Bilingual Education
Bilingual Education
By: Amy
EDBL 4316-850
Dr. Luna
Fall 2009
Bilingual Education
The objective of bilingual education is to insure students will not fall behind academically because of a poor ability to speak English, and to gradually teach them English as a second language. If minority students were taught some subjects in their native tongue, proponents insist they could possibly learn English, without sacrificing content knowledge (Education). With bilingual education, children can have the advantages of advanced first language development. Therefore, bilingual education should be provided to students, who are not proficient with the English language. Why should learning English be a priority for immigrants in the United States? August Gribbin writes that it has become hard to think of the U.S. as an English-speaking nation now, because there are three hundred languages spoken in the United States, and more and more immigrants are speaking diverse languages, and demanding that U.S. society deal with them in their native tongues. When schools provide children quality education in their primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their fist language helps to make the English they hear and read more comprehensible, and their literacy development in their primary language transfer to their new second language. “Children who arrive with a good education in their primary language have already gained two of the three objectives of a good bilingual education program, literacy and subject matter knowledge. The combination of their first language subject matter teaching and literacy development, will characterizes good bilingual programs indirectly, but also aids students as they strive for a third factor essential to their success. Their success is good evidence for bilingual education” (Stephen Krashen). James Fallows offers some arguments
By: Amy
EDBL 4316-850
Dr. Luna
Fall 2009
Bilingual Education
The objective of bilingual education is to insure students will not fall behind academically because of a poor ability to speak English, and to gradually teach them English as a second language. If minority students were taught some subjects in their native tongue, proponents insist they could possibly learn English, without sacrificing content knowledge (Education). With bilingual education, children can have the advantages of advanced first language development. Therefore, bilingual education should be provided to students, who are not proficient with the English language. Why should learning English be a priority for immigrants in the United States? August Gribbin writes that it has become hard to think of the U.S. as an English-speaking nation now, because there are three hundred languages spoken in the United States, and more and more immigrants are speaking diverse languages, and demanding that U.S. society deal with them in their native tongues. When schools provide children quality education in their primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their fist language helps to make the English they hear and read more comprehensible, and their literacy development in their primary language transfer to their new second language. “Children who arrive with a good education in their primary language have already gained two of the three objectives of a good bilingual education program, literacy and subject matter knowledge. The combination of their first language subject matter teaching and literacy development, will characterizes good bilingual programs indirectly, but also aids students as they strive for a third factor essential to their success. Their success is good evidence for bilingual education” (Stephen Krashen). James Fallows offers some arguments
Cited: Crawford, James. Bilingual Education. 11 June 2000 (http://ourworld.compuserve. com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/biling.htm). Education Week: Bilingual Education. 11 June 2000 (Http://www.edweek.org/context/ topics/issuespage.cfm?id=8) Fallows, James. Viva Bilingualism.. Exploring Language. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. 8th ed. New York: Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. 1998. 259-263. Gribbin, August. Learning English Not A Priority for Immigrants in U.S. 11 June 2000 (http://www.elausa.org/news/us000530.html). Krashen, Stephen. Why Bilingual Education. 11 June 2000 (http://www.englishfirst. org/krashen.html).