Legal and historical implications with bilingual education

Intro

There are many legal and historical implications with bilingual education.

Article One

Sheltered instruction: An empowerment framework for English language learners by Helen Abadiano and Jesse Turner discuss the movement in the early 1900s to develop standards for bilingual education in response to “Goals 2000: Educate America Act” along with other legislation designed to promote higher expectations in academia for all students (Abadiano & Turner, 2003). Abadiano and Turner note that English as a Second Language (ESL) in not listed as one of the federal designated content areas included for standard development. Federal legislation went so far as to imply that English Language Arts would address the needs of ELL students, and that the content standard changes were meant to help all students. The number of students form diverse culture and linguistic backgrounds is increasing and in response to this increase and lack of federal expectations the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) created a taskforce to not only monitor the reform efforts but to encourage “professional groups working on content area standards to address the needs of ELLs. This led to the pursuance of the development of standards for English as a second language. The ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students was published in 1997” (Abadiano & Turner, 2003). Abadiano and Turner also discuss Sheltered Instruction and Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. It is accepted that Sheltered Instruction is an effective method of ELL instruction but the problem lies in what is considered effective sheltered lessons. This inability to come to a conscience “led the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE) to embar...

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...des parents with options when it comes to their students’ bilingual education. The law doesn’t take into account much that has been learned about ELL students or structured English instruction or immersion.

Conclusion

There are many different ideas about teaching ELL students and the above articles discuss some of the laws and history behind some of those laws and methods that direct out instruction of ELL students here in the United States.

Works Cited

Abadiano, R. H., & Turner, J. (2003). Sheltered instruction: An empowerment framework for English language learners. Research In The Classroom , 50-55.

Sapiens, A. (1999). Proposition 227: Politicizing Schooling for Latinos in California. Educational Horizons, 168-170.

Verma , G., Martin-Hansen, L., & Pepper, J. B. (2008). Using sheltered instruction to teach English Language Learners. Science Scope, 56-59.