Suppose your child has been moved to China. Your child does not speak Chinese; is it the school system's responsibility to teach your child in English? Or should your child be expected to learn in the country's language and perhaps get extra help on the side? Why should a school district spend money on bilingual classes rather than on reducing class sizes? In the United States of America we have become a large melting pot of ethnic and cultural peoples. Along with these peoples have come many different languages and alphabets. However the US has been seen as a mostly English speaking country. Yet many of this country's newcomers do not speak English. Adults and children alike come into the US speaking and writing only their native tongue. This poses a huge gap in communication. If the adults are unable to teach their children English, then it becomes the school districts' responsibility. However to make learning easier on the child, many school districts choose to teach the child in their native language, while they receive English lessons on the side. The debate now is whether there is sufficient studies proving the effectiveness of Bilingual education and the need to continue it in many states. In 1998 Los Angeles County passed Proposition 227 to create bilingual education programs. (LA Times October 23.1998) Because of the passing of this bill many students were left in limbo waiting for teaching plans to be made. As well as the budget to be reformed to accommodate the extra expenses of a bilingual education programs, books, and to hire the proper teachers and aids to assists in the new bilingual classes. Often there are only a few children in a classroom being taught in their native language whil... ... middle of paper ... ...etter spent in helping all children attending schools. Teachers who want to teach should not be discriminated against for their English only abilities and all the students in a classroom need to be given an equal chance to succeed. Works Cited: "A Boomtown Of Education", L.A Times, May, 25th 1998 (Front Page) http://www.onenation.org/0598/052598c.html A Mass News Exclusive "Bilingual Education in Massachusetts": A Troubled Program. http://www.massnews.com/sch13.htm "Hundreds Wait for Bilingual education", L.A Times Oct. 23, 1998 http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~cmmr/NEWS/L.A.Times_Oct23.html Padilla, Amado. "Bilingual Education: Issues and Perspectives." From Community to College, New York, St. Martin's Press 1992 PBS Online Forum "Language and Education" Sep. 29, 1997 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/september97/bilingual_9-29.html
The war fought at sea was described by John Laffin in ‘Butchers and Bunglers of the First World War’ as playing ‘the most decisive part in winning the war.’ He claimed that it had ‘impo...
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
Jost, Kenneth. “Bilingual education vs. English immersion.” CQ Researecher. 11 December 2009. 19, 1029-1052. Web. 17 Feb. 2011
such a love can arise out of hatred and then triumph over it in death,
Haas, Werner. "The Pros and Cons of Bilingual Education." Associated Content . Yahoo, 1 June 2007. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.
While the population of language minority children in the nation makes up a substantial part of the student population, and continues to grow, their educational civil rights have come under increasing scrutiny and attack over the past decade. All students have the right to be provided access to content area knowledge. Bilingual education, or teaching through the native language, has been an important technique for providing that right to English language learners. However, the use of this educational technique has been increasingly criticized and eroded over the past ten years. To look at this broad issue, I will examine the history of civil rights for language minority children, the assumptions behind the attack on bilingual education, and suggest responses to safeguard the rights of language minority students.
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.
While California debates whether to stop teaching school children in two languages, the school system in Miami, Florida, is expanding bilingual education. This city at the crossroads of the Americas is expanding bilingual education under the argument that students will need to speak, read and write in English and Spanish when they reach the business world. The decision to do this almost seems natural for a metropolis where the top-rated television stations broadcast in Spanish, the top-ranked newspaper publishes a separate Spanish daily edition, and many top civic leaders speak effortless Spanish and Latinos have become the majority. Educators in Miami, home to the first bilingual public school in the modern era, are baffled by the cultural and political firefight over bilingual education in California. Nowhere is the controversy more intense than in California.
The United States is filled with many different ethnicities, cultures, customs, languages, etc. Supposedly, our public schools are equipped with classes, teachers, curriculums and materials in order to educate that part of the student population whose first language is something other than the English language. Bilingual classes, transitional classes, ESL classes are just a few of the programs that have been developed to instruct non-English speaking students in order for them to acquire the English language.
Bilingual education policy is political activity replete with historical, social, cultural, and economic contexts (Crawford, 2000; Tolleson & Tsui, 2004). It is linked to legislation, court decisions, and executive actions. (Gandara & Gomez, 2009). The BEA came at an exceptional period of domestic upheaval, demographic transformation, and on the heel of the civil right movement. The Act created a channel to provide states and local education districts with funds, personnel assistance, and other incentives for the development of bilingual education program.
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.
For decades, education has been one of the most important aspects of life. Because education has always been around, it has unintentionally changed over time. These changes have been the result of various historic and legislative events that have occurred throughout the years. After taking a closer look at the history of bilingual education, I have selected a handful of events that, in my opinion, led to drastic changes and greatly impacted bilingual students.
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.
The bilingual education programs that are in existence now are not completely successful. In these classes, the teachers are teaching in mostly Spanish and very limited English. When the non-English speaking students are put in to a separate class, they are segregated and are not assimilated with the English-speaking students. This keeps them from learning in an English only situation, which makes them learn English faster. This also prevents English speaking students from not knowing total extent of culture and background of peers in their own schools. In addition to that, it doesn't give non-English students a reason to really learn English if they are going to be taught in their native tongue most of the time. When that happens, it hurts those students in the long run. They won't know enough English to communicate in the American society, and they'll be doomed if they can't live in the American society. Richard E. Ferraro, "When you're talking about language," he argued, "English is essential for success in this count...
In 2009, teachers of a New Jersey school banned foreign languages and stated, “any language other than English will not be tolerated" (Debaron 1). This situation was soon no longer allowed. While over ten percent of the total adolescent education systems contain emergent bilinguals, a whopping sixty percent of those students are educated in only English (Bale). Maria Estela Brisk, a Boston College Education professor, believes, “schools has wasted much energy in the search for a "perfect" model and the best way to learn English” when they could just focus on proving “quality education” to every student in the system (1). Teacher’s main priority should consist of effectively teaching their students to prepare them for the future, but currently there are a lack of certified bilingual education teachers. When students are taught more in different ways, they can educationally benefit their cognitive abilities, involving the brain with “mathematics, problem solving, logic and memory”, can be improved to create an overall better student. Even by learning another language at a earlier age can contribute to __________. Learning another language will be