Day 9

Bilingual education is an example of multicultural education. Multicultural education is known as “teaching students with differing ethnic and racial backgrounds” (372). Bilingual Education provides education in the students’ native language to non-English speakers. As the immigration numbers have continued to rise, bilingual education has expanded in public schools across the United States. Some believe that all students, no matter their ethnicity, should receive some sort of bilingual education. These types of programs, providing education in English and another foreign language are called “two-way” or “dual” bilingual immersion. In order to make the dual bilingual immersion programs successful in the future, leaders have recommended that multilingual competency should be stressed, along with mastering the English language.

There have been some controversies over bilingual education. There is an argument debating “first language maintenance” versus “transitional bilingual education” (TBE). First language maintenance emphasizes teaching in the native language over a long period of time to build the basics before teaching the students a new language. Transitional bilingual education would stress more intensive English instruction and teach all subjects in English as soon as possible. Those in favor of the maintenance believe that it will “help sustain a constructive sense of identity” in the minority students and “provide a better basis for learning higher-order skills such as reading comprehension while learning English” (375).  People against the maintenance programs think that there would be more separation and it could discourage students from learning English well enough to function well in society. Some of the staff at the schools with bilingual education have had different views as well. Those in favor of bilingual education believe that schools need adults that can teach English Language Learners (ELL students) in their own language. Others believe that these transitional or ESL (English as a second language) programs only require a few native language or bilingual speakers. Furthermore, some critics claim that bilingual education programs are “primarily a means of providing teaching jobs for native language speakers who many not be fully competent in English” (376).

As controversies are being discussed about bilingual education, funding for teaching the foreign languages are beginning to suffer. An article titled “Foreign-Language Programs Stung by Budget Cuts”, written by Mary Ann Zehr, discusses the recent lack of funds for foreign language instruction.  Many people are confused by the budget cut decisions because the Obama administration has spoken highly about the importance of learning language. Elaine E. Tarone, the director of the Center for Advanced Research of Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota, says that language-resources may not be big, but they are effective. As Zehr puts it, “She said she’s frustrated that the Education Department hasn’t released a couple studies to the public that report on the effectiveness of language and international education programs authorized by the Higher Education Opportunity Act.”

The lack of funding, or the loss of funding for bilingual education, is hard for me to hear. I understand that we are having economic problems, but I do not think that a child should be deprived of a greater education because of that. As stated above, bilingual education has many benefits. I think that God intended to offer His children those great opportunities.  God has equipped us with everything that we need to have success in this world and learning a new language could be very beneficial. People could use the new language to share God’s great news. The new language could be used to bridge cultural gaps and work towards building the idea of shalom we wish for.

 I took part in a dual immersion program and I have nothing negative to say about the program. As I look back at my high school graduating class, I would say that about two-thirds of the top twenty graduates came out of my dual immersion program. Now, socioeconomic status, pride of the parents, and cultural background could have played a role in that initial decision for being placed in that type of education, but I do think that everyone in my class benefited from the bilingual education. I would say that for some students, learning the native language first is crucial for success in every area of life later on. However, learning a new language is easier when you are younger so I think that educators, students, and parents should take advantage of the younger language instruction.

Article cited in the blog above: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/01/33language.h30.html?tkn=SWQFp65wcExcRSUVvAhSUpquL5a%2FbrPBcrQe&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2