Transitional bilingual education is an educational theory that states that children can most easily acquire fluency in a second language by first acquiring fluency in their native language. Fluency is defined as linguistic fluency (such as speaking) as well as literacy (such as reading and writing).
The goal of transitional bilingual education is to help transition a student into an English-only classroom as quickly as possible. A bilingual teacher teaches children in subjects such as math, science, and social studies in their native language so that once the transition is made to an English-only classroom, the student has the knowledge necessary to compete with his peers in all other subject areas. The length of time a student is taught English while learning other subjects in their first language is typically three years. Research has shown that many of the skills learned in the native language can easily be transferred to the second language later.