As America’s demographics become more diverse and the issue of whether or not we should accommodate minorities arises, bilingual education has become a hot topic. Bilingual education has been discussed and connected to other controversial topics such as nationalism, racism, immigration, and adoption of English as the official language of the United States, along with minority rights, cultural diversity, and the goals of education itself. Here are some questions to be discussed: 1. What role does bilingual education take in the U.S.? 2. What are the arguments for bilingual education? 3. What are the arguments against bilingual education? 4. What are some concluding ideas on bilingual education? This exploration of the educational issue of bilingual education will focus on these four questions. What role does bilingual education take in the U.S.? Bilingual education involves teaching material in two languages. In America, this includes ESL (teaching English as a second language) for students whose native language is not English. Bilingual education simply helps those students who would otherwise be helpless in actually learning the material in their English-only classes. It also helps English-speaking Americans learn another language, like Spanish. This is useful to them because America’s demographics are indeed becoming more diverse and thus, better language skills should be employed. Implementing bilingual education in the school curriculum is due to the passing of legislation at the government level. As of now, English immersion programs exist because of the Bilingual Education Act (a.k.a Title VII), which was passed along with the Civil Rights Act in 1964. (Cerda; Hernandez, 2006) At that time, it was expected to change ethnoc... ... middle of paper ... ..., Christina M. (2006). Bilingual education. Freewebs.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.freewebs.com/cerdahdz/ Headden, Susan. (1995). One nation, one language? USnews.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/950925/archive_032934_3.htm Schütz, Ricardo. (2007, July 2). Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language Acquisition. Sk.com. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html. Thomas; Collier. ( 2002). A national study of school effectiveness for Language Minority Students' Long-Term Academic Achievement. Escholarship.org. Retrieved April 10, 2014 from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/65j213pt#page-312 Wilson, Kathleen. (2002, October 17). 6 seek 2 trustee spots for Oxnard District. Ventura County Star. AZbilingualed.org. Retrieved April 10, 2014 from http://www.enotes.com/bilingual-education-article/
Opinion Editorial By Hassan Abdi In the article written by Richard Rodriguez, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, he conveys an opinion that Bilingual education doesn’t work. He conveys it through his personal experience. Published by the Phi Beta Kappa to the American Society in 1981, the audience and his message are a broad and important now as it was thirty five years ago. As the amount of children that don’t speak English as their first language continue to rise, bilingual education has become a polarizing topic like most things, and for me, I am neutral on the topic. A form of bilingual education has failed me, but, for most students it benefits in the long term, and it 's not right to dispel one side of the topic to push your own
The reason I want to be a teacher is so I can make a positive impact in the lives’ of children similar to the teachers that taught me who impacted my life growing up. When I was six years old my family left Mexico and migrated to Greenville, Texas. The transition was challenging; I left behind everything I knew and was forced to adapt to a brand new world where I could not understand the language that everyone spoke. Luckily for me, Greenville had a bilingual program and I was placed in the classroom of Ms. Ramirez. I will never forget how she treated all her students, she truly is one of my biggest inspirations as to why I decided to become a bilingual teacher. Every time I stepped foot in her classroom, I always felt safe, secured, and
When I immigrated to the United States I couldn’t speak any English, so the Department of Education staff sent me to a school which only for the immigrant student and taught student with bilingual education. I only needed to stay in this school for one year because they only introducing student the fundamental English skill and the American culture. After one year, I would transfer to the local high school to continue my high school education but there was no more bilingual education. I believe that bilingual education school is good way for the immigrants to break the language barriers. I still remember that the first school day in the United States I was very afraid and nervous because I didn’t know any English and the American culture. However, when I arrived to the school I found out that there were a lot of student who came from the same country as I was, and some of the instructors could speak Chinese too. I started to not afraid of school and feel excited about my new school life. After I studied in this school for one year, I transfer to a local high school which didn’t have bilingual education, but I didn’t afraid my new school life because I already know how to communicate with other students. A program of bilingual education is a very good program that help immigrants student break the language barriers. As Richard wrote “A major study analyzed more than three decades of research, combining 17 different studies, and found that bilingual education programs produce higher levels of student achievement in reading” (Schaefer, 2015, p.96). However, “Attacks on bilingualism in voting and education have taken several forms and have even broadened to question the appropriateness of U.S. residents using any language other than English” (Schaefer, 2015, p.96). There are a lot of people come to the United States from many countries, and a
The number of English language learning (ELL) students in the U.S. has grown dramatically in the last decade. According to a 1991 national study, there are over 2,300,000 students in grades K through 12 who are English language learners (August & Hakuta, 1997). This number has grown by over 1,000,000 since 1984. The majority of these students are Spanish-speakers (73%), followed by Vietnamese-speakers (3.9%). Because the overwhelming proportion of ELL students are Spanish speakers, the issue of bilingual education is largely a Latino one.
This essay will consist of two analyses of significant legislations. One is the reauthorization of 1994 regarding the Bilingual Education Act (BEA). Two is Title III or English Language Acquisition Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement Act. The three states discussed in this essay regarding English language learner issues are California, Arizona, and Massachusetts. However, these three states share the anti-bilingual education law. California enacted the law in 1998. Arizona initiated the law in 2000. Massachusetts approved by legislature the law in 2002. This essay will also discuss the comparisons with the anti-bilingual law passed in these three states, explanation of challenges with the anti-bilingual law in the three states and an explanation of the benefits of the anti-bilingual law in the three states.
