Bilingualism helps to increase the academic and intellectual development of the brain. It is a great ability to assimilate. When in a situation, the brain goes through a workout to resolve an internal conflict. “The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment”(Bhattacharjee, 2012). Bilingualism seems that if being bilingual is a simple life hack, then we would all be able to achieve the highest set goal. Being able to withhold more than one language is part of the brain’s executive function. Having to deal with any kind of puzzle even if it is from another country a bilingual has a better chance of solving it. It would be a better opportunity if it was learned at an earlier…
Bilingual education is certainly a subject of controversy because there is a great number of positives and negatives that are associated with the topic. Many individuals agree that children should be fluent in two…
When people speak one language they become as one and become a society. Speaking one language and using the same language for public services unites everybody; which in this case is English. When immigrants comes to America from all over the world they should assimilate with America’s culture and learn the American language English, which is spoken by more than half of American citizen’s. The government as well as the American should encourage the immigrants to learn English by not providing bilingual services everywhere. The U.S. should not provide bilingual services to its immigrants because it reduces the incentive to learn English, creates national disunity, costly, and moreover bilingual education delays immigrants learning.…
Rodriguez argues in his essay, whether bilingual education is appropriate for school. Rodriguez states that “It is not possible for a child, any child, ever to use his family’s language in school” (Rodriguez 60). I would think that the author would enjoy going to school speaking his primary language, or family language while being challenged with a new language. In his opinion, he believes it is not okay for a student to learn in a language spoken at home. As a premature English speaker in Catholic School, he was shocked with how Americans pronounced and spoke in their language. The way it made him feel about English brought out his belief about bilingual education. He went to a catholic school where all his classmates were children of American families. This means they were all fluent in English, while Rodriguez started school only knowing fifty five words. He stood out as the odd ball of his class. Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English made him stand out as the kid that was behind.…
I agree and believe that educators want students to become lifelong learners and develop critical thinking skills. I think that failure should not be feared, because from failure comes learning and through assessments learn what needs to be improved and why it failed. I work with ELL students, abed they are adults, so I have heard arguments that only a full immersion program teaches students a foreign language or English - in our case. I have also hear arguments against bilingual education in that it promotes antisocial relationships between native speakers and ESL students. One think everyone agree on in Gardner and Lambert's claim that learning second languages occurs if the (students and adults) are fluent in their first language (Gardner…
In my opinion bilingualism plays a major role in the educational development of children. This is because research has shown that children who are fluent in their home language are more successful in learning a second language. Furthermore, being bilingual offers greater sensitivity to language, more flexibility in thinking and better ear for listening. It also improves a child’s understanding for the native language. Moreover, knowledge of other languages increases a career of opportunities offering several job options.…
Upon my observation at Tice Elementary I noticed that the physical and social environment that was given in the classroom was one that prevented cultural deficit and cultural mismatch. The school had some grade levels that were English-only approach, while other grade levels used the dual language program. This means that the students learned content in English and Spanish. With the dual language program the school is able to meet the needs of the student’s native language and culture. They learn school content in both languages as well as have outside assignments in both. For instance, the students are to read books in both English and Spanish for homework. This enforces the idea of balanced bilingualism. One language is not pressed more than the other.…
In English First the author is a huge proponent of English only education. Le urges the voting public who is reading the article to vote against installing bilingual education into the student course curriculum. Le dedicates almost the entire piece to focus on the potential pitfalls in trying to introduce two completely different languages into a child’s academic curriculum simultaneously.…
Most people have developed the misconceived notion that allowing students to learn more than one language at the same time usually resulted to great confusion amid students subjected to such learning trends (García & Baetens, 2009). However, one thing that is for sure is that there are more benefits to bilingual education than individuals know…
Bilingual education and economic inequality are just two of the many issues Texans deal with in today’s society. In “What is Bilingual Education,” Stephen Krashen defines bilingual education as “any use of two languages in school – by teachers or students or both – for a variety of social and pedagogical (educational) purposes” (1). Bilingual education confrontations in Texas are due to the overwhelming amount and diversity of immigrants in the past fifteen years. While good for population growth, bilingual issues are putting stress on our education system. It seems society will always be adjusting to incoming students with language barriers, yet instead of helping them in the best possible way, we continue to debate on how people feel. (Krashen 2)…
Do Spanish-speaking immigrants have rights to bilingual education? With the increase of the Latino population in New York City during the 1960s caused the school system to be faced with a new issue of language rights. My topic of bilingual education is important because with the increasing presence of Latinos it brings an increasing number of Limited English Proficient Students to the country. Being a first or second generation Latino having a bilingual education makes a difference in one life by causing them to preserve part of their culture. My paper will focus on what exactly is bilingual education, it’s origins, the ways in which it is taught, the successes and failures and what the future holds.…
Being different when it comes to language is hard for others to accept. Some bilingual students in a study reported that they felt isolated and discriminated against by fellow classmates who were perhaps native to the area they were in. Most immigrants find it very hard to fit in because they either speak a different language or speak in a different way. What happens to some of these students is similar to what happens to illiterate students. Not in every case, but in many they are teased, ignored, or put into different kinds of classed due to their inability to keep up with the students in the regular class. The issue is that the students eventually may give up or fall into a depression due to their social situation. There are ways to fix…
Potowski listed makes me question why there is such a huge opposition to bilingualism in the U.S.; the encouragement of monolingualism is obvious, yet there are no apparent benefits that stem from becoming a monolingual country. So, why are people in the U.S. so adamant that everyone who comes here must learn to speak English and only English? Why are other languages met with such distaste? To be direct, I believe that it may be that people in the U.S. are simply ignorant to other culture; as a country, we are “stuck in our ways” and we seemingly ignore the overwhelming evidence of the advantages that stem from bilingual education. Even I was dumbfounded when Potowski mentioned that there are programs where 90% of the school day is taught in Spanish. Nevertheless, because of my newfound knowledge, I sincerely think that the U.S. should consider expanding bilingual education; the research is clear: bilingual education has many advantages that cannot and should not be…
Many immigrants fear bilingual education because it is associated with disadvantage, alienation, and cultural deprivation. Many of them do not want to pass their native language on to their children because they consider English to be more socially and economically valued. (Linton, 2004)…
Porter (1990) reported that in a poll taken of teachers in the Los Angeles USD in 1987 78% voted against bilingual education and in favor of a strong emphasis on English. Not mentioned, however, was why teachers voted against bilingual education. Were they opposed to the theory underlying bilingual education or were there other reasons? The purpose of this study was to investigate how bilingual education is perceived by teachers. We were specifically interested in teachers ' understanding and attitudes toward the theoretical underpinnings of bilingual education, and how these attitudes compared…