Code‐switching and bilingual schooling: An examination of Jacobson's new concurrent approach

Abstract This article describes the New Concurrent Approach to bilingual instruction. This approach systematically incorporates inter‐sentential code‐switching as a means for teaching content to limited English proficient children raised in a bilingual environment. The article examines how code‐switching present in bilingual communities has been incorporated and adapted for instruction, and how the adaptation contributes to the balanced distribution of the two codes in question. Reference is also made to major fears commonly associated with the use of code‐switching for instructional purposes, and presents evidence to show that these fears are largely unfounded.