Heather Holmes's List: Bilingual Education

• of public funds, however, naturally led to struggles over the allocations among different ethnic communities. Some Mexican American activists argued that they had gained less than blacks from the poverty programs of the 1960s or that Hispanics were less fairly represented than blacks in the state and federal bureaucracies. Equally controversial was the issue of desegregation.
• By 1983 the National Association for Bilingual Education was pushing for transitional bilingual programs, not for language maintenance. It accepted the primacy of English but wished to treat the native tongue as a second language.
• e because, it claimed, this would keep the child from becoming proficient in English and from becoming assimilated.

  • How far does assimilation need to go?
• The American Federation of Teachers opposed m
• all Coleman criticized proposed federal rules on bilingual education as unwarranted intrusions on states' rights. Bilingual education came under heavy fire because of its costs, the expected growth of new financial burdens, the paucity of basic research in the field, the lack of qualified teachers, and the programs' real or supposed lack of success.
• A number of states began to modify existing laws. In 1982, for example, Illinois--for long the bellwether state in the field of bilingual education--was considering such far-reaching changes as eliminating the requirements to teach bilingual history and culture as part of the bilingual program, having local school boards decide the means and extent of parent and community involvement in bilingual programs, and giving school districts the power to set their own standards.
• The Twentieth Century Fund, in a report published in 1983, came to similar conclusions. Instead of bilingual education, the report favored "language immersion." The report called for an end to teaching in any language except English and said that U.S. government support should be limited to training in English.

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• This essay traces the evolution of that debate from its origin in the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Bilingual Education Act (1968), which decreed that a child should be instructed in his or her native tongue for a transitional year while she or he learned English but was to transfer to an all-English classroom as fast as possible.
• Criticism of bilingual education has grown as parents and numerous objective analyses have shown it was ineffective, kept students too long in Spanish-only classes, and slowed the learning of English and assimilation into American society.

• The other option is an "English as a Second Language (ESL)" program.    In such a program, students attend English-language classes in core subjects,   such as Math and Social Studies.  They also attend special classes   in their native language.  In these classes, they receive remedial   help in their English-language subjects, and learn new English skills.

• Here are a few facts that everyone should know about bilingual education:

   
   
  • Teaching English is among the chief goals of every bilingual program in the United States, along with promoting long-term academic achievement in English and – in some cases – enabling children to develop fluent bilingualism and biliteracy.
   
  • The effectiveness of bilingual education in meeting these goals has been well established by research over the past three decades – not only for English language learners but also for native-English speakers acquiring another language.
   
  • The English-only, "sink or swim" method was a cruel failure for generations of immigrant and Native American children, leading to low academic achievement and high dropout rates. That's why the Bilingual Education Act was passed – with overwhelming bipartisan support – in 1968.
   
  • Bilingual education is closely associated with the civil-rights movement of that period. But it has a long history in this country dating back to the Colonial Period. During the 19th and early 20th centuries native-language instruction was at least as widespread as it is today – except that German, not Spanish, was most commonly used.
   
  • English was not "threatened" then or now. In two or three generations immigrants and indigenous minorities learned English and often lost their native languages.
   
  • Linguistic assimilation is, if anything, more rapid today than at any time in U.S. history. The trend is evident in the latest Census reports, and it's nothing to be applauded. Today, more than ever, we need multilingual skills to enhance national security and prosper in a global economy.

• To cite just one example, a major longitudinal study released in 1991 by the U.S. Department of Education found that the more schools developed children's native-language skills, the higher they scored academically over the long term in English.
• What matters is how the languages are used – simply to provide translations or to stimulate students' cognitive and academic growth.

• higher in English literacy by 2nd grade – a gap that widened significantly by 5th grade.

   

  Thomas and Collier (2002). Another federally funded study, this research confirmed the patterns reported by Ramirez et al. ELLs in Houston did better academically in programs that stressed native-language development. They fared best in two-way – a.k.a. dual immersion – programs in which English-speaking children learned Spanish alongside ELLs learning English

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  Bilingual Education   Why Bilingual Ed.? Is it Effective ? Politics of Bilingual Ed ? ELL Program Models Success Stories Occasional Papers

  What Is Bilingual Education?   Bilingu
• Defined broadly, it can mean any use of two languages in school – by teachers or students or both – for a variety of social and pedagogical purposes.
  
• In today’s context, a period of demographic transformation in United States, bilingual education means something more specific. It refers to approaches in the classroom that use the native languages of English language learners (ELLs) for instruction. Goals include:
  
  • teaching English,
  • fostering academic achievement,
  • acculturating immigrants to a new society,
  • preserving a minority group’s linguistic and cultural heritage,
  • enabling English speakers to learn a second language,
  • developing national language resources, or
  • any combination of the above.

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• educatio

• world’s well being.

   

  By using native and second languages in everyday life, we not only develop intercultura
• understanding, but we also show by example that we resp
• ect and can effectively cross cultural and linguistic borders.

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