For example, public schools in California enrolled recently arrived immigrants from 136 different countries in 1994, but bilingual teachers were certified in only 17 languages - 96% of them in Spanish. To the extent that LEP [ESL] children received help in other tongues, they received it almost entirely from teacher aides" (Crawford, 1997, "Babel' in the Schools"). A combined blend of immersion and resource support, or a transitional approach is often necessary from an administrative and logistical as well as an ideological point-of-view -- there are simply not enough teachers.
What approach is best?
Beyond the rhetorical fury of those who are 'English Only' advocates, devout multiculturalists, or concerned parents, it is often hard to find unbiased, quality research about the outcomes of current programs and strategies. The most sophisticated evaluation study of different approaches was "a four-year, longitudinal study of 2,000 Spanish-speaking students in five states" and found that 'late-exit,' developmental bilingual programs proved superior to 'early-exit,' transitional bilingual and English-only immersion" produced better rates of growth in English reading and mathematics (Crawford, 1997, "Bilingual Education"). But some researchers have rejected the comparison as invalid because all three programs were not tested in the same school districts.
No study is conclusive, or broad enough to provide an answer. However, linguistic developmental specialists outside of the politicized debate have supported the idea that total immersion hampers long-term academic success of ESL students, even if it is not immediately obvious through immediately collected data. "A premature transition to all-English classrooms seems to retard academic achievement...there are two types of [language] proficiency. One is exemplified by the speech children use on the playground, interpersonal communication that is high in context and low in cognitive demands. The other is more complex, involving the ability to manipulate verbal symbols without the aid of physical gestures or oral feedback: the kind of language needed for abstract reasoning...children need much less time to develop conversational proficiency in a second language (one to two years) than academic proficiency (five to seven years)" (Crawford, 1992). Hence, the paradox that children who may be able to joke with English speaking friends or help their non-native speaking parents navigate the grocery store will not necessarily feel the same comfort level doing a biology lab as their native-speaking peers.
Conclusion
Bilingual programs may serve as "a linguistic enrichment with possible...
The research of Wofendale (1991) demonstrated the effectiveness of parents who provided support for the learning process of their child and holds that involvement in schools by parents is likely the primary indicator of performance of the child in school. The Michigan Department of Education reports that the "most consistent predictors of children's academic achievement and social adjustment are parent expectations of the child's academic attainment and satisfaction with
" Stated to be indentified in this framework are three categories of knowledge that represent "key components in the process of cognitive appraisal" which are those of: 1) Person knowledge; 2) Task knowledge; and 3) Strategy knowledge. Task knowledge is stated to "acknowledge the successes or failures in one's learning. Person knowledge is related to one's learning abilities and knowledge about internal and external factors that affect the success of failure in one's learning."
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