rsion programs have been designed based on conceptual frameworks and theories of language learning that emphasize meaning. These foundational concepts have been discussed by Montone and Howard (1997) who state that translation is one of the key elements of "bilingual education" methods. The authors also note that research in the area of bilingual education has strongly indicated that content knowledge learned through one language paves the way for knowledge acquisition in the second language and content knowledge of course comes from translation and related activities. More specifically, the authors point out that this area of language learning theory holds that when native language instruction is provided to language minority students along with balanced second language support, students can attain higher levels of academic achievement in the second language than if they had been taught in the second language only.
Moreover, Montone and Howard (1997) state that this view of language learning also asserts that a second language is best acquired
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