There are three federal court cases that provide the legal foundation for providing equal educational opportunity to students with limited English Proficiency, Lau vs. Nichols 1973, Castaneda vs. Pickard 1981 and Plyler vs. Doe 1982 (The English Language Learners Knowledge Base, 2004).…
The purpose of this digest is to help pediatricians, speech language pathologists, classroom teachers, and other professionals who work with bilingual children and their parents understand common parental concerns related to bilingual childrearing and become familiar with the current science on bilingual child development. Greater insight into both issues will allow these professionals to provide more effective and scientifically sound advice to parents.…
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…
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.…
In Richard Rodriguez's "Aria: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood" he discusses his views on bilingual education by sharing his own childhood experience. Simply put, the story is about how out of place Richard Rodriguez felt in school, not knowing the language of his peers. To make this transition easier on children some believe teaching in the native language of the child is the solution. Richard Rodriguez strongly disagrees with this method of education; he has seen first hand how much easier it is to adapt to a culture if you speak the language.…
A unique part of my family heritage and culture is the ability of speaking Spanish. Being bilingual is something that I really appreciate to have because it gives me certain advantages when it comes to applying for jobs or helping others. For example, I was doing community service and there was a woman who need assistance, but she couldn't speak English well. Fortunately, I was able to help her and I felt proud for that. Nonetheless, approximately the same situations apply in school from time to time. In conclusion, I feel pleased for this ability to speak the Spanish language.…
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)…
When we offer the children in our day school the very best curriculum, it enhances our credibility among our competition and the community. According to the article by Stephanie Meade, “7 benefits of Raising Bilingual Kids”, it shows that bilingual children have the following advantages over that of monolingual students:…
My teaching experiences have allowed me to adapt to different types of classroom settings. I have gained an abundance of skills and knowledge that have guided my students to clas achieve successful results. I started teaching in 2008, during this time I have worked in several grade levels ranging from Pre-Kinder through 4th grade departmentalized and self-contained. I consider my education background to be very diverse. I have had opportunities to lead in my grade-level, conduct meetings, and presentations. In the last 5 years, I have been administering the state assessments in grades 3-5th. I have full understanding of SpEd programs such as 504, resource, and inclusion. Most of all I consider myself very knowledgeble in the area of Bilingual Education. I have served in LPAC committees, have administered a variety of language assessments, and worked in different types of Bilingual program models.…
As an a preschool teacher for the past seven years, I have all my experience in a bilingual classroom without speaking more than just English. As the lead teacher in my Head Start classrooms, I have always relied on a bilingual teacher assistant to provided communication for my Spanish speakers parents, children and myself. However, I can say that I have know several “Spanish preschool phrases” that have gotten me by during the standard, structure classroom day. Currently, I feel confident enough in my knowledge and experiences in my classroom. As a seasonal teacher, I want to expand my awareness of how I can further my teaching skills for my bilingual students in language and literacy.…
Many studies show the positive effects bilingualism has on the education system. One study compared three dissimilar procedures to educating students whose primary language was something other than English. Three different approaches showed different outcomes; structured immersion, early-exit transitional bilingual education, and late-exit transitional bilingual education, the latter had the most impressive results. All results concluded, students who obtain indigenous language direction longer, have superior performance with academic scoring (State University, 2010).…
The United States also needs to make a decision about whether they want “semilingualism” or “balanced bilingualism.” The United States’ current bilingual education programs are more of a semilingualism approach, where one language is considerably better than the other. In contrast, other nations such as countries in Europe have a balanced approach, where two or more languages are used at the same level. The semilingualism approach usually involves one class a day to learn the second language, whereas the balanced bilingualism approach would involve the second language being taught in other subjects as well. With the way many American schools are set up, secondary languages are only taught for about an hour each day for one semester a year, which is not enough instruction time to become bilingual. “Learning should be integrated rather than compartmentalized and there needs to be more interaction between subject areas” (“eds.b.ebscohost.com”). There should not be a block of time each day for secondary language instruction alone. Instead, the secondary language should be integrated into other subjects as well to achieve balanced bilingualism.…
Bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages. Bilingual Education is being taught school subjects in two different languages. The United States is home to millions of immigrants each with their own native backgrounds. The United States require the immigrants to learn the full English languages when settling into the country. The schools should give the opportunity to bilingual students, or new student immigrants the advantage to learn the English language or to be taught in two different languages. This would give the students the advantage in learning two different languages that will help them in the future. They should be able to learn their own native language and speak it in private but also in public, however, they should also be taught the English language whether when entering the country, school, or private tutoring. Bilingual Education should not be forced by the government; it should be their own free chose. As the immigrants become more fluent in the English language they will have a better chance getting jobs, communication, and helping their own children learn the English language. The United States should not focus only on English Only Movement they should offer the opportunity of Bilingual Education for its citizens, but also keeping English as one of the main languages in the country.…