Instrumental function of a second language and bilingual education

Even though in bilingual intercultural education the learning of a second language should fulfill an instrumental function together with the mother tongue, we have no information that this is being carried out in our country. The author states that this is, partly, due to a confusion of certain basic notions, among them, the learning of content in a first and in a second language, and what it means to master a language for academic purposes. To help clarify these points, the author studies three programs which, from different perspectives, have as an objective the development of academic language.