Bilingual Education in America

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Recommended: Multiculturalism and bilingual education

Bilingual education in America is controversial as many educators, politicians, and citizens disagree as to the process of assimilation in the classroom. Bilingual education is the process of providing content-area instruction to Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in their native language while teaching them English. English immersion provides almost exclusive instruction in English with the intent of mainstreaming students after one year (Eagan). Support for and against English language assimilation crosses cultural, economic and financial lines with no clear indication as to why some support it and others don’t. America’s bilingual education efforts should focus on English language immersion.
Peter Duignan, emeritus senior fellow and Lillick curator at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and author of more than forty books, wrote Bilingual Education Is Detrimental to Everyone, published in the Bilingual Education, 2008 edition. Mr. Duignan details the history of bilingual education which follows the change in immigration trends to America. He maintains the current policy of bilingual education is placing immigrant “children at a disadvantage and threatens the unity of the nation (Duignan).” Heather Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at the institute's City Journal. In an article entitled, Bilingual Education Is a Barrier to Hispanic Assimilation, she argues that bilingual education should be banned. As support, she uses the statistic of the “success of the 1998 California ban that has resulted in higher test scores among Hispanic students” (Mac Donald). In Race and Politics Drive the Bilingual Education Controversy, written by Owen Eagan, a public relations and politic...

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...3): 24-27. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu
Mac Donald, Heather. "Bilingual Education Is a Barrier to Hispanic Assimilation." The U.S. Latino Community. Ed. Margaret Haerens. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Bilingual Ban That Worked." City Journal(Autumn 2009). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com.ezproxy.library.csn.edu
Maxwell, Lesli A. "Calif. Leader Keeps English-Learners in Academic Mix." 3 March 2014. Education Week. 24 April 2014. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/05/
Maxwell, Lesli A. "Romney Touts Role in Dismantling Bilingual Education in Mass." 30 December 2011. Education Week. 24 April 2014 Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2011/12

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