So, less than 200 years ago, students struggled to gain access to a bilingual education. Now, today we stand with a federal law that requires states to provide language education to all non-native English speaking students. While we may have moved legally and lawfully into a new era that opens doors for those who speak another language, we may not all have moved on from the racism, the stereotypes
Naturally, bilingualism needs to be taught from birth to be most effective, yet schools ignore this (Meisel).Moving right along, our current teaching methods take some amount of inspiration from ancient romans teaching greek in schools, ways that are extremely outdated (Porter). Much research is focused primarily on bilingual learners who have grown up bilingual, and exclude children who had only begun learning their second language in school (Meisel). Usually, the fears of the people directly involved in bilingual education are ignored by researchers of the subject (Meisel). In Byers-Heinlein’s article they state “A one-person-one-language approach is neither necessary nor sufficient for successful bilingual acquisition,” but later proclaims “In situations where each parent spends equal time with a child, one-parent-one-language can be a great way to ensure equal exposure” (Byers-Heinlein). Generally, the teachers who disagree with the current method of bilingual education are often afraid to speak out because they will be labeled racists, haters of foreign languages, and critics of immigrants (Porter). Moreover, despite the various differing opinions present in the communities of bilingual educators, debates on whether to keep it are not tolerated (Porter). Although, the difficulty with which current bilingual education would be changed would provide one of the few legitimate incentives for teachers to advocate their system; they don’t want to put in the effort to do so (Porter). As a matter of fact, ethnic education politics are one of the only reasons that the current methods are not already abandoned (Porter). Finally, “The case for the effectiveness of Transitional Bilingual Education is so weak that
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
From my experience, bilingual education was a disadvantage during my childhood. At the age of twelve, I was introduced into a bilingual classroom for the first time. The crowded classroom was a combination of seventh and eighth grade Spanish-speaking students, who ranged from the ages of twelve to fifteen. The idea of bilingual education was to help students who weren’t fluent in the English language. The main focus of bilingual education was to teach English and, at the same time, teach a very basic knowledge of the core curriculum subjects: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Unfortunately, bilingual education had academic, psychological, and social disadvantages for me.
To be honest, I didn't know very much about the legal status and specific methods involved in bilingual education. Researching bilingual education helped me develop a broad understanding of the controversy and sufficient knowledge to be able to defend which method I think is the most effective. The biggest challenge in presenting my argument was focusing on a topic, because bilingual education is a broad topic with many ramifications. After considering many possible angles, I finally chose to write about two-way bilingual education because it is an effective method that has not been implemented very frequently in the educational system.
Another aspect which require constant ELLs advocacy is the teachers’ beliefs and attitudes. Olvera (2015) argued that teachers hold negative stereotypes about ELLs which have effects on students’ ability to be proficient in English. These negative ideas have grounded on many different sources. Olvera (2015) stated that teachers’ negative impression of ELLs stems from historical, political, and social influence, and the curriculum taught. Just to mention that all these factors are far beyond the teachers’ control, but still, they place influence due to practices and policies of the teaching English. The bilingual programs, in Olvera’s opinion, do not necessarily promote bilingualism/biculturalism hence they serve as a way to immerse into English only. On the one hand, I disagree with the author at this point because there is much evidence-based research supporting that Bilingualism education fosters tolerance. On the other hand, I agree with the author that promoting bilingualism means instructions must be provided in both
Bilingual education has been in the U.S. since the 17th century, the U.S. has always been a multicultural and multilingual country, and with the evolution of federal policies the rights and needs of ELLs have been taken into consideration. For instance, in Lau vs Nichols, the supreme court ruled that sink or swim was unconstitutional and that ELLs were not receiving a meaningful education, because they were all using the same textbooks as their native English peers. This case made a significant difference in bilingual education, soon after this case more important court decisions and legislations took place; the cases addressed the linguistic and educational needs of English Language Learner students.
As I read through Chapter 3: Multicultural and Bilingual Aspects of Special Education, I was forced to reflect on my own experiences with multiculturalism and bilingualism in the district that I work in. While I feel very fortunate in many ways to work in an affluent district, like New Canaan, I am starting to wonder how much our program is actually benefiting our multicultural and bilingual students with special needs. Throughout my three years at this particular elementary school I am saddened to say that I do not feel that we are doing everything we can and should be for our students; but I can also pinpoint two very specific reasons why our district has thus far been unable to implement multicultural and bilingual aspects into the curriculum.
America, a country built on immigration dating back to the early 1600s Mayflower voyage, continues to thrive as a melting pot full of various cultures and ethnics. In the past, many immigrants came to America due to the offered freedoms and equality, yet today, many naturalized citizens suffer with injustices, including with educational practices. The use of bilingual education, which is teaching students in both English and their native language, has become a controversial topic. In 1968, the Bilingual Education Act, which recognized and offered education to students who were lacking English, was passed, yet the topic still seems questionable to some. Bilingual education provides a variety of beneficial attributes to equally help foreigners
There are many issues facing the education system. Some of the greatest challenges facing education and educators today are funding, lack of parental involvement, poverty, lack of resources, uncontrollable home situations, standardized testing, and even policymakers. The shocking and scary part is that these are literally just a few of the issues. Nonetheless, how often do we consider the issues that bicultural and bilingual students encounter every day as they strive towards the “American Dream”?