A study on the appropriate methods of bilingual education

The aim of this research was to determine and prioritize the appropriate methods of bilingual education and the impact of these methods on students’ academic achievement. The research population consisted of 100 experts on sciences related to education, including curriculum planning, educational management, educational psychology, teaching English as a foreign language and all 1st grade male students of Tabriz at academic year of 1389-90. The research sample consisted of total number of experts in the above-mentioned fields, and 10 classes including 271 students who were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling method (all from Tabriz). The students were classified into two groups. The research method was descriptive-survey and quasi-experimental. Review of related literature showed that three bilingual teaching methods of trasitional, immersion and two-way are of most use in different countries. Cronbach’ alpha for the questionnaire of the three mentioned teaching methods was 0.75, 0.72 and 0.80, respectively. Based on one-sample t-test and Friedman test, the two bilingual teaching methods of two way and immersion were confirmed by experts. The two mentioned teaching methods were used for teaching two groups of students. One group of students were instructed using the strategies of immersion teaching method and the other group were instructed using the strategies of two-way teaching method. Research findings showed that science academic achievement of students instructed by two way teaching method is more than those instructed by immersion teaching method. There was not a significant difference between academic achievement in math and let’s write (benevisim) of students who were taught using two way teaching methods and those who were taught using immersion teaching method. Based on the prominence of two way teaching method in science education, it could be concluded that the use of this method increases students’ understanding of scientific material.