Hakuta’s (2011) article, Educating Language Minority Students and Affirming Their Equal Rights: Research and Practical Perspectives is described as “one researchers journey as an experimental psycholinguist through changes in practice and policy in the education of English language learners in the Unites States from the 1970s to the present day. The development of key debates on issues such as bilingualism, language of instruction, and the inclusion of English language learners in reform movements are described from the perspective of a researcher”. This paper reviews key points from the article to show how it relates to our current studies of chapter eleven, Later Language Acquisition. It also describes how hard it is to acquire a new language, the author, who is also bilingual, has experience at Second Language Acquisition. Our textbook explains that “Second Language Acquisition or Sequential Bilingualism”, which is to acquire a second language after already acquiring a native language (Carroll, 2008. Pg.310).
His career started as “an experimental psycholinguist, conducting studies of first and second language acquisition, focusing on the comparison of languages (Hakuta, 2011, pg. 163). He stated “that for these students the same treatment did not constitute equal treatment and that school’s bore an affirmative obligation to address both the language and curricular needs of the students” (Hakuta, 2011, pg. 163).
Hakuta also did many studies over the acquisition of a second language. He explains that it’s not acquired overnight, it takes several years. He was asked, ““Tell me professor, how long do you think it takes for these students to learn English?” My answer may have been an academically guarded one, to the effect that it depends on how you define proficiency in English and it would vary a lot depending on the child, but I gave my answer as 5 to 7 years, to which he replied, “Respectfully, professor, I disagree. It should be 6 months”” (Hakuta,
References: Hakuta, K. (2011). Educating language minority students and affirming their equal rights: research and practical perspectives. Educational Researcher, 40(4), 163-174. Carroll, D.W. (2008). Psychology of language. Belmont, California. USA: Thomson Higher Education.