Koreans. Bilingual education in Korean language is provided by Korean international schools, more of which are affiliated with Chongryon.
Japan has adopted English as the second language, partly because English is one of the most significant global lingua franca owing to globalization.Nyree, J. A. C. O. B. S, "The effectiveness of bilingual education in Japan: A way forward," The journal of Nagasaki University of foreign studies 20 (2016): 1. Nyree states that Japan performs poorly in English, evidenced by its ranking as number 29 out of 30 Asian countries that took part in an English test despite choosing it over languages close to it, such as Chinese and Korean. Due to fewer hours dedicated to learning English, the Japanese have challenges communicating in English.Ikegashira, Atsuko, Yumi Matsumoto, and Yoshiko Morita, "English education in Japan: From kindergarten to university," Into the next decade with (2nd) FL teaching (2009)
Few students are attracted to English medium instruction (EMI) programs in undergraduate courses despite the increase in EMI programs.史Morizumi, "EMI in Japan: Current Status and Its Implications."123. According to Jones, English was compulsory for sixth- and fifth-grade students,Jones, Brent Allen. "The role of English education in Japan." Memoirs of Learning Utility Center for Konan University Students 4 (2019): 23. who were taught English weekly through games and songs. In junior high school, an English lesson takes thirty-five minutes a week. English takes approximately 612.5 hours in high school.A total of 97% of junior high school administer an entrance English exam to high school, which encourages the students to take English studies seriously.
In 2017, 80,119 non-Japanese children in Japan did not speak Japanese as their first language. Of these, 29,363 took foreign languages other than English, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Filipino.Butler, Yuko Goto. "Foreign language education at elementary schools in Japan: Searching for solutions amidst growing diversification." Current issues in language planning 8, no. 2 (2007): 135. Less than 20% of all the non-Japanese-speaking children in Japan are involved in bilingual programs, and more than 63% of them are engaged in studying Japanese programs to enable them to communicate in Japan since most of them are immigrants. According to Statista, the number of monolingual kids learning a foreign language was 12.9%.
Most individuals learn a second language after attaining the age of six. Therefore, Japan has late bilingualism. Japanese students start learning English as a second language in junior high school. In elementary school, the Japanese do not put a lot of emphasis on the language. The Japanese bilingual education is different from other countries, such as Australia where children begin learning a second language when they are three years through their primary caregivers and preschool programs.Center for Community Child Health, "Practice Brief: Promoting Bilingual Children Communication Development", 2014, https://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/ccch/CCCH_Practice_Brief_March2014.pdf Hence, the type of bilingualism in Australia is the success of early bilingualism.
Middle East
Arab World
Schools in the Middle East follow dual or triple language programmes. The triple language programme is most commonly found in Lebanon, Tunisia, Syria, and often implemented as well in Egypt. History, grammar, literature and the Arabic language are taught in the native language (Arabic), whereas mathematics and sciences are generally taught in English or French. In Lebanon, however, science and mathematics are taught in either French or English, depending on the school's administration or the grade level. It is not uncommon to find French- or English- only schools, though usually these institutions are primarily international establishments.
In most Gulf countries as well as Jordan, English is introduced as a second language early on alongside the primary medium of instruction, Arabic. In Iraq however, triple language programmes are, like in Lebanon and Syria, normal, except rather than using French, Kurdish is taught alongside Arabic and English due to Iraq's considerably sized Kurdish minority in the north, and bilingual official language policy regarding Kurdish.
In Morocco, Berber can be used as a regional medium of elementary education, with widespread use of French and Arabic in higher grades. Due to Morocco's history of French colonialism, sole French-medium education is very widespread. In certain areas, Spanish is taught instead of French because of former Spanish colonization of small parts of the country.
Israel
Normally, Israelis are taught in either Hebrew or Arabic depending on religion and ethnicity. Within the standard education system, thorough study of English is compulsory, and depending on the primary medium of education, Arabic or Hebrew are introduced as third languages with significantly lesser emphasis placed on achieving solid proficiency. Within Hebrew-medium programmes, other foreign languages such as French, German, Russian, or Yiddish can often be studied as well.
Israel is also home to several international schools whereby the sole medium of education is either English or French. In general, as English is taught early on across all Israeli schools, most Israelis become comfortably bilingual, much like what one would see in The Netherlands or Scandinavian countries. This in combination with a large proportion of English-language programming on television that is merely subtitled and seldom dubbed.
Recent peace initiatives have also led to a small number of bilingual and multi-religious schools in which both Hebrew and Arabic are used in equal emphasis. The Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish Arab Education in Israel runs four bilingual schools, and the Neve Shalom peace village also hosts a local school.
Mongolia
There has been long-standing encouragement to teach at least one other language other than Mongolian. Traditionally, Russian was taught during middle school and high school. After the 1990 transition to democracy, English has been gaining more ground in Mongolian schools. Today many public schools at all levels teach one other language that are usually English, Russian, Korean, Japanese or Chinese. Although the core curriculum is in Mongolian, it is generally encouraged by the government and the public that the students should have some command of a secondary language when they graduate from high school. Also there are other private schools that teach their curricula in English.
South Asia