Perhaps, here, the most telling words seem to be "the more intelligent class," "the better class," and "those of their countrymen who come here with good intentions." Indeed, one has to wonder which groups of immigrants would not wish to be considered as representatives of these words. Certainly, if an avocation against bilingual education will allow them full membership into a class of people who are "intelligent," of "better class," and "with good intentions," it would be tempting to say the least.
The simple truth is, a majority of those who oppose bilingual education are famously right-wing and typically Republican. In fact, under virtually every Republican Administration, issues of bilingual education have consistently been maligned (Ostrom, 1998). Consider, for example the remarks of 1996 Republican Presidential nominee Bob Dole, who asserted that teaching English is meant "to speed the melting of our melting pot," and that "...We must stop the practice of multilingual education as a means of instilling ethnic pride, or as a therapy for low self-esteem, or out of elitist guilt over a culture built on the traditions of the West (Pitsch, 1995)." Quite an interesting statement when one considers the oppositional belief that subjects (including English) are taught in the public schools in order to educate, not as a political or national goal to foster assimilation.
Further, the common undertone of "Americanism" as a primary reason for the acquisition of English (thinly veiled under a supposed interest in immigrant "success" in life), only undermines the fact that good educational theory is almost never a consideration in the debate. In fact, despite several examples of miss-managed bilingual education programs, the theory of bilingualism simply makes sense.
Although many legitimately wonder how a child in a bilingual program will ever learn English, it must be remembered that educational theory supports the notion that a good education in any language helps a student to do well once he or she learns to take courses in a second language. Again, this fact is demonstrated every year in the accomplishments of members of the ranks of foreign students enrolled in United States universities (many of whom begin their U.S. education with ESL classes upon enrolling at colleges and universities -- thereby demonstrating that years spent in acquiring generalized education in their native language in no way hampers their progress later).
The truth is, a child who understands the basic fundamentals of mathematics is better suited to understanding the basics taught in a foreign language than one who has to struggle with those concepts from the beginning in a language that is incomprehensible. After all, the average college educated adult can attest to the difficulty of learning calculus, for example, in English. One has but to imagine just how much more difficult it would be to learn it in Arabic with no prior knowledge of the language.
Another example commonly cited in the debate is that of primary literacy. Many studies have proven that reading ability strongly transfers between languages -- that is the process of reading, letter recognition, scanning, decoding, etc., prepares one to read in another language. Thus, according to Frank Smith, in his 1994 work, Understanding Reading, it is not only easier to learn to read if one understands the words that are being read (as opposed to incomprehensible words in a foreign language), but once reading has been learned, the ability crosses over into other languages once those languages are acquired. However, of course, the reverse is not true. That is, if a student struggles to acquire primary literacy due to a fundamental incomprehension of the words on the page (arguably the very conceptual goal of reading -- without which serious delays must be expected), it is unlikely that he or she will do well later with regard to literacy in any language.
Unfortunately, politics and public opinion seems to be taking central stage, especially in light of current events in the "No Child Left Behind" program. Indeed, under the banner of politics and political alliances, the nation has seen the 1970's Supreme Court decision affirming the necessity of bilingual education dealt a fatal blow. Not only is this unfortunate due to the incredible waste of time and resources given to develop...
Such limitations seem necessary because of the limited resources that schools have and the need for students to learn English as soon as possible so that they can receive all the benefits of a public school education. Reflection It is evident that this issue will be present for years to come. The increase in the number of children for whom English is not their first language is an indication of the
In terms of efficacy, Krashen addresses the position that bilingual education is not as effective as suggested by its proponents. The evidence presented by this position is however not sufficiently convincing to make a substantial case for immersion programs as being superior to bilingual curricula. Krashen admits that there are still a number of problems associated with bilingual education that need to be addressed. The largest of these is the accessibility
Bilingual Education Methods: Pros and Cons Once upon a time, perhaps, the art of teaching was relatively strait-forward. Each teacher used their own style, or that which had been handed down to them by those they learned from. While certainly a certain degree of theory has always been involved in teaching (after all, the so-called Socratic method of teaching was debated centuries before the birth of Christ, and is still cropping
Bilingual Education America is a land of immigrants and has, therefore, always required bilingual education programs in some form or the other. In fact, bilingual education programs have existed in America since the late eighteenth century, when European immigrant children received educational instruction in their native languages. Recently, however, the issue of bilingual education appears to have grown somewhat contentious. This is evident by the initiatives taken by the States of
Flexible grouping practices were important to the success of the program: students had access to Spanish-only, English-only, or bilingual instruction throughout the school day depending on their individual linguistic and academic needs" (de Jong, 2006:3). This ensured grade-level content learning in most academic subjects, but still allowed for ESL instruction, and social studies content that reinforced their home cultures. Also, bilingual teachers were paired with grade-level standard curriculum teachers to
The court held that the district court's refusal to reopen the case and receive additional evidence after the remand from the court was not error. The court did not remand with directions to reopen the case and retry it. The only direction was that the district court was to make more detailed findings on the question of allegedly discriminatory hiring practices that adversely affected the educational opportunities afforded the Mexican-American
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now