Practice of Bilingual General
&
Special Education
Chapter 3 Bilingual Education The following communication extensively elaborates on Bilingual Education, the goals of Bilingual education and English Language Development, and how Bilingual education interconnects with the major areas of development such as Social-emotional, Cognitive, Physical and Language. Bilingual Education is an educational system used to teach students of little or no English fluency the opportunity to learn the English language in conjunction with the use of their native language. Bilingual Education within the political system has undergone a great deal of controversy, however government official today continue to make adjustments to the Bilingual Education Act of 1968. Among the many languages spoken throughout the country, we could mention first all the original Native American languages and then a multitude of languages that immigrants from all over the world have brought into the country. One of the most predominant languages today is Spanish and Chinese. As the years passed migration has increased and other languages have taken bigger roles in the United States. As James Crawford (2004) has noted, “Language diversity in North America has diminished and flowed, reaching its lowest level in the mid-20th century. Nevertheless this has existed in every era, since long before the United States established itself as a nation”
A brief history of the first Bilingual Schools in the U.S. and Bilingual Instruction Implementation.
The first bilingual schools in the United States did not have to follow a law ordering them to teach their children. Communities with populations that spoke languages other than English chose to conduct their education in their own languages while their children learned English. Many towns in central Texas taught their classes in German. Some cities in the northeast taught their children in Chinese. There was not much