Importance Of Bilingual Education

Nelson Mandela once said , “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” By speaking in a student’s own language it has much more impact than speaking in another. Bilingual education provides that opportunity to speak to students’ hearts in order for them to learn. Schools should not have English- Only education because bilingual education provides equal opportunity for academic achievement and creates an accepting classroom that allows cultural diversity.

One of the most important reasons for bilingual education is the main fact that research supports bilingualism in order to deliver a better education. English- only education does not provide a

English- Only education makes emergent bilinguals feel stressed and unsuitable for education. By forcing students to be in a classroom where their first language is not spoken and have the added pressure of learning content, it is a recipe for failure for emergent bilinguals. Educators should view their classroom as a safe-haven where are different cultures can come to learn. By using english-only education, educators are taking that sense of diversity away from the classroom and implementing monolingualism. One of the reasons there is a lack of diversity awareness in schools is because of the schemes put in place by policy-makers. The United States has lacked in policies that truly enforce diversity in schools. Ovando explains the hypocrisy by stating, “Despite the alleged U.S. libertarian linguistic tradition, assimilationist and pluralist policies have each prevailed, often as surrogates for racist, classist, and religious prejudices.” Ovando 2003 p 2) Our nation needs to take a step away from the idea that our country is a melting pot. The term melting pot has a negative connotation because it refers to assimilating into one. By using English-only education, it is stripping away the cultural identity students and families in every school. Our nation should not want every child or every person to be exactly the same and to fit into the melting pot. Education should be the first

By including bilingual education there is a higher rate that the students who are emergent bilinguals will stay in school because their self-esteem is not as low compared to if they were in an English- Only classroom. Seeing bilingualism as an benefit instead of a defect would positively impact students who are emergent bilinguals and would potentially be used as a resource for the whole classroom.
Those in favor of English-only education would argue that bilingual education is not necessary because students will “pick up” English when they attend school. This idea that English will come naturally to emergent bilinguals by throwing them into a English classroom is inaccurate. Since the student is unfamiliar with the language, they will completely miss out on the content. Ovando explains the misconception on English-only education by