Arguments for English Immersion

Arguments for English Immersion

In recent years people have developed views against the idea of bilingual education and they believe strongly that it accounts for the failure of students. Therefore, in 1998 California changed it’s law to allow for only English immersion to be taught, due to the frustration they were experiencing because not enough children were obtaining a working knowledge of English (Tapia, 2000). Through observations many people have come to the conclusion that English immersion is much more effective then bilingual education and that this law was successful. Ever since the new English immersion law went into effect, California has observed that, while before when bilingual education was taught only 18% of limited-English students would score above the median ion reading test, now 31% of students do. Only 13% of students in bilingual education score as high as those in English Immersion classes. It has also been observed that students in English immersion classes are two times more likely to have above median scores in Language Arts and three times more likely to have above median scores in spelling (Chavez, 2002). Many states are following California’s example and are now implementing their own English immersion laws. Arizona, for example, has started a program called “English for the Children” which is similar to the law in California (Tapia, 2000). English immersion has been accepted by many as the appropriate solution for problems they had been facing in bilingual education, and has proven to be rather successful. Therefore, many people believe English immersion is better then bilingual education.

Many polls of immigrant families have been done to determine which programs immigrant parents pre...

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...ocusing on the new anti-bilingual education laws passed in California. This is a peer reviewed article.

Rizzo, H. O. (2000, September) Under attack, Hispanic, 13(9). Retrieved October 15,2003 from Academic Search Premier database.

The challenges facing bilingual education programs, such as new state laws, are discussed.

Tapia, S.T. (2000, April 11) 2 States differ on bilingual ed’s value. Retrieved October 15,2003 from http://www.azstarnet.com/bilingual/day3-1.html.

The opposing laws in Florida vs. California regarding bilingual education are discussed as to the reasoning behind each.

Zehr, M. A. (2003, February 22). Poll: Immigrants value speaking English. EducationWeek, 22(19), 3. Retrieved 23 October, 2003 from Academic Search Premier.

Results from a 2003 poll state that immigrants prefer English classes to Bilingual education classes.