Bilingual Education for Minority Language Students in the US: Lessons from the Case of Elementary School in California

The purpose of this study is to analyze trends of bilingual education for minority language students in the US and find applicable and relevant implications for bilingual education, which began in 2009, for multicultural families in South Korea. The result shows that trends of bilingual education in the US changed from "transitional bilingual education" during the early stage to "maintenance bilingual education" and further to the latest "enrichment bilingual education" and "two-way immersion bilingual education." The findings suggest that bilingual education in the US uses the majority as well as minority language for entire subjects. Second, after a certain period of bilingual acquisition, students of bilingual and general classes participated in the same classes. Third, bilingual education curriculum is connected throughout elementary, middle, and high school education.