Bilingual Education Emerged from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1968

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Bilingual education emerged from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1968, proposing that children should be instructed in their native tongue for a transitional year while learning English; before being integrated into all-English classrooms. Subjects like mathematics, science, and social studies are taught in multiple languages in an effort to keep non-English-speaking students from falling behind native-English speakers. Unfortunately, bilingual education has not generated the desired results, mainly because the model being utilized is not structured or executed correctly and ultimately, does not provide benefit to students. America is a melting pot for a myriad of cultures, the way bilingual education is being implemented should be reconsidered to better integrate students with immigrant backgrounds into our public education system without jeopardizing the preparedness of any of our students for a global economy.

Many advocates of bilingual education propose that learning in multiple language can increase self-esteem While this might sound fantastic, studies show that to rarely be the case and in actuality, many parents wish to not have their child(ren) involved. Advocates of bilingual education stress that the program is meant to increase self-esteem among limited-English students when they are introduced to all-English classes. However, studies have shown that self-esteem is not significantly higher amongst these children. In fact, studies suggest students’ stress levels are actually lowered when introduced to English on the first day of school. Supporters, teachers and other staff members make sure to make the child’s self esteem a major concern and a decision maker in a parents head yet most parents are unwill...

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...t the dominant subject and waste years of their education.

Works Cited

"Bilingual Education--Not So Impossible." Bilingual Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

Rodriguez, Richard. "Bilingual Education: Outdated and Unrealistic." Connections: A Multicultural Reader for Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing, 1993. 457-460.

"Research Areas." Language and Linguistics: Language Acquisition. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .

Porter, Rosalie Pedalino, Deborah Straszheim, and Amy Pyle. "Twisted Tongues: The Failure of Bilingual Education." The Communitarian Network. The Communitarian Network, 27 Feb. 1998. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .

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