Building English competencies in bilingual underachievers: A baseline study of Singapore's learning support program

Abstract

"This project is a baseline study of Singapore's Learning Program (LSP) which is an intervention program in primary schools with the main objective of helping students who do not have adequate competencies in English language and literacy to cope with the mainstream curriculum. The LSP is comparable to the other compensatory programs in the USA such as Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE), two way bilingual educations (TWBE), pull out ESL programs and the funds of knowledge intervention program in the UK. All these compensatory programs have a leveling up a goal in which they try to bring underachievers to the same level of their mainstream peers. The broad objectives of the project are to document what goes on in the LSP, how the Learning Support Co-ordinator teaches, who is sent in, who is sent out and what Learning Support Co-ordinators believe about bilingualism."--executive summary.