Language and content in bilingual education

This article suggests that there is a tendency to argue for or against bilingual education in terms of productivity (student attainment expressed as test scores), and that productivity is discussed in terms of division of time, curriculum and speakers. Although this orientation has produced some valuable macro-level accounts, it does not address the need for close-up interaction data showing how language(s) are used by teachers and students in classroom activities. It is argued that such data is vital for understanding language and curriculum content learning in specific local contexts, which in turn can be fed into wider discussions on pedagogy and policy in bilingual education.