...Bilingual Education: Voter Driven Initiatives XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Grand Canyon University: ESL 523N February 27, 2013 Bilingual education is a very important topic in education. Classrooms are filled with diverse populations, including those that are learning English as a second language. Learning a new language and having to adapt to a new culture can prove to be detrimental for a student’s academic progress. English language learners struggle in the classroom and are in need of teachers that will work relentlessly in helping them be academically successful. To regulate bilingual/ESL education, there have been various state and federal decisions made. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed on the heels of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The purpose of ESEA was focused mainly on eradicating poverty, providing equal education services to all students, and implementing high standards for students and teachers. The ESEA also provided funds for state established educational programs and low income students ("Elementary and secondary,"). Although the ESEA benefited many deserving students in bad economic areas, it did not specifically benefit English language learners. Making matters worse, ESEA was reauthorized as The No Child Left Behind in 2002. NCLB required states to align their standards/requirements with the federal NCLB standards/requirements. Although it looked good on paper, requiring schools to meet what is known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) forced...
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...Bilingual Education in the US For this activity I would like you to examine your own preconceptions of bilingual education. Please answer the following questions: 1) Do you view bilingual education in a positive light or negative light or both (please be honest)? Why do you think you have this view? Bilingual education is positive for student education because it uses the learning tools students already have as the basis for building new skills and acquiring new knowledge. Most children enter school with basic language skills in English or other languages, which are already in place. If teachers are able to use the native language skills of the student, the native language will help students develop the academic competence they need to succeed in education. Children learn more effectively if they learn English through the use of their native language, which provides a contextual basis for learning and allows them to keep pace with their peer group while acquiring the language they will need to learn in order to interact effectively in today's society. There are several other distinct benefits to the use of bilingual education, besides its basic effectiveness. First, it preserves children's sense of pride in the language of their parents, allowing them to move freely in an English-language dominant society while retaining an important link to their cultural and linguistic heritage. It helps protect their sense of identity, which is also strongly linked to the language and...
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...Bilingual Education By C. Mori When I started my investigation about bilingual education I never thought the debate about it would be as controversial and passionate as it is. But considering the numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the U.S. public school, approximately 5.5 million, which represent about 11% of total number of students, and the percentage of drop outs, about 30% of ELLs, it is understandable that public opinion puts some pressure on the U.S. public school system to adopt the most efficient and adequate system for this growing minority group. The number of ELLs abandoning school has remained high for a long period of time generating serious doubts about the functionality and effectiveness of bilingual education and other programs. Two have been the main reasons attributed for this desertion from classes: the low socioeconomic level of ELLs and language differences. In this context, dual language, one modality of bilingual education, is showing to be able to make students excel in their academic performance and revert negative statistics Currently, in the United States there are two major approaches about how to teach English to those children whose primary language is different from English. The first approach is by immersing them in English only classes. This program was first implemented in California with proposition 227 in 1998 and continued to other states like Arizona and Massachusetts where bilingual education was...
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...Bilingual Education is a way to label a huge term used to describe a wide variation of programs used in the United States. These programs are engineered to use full bilingualism, which is the use of two languages to teach academic content in the classroom. There are various different types of bilingual programs that are designed however, but all are geared to have the same exact outcome. The outcome for all of these programs is to use two languages proficiently in the classroom. The true question is whether bilingual programs are more effective in the long run over only English programs in raising students’ academic achievements. There are very many political and economic concerns that revolve around bilingual education in the U.S. Since...
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...Bilingual Education : Friend or Foe? Jennifer Smith Faulkner University Abstract This paper explores both the history of bilingual education as well as it’s implications for American Society. We will define the difference between bilingual education and bilingualism. It takes a formative look at the Bilingual Education Act to see our roots in bilingual education. We will examine both the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism and it’s effect on the brain. Also, we will attempt to shed some needed light on just why this is such a hot political topic. Why do Americans still seem unwilling to accept bilingual education as a necessity for their children? Bilingual Education: Friend or Foe? Bilingual education is a polarizing topic in America. Torn between preserving American culture and what makes us American, and providing immigrant children with the same access to education that all Americans deserve, bilingual education is now a political topic in America. There have been many attempts to make positive changes in our education system concerning bilingual education. Even for those who agree that bilingual education is important, arriving at the answer to the best approach is on a meandering path. With decades of studies, opinions and speculation as to the right way to best educate English language learners, it is not unlikely that many Americans wonder if bilingual education is friend or foe? Answers to these questions...
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...to a 50% in the U.S, which explains several concerns regarding bilingual education (Kim 2015). There is an intense debate on whether bilingual education programs are effective or not. Many opponents towards bilingual education believe that giving instructional support to minority students in their native language is disadvantageous to their academic success (Rossell & Baker, 1996).On the contrary, many believe that providing students with instruction in their native language contributes to student academic success (Marian, Shook & Schroeder, 2013). As a bilingual student and future bilingual...
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...Bilingual Education vs. ESL Instruction: What's the Difference? When ESL students enter the school system they are given a Home Language Survey which is used to identify the potential students that may be eligible for the ESL program. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) are used to assess each Limited English Proficient (LEP) student. BICS is the language we need in order to be able to socialize in a social setting. CALP is the language needed for a student to read, listen, speak, write and understand in all subject areas in school. Teachers can also use informal assessments, which can be viewed as ongoing assessments, as a tool to target specific problems of areas, make the necessary adaptions to the student’s lessons, and give them availability to intervene with each student consistently. The primary goal of both English as a second language (ESL) instruction and bilingual education is to teach English each program just go about it in two different manners. English as a second language and bilingual education share the same focus of teaching students English, they are two different programs which some differences in how the class is conducted. English as a second language (ESL) instruction is used primarily in the Tennessee school systems. The ESL program is designed to teach children in English. Most of all their lessons and instructions will be provided primarily in the English Language and each student does...
