Bilingual Glossary

Teachers are licensed with bilingual endorsement or fluency in the language of instruction as determined by a national proficiency test.  Language arts instruction focuses on developing oral language, reading and writing skills in the students’ first language.  Teachers fluent in students’ native language provide instruction using instructional techniques, methodology, and curriculum in students’ primary language.

Separate, relatively self-contained educational interventions designed to meet the academic and transitional needs of newly-arrived immigrants.  Typically, students attend newcomer programs before they move into more traditional interventions. 

Non-English proficient

Physical communication such as gestures, facial expressions, and physical proximity that support oral communication.