Abstract The past decades have witnessed a large-scale transnational movement of people around the world and an increasing attention on language education for immigrants. This study reviews Hebrew education for immigrants in Israel. After the founding of Israel, large numbers of immigrants with different language backgrounds poured in. The Hebrew education for immigrants implemented by the Israeli government not only helped the immigrants quickly integrate into the new country and contribute to the national development, but also revived the Hebrew spoken language that has disappeared for nearly two thousand years. This review shows that in the process of making these world-renowned achievements, the government’s macro national policies and micro guidelines have played vital roles. In Israel, the Hebrew education policy has roughly evolved from the stage of “Hebrew monolingual education” to the stage of “multilingual education with Hebrew as the core” with an emphasis on practicability, flexibility and scientific teaching methods in practice. The implications of Israel’s Hebrew education for immigrants for other countries’ second language education include optimizing education planning at the national level, stressing the role of daily practical use and play in children’s early second language development, formulating research-based second language literacy education program, and cultivating metalinguistic awareness in young bilingual children.
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