Social bilinguals (second language learners in a linguistic minority) and cultural bilinguals (foreign language learners) often learn side by side in the same classroom, making syllabus planning and choice of teaching methodology difficult. Adopting a bilingual approach and exploring the semantic and discourse aspects of language can overcome the obstacles created by individual bilingualism and group multilingualism and provide a vehicle for language across the curriculum. The approach is based on the assumptions that cognitive development is the basis of language development, cognitive and native language development of peers is comparable across language groups, and it is easier for learners to incorporate new concepts into their knowledge structure if they are mediated by a language they know well, i.e., the native language. The technique is to make teaching both subject-matter-centered and student-centered, using texts available in parallel form in both languages, matching the student's cognitive ability, satisfying syllabus requirements, and suitable for autonomous or small-group instruction. These texts can then be adapted to teach subject matter, concept learning, and discourse to students with differing language needs. Examples of this text adaptation are provided. (MSE)