city lifestyle vs country lifestyle
Rania Baddawi
Eisenhower
English A T/T
September 9, 2014
Reading Response
Practice 38.8
Why is it that we have so many foreign-born children continuing to speak only their native language and not a scent of English? How successful has bilingual education been? They do live in this country after all, so shouldn’t English be their second language? A perfect example to this problem is in the short essay, “No Comprendo”. Mujica describes how hard it is for foreign children to learn English in public schools, when the only thing being taught to them is their native language. This frustrates her because the only thing holding back a student’s dream, is not knowing how to communicate with the same language. She believes that this wouldn’t be a problem if only bilingual education programs did their job and made sure that each student completed the English course.
It is absolutely crucial for bilingual language programs to stop their limitations and focus on the problems. In the article, “Current Problems in Bilingual Education”, Jose Cardenas, a Hispanic born native, addresses the ten most common problems in bilingual education programs. One that stuck out the most is the Premature Transition to English. The reason why I found this one so interesting was because it shows that each student transition to a new language can be accomplished at the same time. Because of this, most students are failing to finish the program and it leaves them back to square one.
I believe that this is a huge issue today, and if given enough attention, it could be fixed. The fact that 40 percent of Hispanics don’t graduate high school because they lack proficiency in English is outrageous. That should never be a reason. I blame the programs, and public schools that allow other native languages to be spoken on campus. If a student is trying to learn how to speak English but is being spoken to in their native language, then how are they ever going to learn? They’re not. We spend
Eisenhower
English A T/T
September 9, 2014
Reading Response
Practice 38.8
Why is it that we have so many foreign-born children continuing to speak only their native language and not a scent of English? How successful has bilingual education been? They do live in this country after all, so shouldn’t English be their second language? A perfect example to this problem is in the short essay, “No Comprendo”. Mujica describes how hard it is for foreign children to learn English in public schools, when the only thing being taught to them is their native language. This frustrates her because the only thing holding back a student’s dream, is not knowing how to communicate with the same language. She believes that this wouldn’t be a problem if only bilingual education programs did their job and made sure that each student completed the English course.
It is absolutely crucial for bilingual language programs to stop their limitations and focus on the problems. In the article, “Current Problems in Bilingual Education”, Jose Cardenas, a Hispanic born native, addresses the ten most common problems in bilingual education programs. One that stuck out the most is the Premature Transition to English. The reason why I found this one so interesting was because it shows that each student transition to a new language can be accomplished at the same time. Because of this, most students are failing to finish the program and it leaves them back to square one.
I believe that this is a huge issue today, and if given enough attention, it could be fixed. The fact that 40 percent of Hispanics don’t graduate high school because they lack proficiency in English is outrageous. That should never be a reason. I blame the programs, and public schools that allow other native languages to be spoken on campus. If a student is trying to learn how to speak English but is being spoken to in their native language, then how are they ever going to learn? They’re not. We spend