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...and education is the biggest way to accomplish one's dreams, but when someone moves to the U.S. from another country, not being fluent in English can be a huge barrier to being able to accomplish what one wants, and being successful in the educational system. Therefore, the people who control the education system have set specific standards in order to teach students who are learning the English language. The set standard for students who don't speak English is supposed to help them to learn English and keep up with the subjects that the other students who speak English are learning and are being tested on. The idea of that is great and should promote both content retention, and the development of the English...
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...Bilingual Education Policy It has been 36 years since the implementation of the bilingual education policy yet over the past decades the policy was always questioned on whether it is really helpful or not (Espiritu). The policy was defined operationally as “the separate use of English and Filipino as the media of instruction in specific subject areas” and is working on the assumption that there is a certain degree of mastery of Filipino within the student (Espiritu; Isidro et al. 113). In line with the definition, the main goals of using English and Filipino as media of instruction are (1) to bring quality education, (2) to develop Filipino for exchanging of ideas, (3) to develop English as the international language and (4) to develop competence in both English and Filipino (Espiritu). Operating under these goals and since learning involves the teacher and the student, the implementation of bilingual education policy in the Philippines is beneficial for both the students and the teachers. The bilingual education policy plays three vital roles in student’s personal success. First is that bilingual education policy provides greater job opportunities for students after graduation. Because of the bilingual education policy, students will be more exposed to the use of English and Filipino in daily conversations and soon they will develop communication skills in these languages which they could use as an asset in finding jobs. Furthermore, according to Cloud, Genesee, and Hamayan...
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...legal field were still vulnerable to the Communist Party’s political mood. Instead, I started to explore the fields of linguistics and education in order to achieve my goal to help underprivileged people find their strengths by utilizing educational resources. While pursuing my masters degree at the University of Pennsylvania, I continued to reflect on the complex interpretations and implementations of language education policies and their impact on reproducing social inequity. As I became increasingly interested in examining the sociopolitical dimension of bilingual and multilingual education, I challenged myself by...
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...First of all, I think that education is the best opportunity for people with an immigrant background to learn English and to integrate into the American society. Speaking the language of the country is the first step to integrate foreigners, and by consequence, immigrants. I chose the Hispanic community because it is one of the largest community living in the United States; the other one is the African-American community. Besides, in terms of bilingualism it is interested to study the relationship between Spanish and English as they involved in the same environment and how both Americans and Hispanics interact with those two languages. At least, I chose California not only because I had to restrain the geographical limits of my subject but...
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...Bilingual Education In 2012, Psychology Today reported that in 2007 the American Community Survey reported approximately 18 percent (ages 5 and up) of the United States population was bilingual. In 2013, the National Center for Education Statistics reported an increase from 1976 to 2012 in minority enrollment in college (Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, American Indian/Alaska native). Bilingual education has been a highly controversial topic in America. Based on the report from the National Center for Education Statistics, you would think that this type of education would be widely supported. Has our nation actually thought about the impact of bilingual education? After all, it could be the reason for the peak in college enrollment of minorities. Bilingual education should continue to be an option in the United States because of the many benefits such as: aiding non-English speakers stay on track, giving natives the opportunity to learn other languages, and helping preserve the cultures of non-natives. Bilingual education is the key to increased high school graduation and college success rates. By offering non-natives the opportunity to learn another language while learning in their native language eliminates the pass or fail, sink or swim aspect of English. When students unfamiliar with the language are put into classes without assistance, both the teacher and student are being cheated. The teacher’s performance will be judged for not being able to teach a non-English...
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...California is the state where the major part of its population is Hispanic. Thus, Spanish and English live side by side there. The first glimpse of what resembled a Bilingual education in California was with the Mexican-Americans. I will use the different projects Californian educational system created to help Mexican-Americans. I will also use a Master's thesis entitled “Bilingual Education in California” by T. Lesley to explain the history of Bilingual education in California. This thesis is very interesting because the author talks about the origins of Bilingual education in California and also how the Bilingual education is a very complex system. What I want to demonstrate is that the Californian legislation was concerned with the issue of Bilingual education but despite that, Bilingual educational system has failed in 1998 with the Proposition 227. The fail of Bilingual education in a state like California leads other states to question the efficiency of Bilingual education. I will see reasons that led people, both non-Hispanics and Hispanics, to vote the Proposition 227. The purpose of the Proposition is to instaure a monolingual teaching, that-is-to-say only English language would be used in teaching. It also proposes immersion programs. I will compare Bilingual programs with immersion programs. What is surprising is that Latino people are in favor of the Proposition 227 and to understand why, I will study the interviews of some Latino people....
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...Today education has an endless amount of definitions which are correct in certain aspects of society, but most leave out the one part of education that is truly vital. That is the concept of real life experiences. The debate of what to be educated really means has been going on for centuries, yet the answer isn’t esoteric at all! The scintillating Henry David Thoreau amazed scholars of his philosophy that one simply doesn’t just go to school to be educated, but one has to experience the world in order to be prepared for it. He lived in a small house on Walden Pond and lived off of the land. He quoted “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had...
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...Bilingual Education For almost two centuries, communities throughout the United States have had some system of bilingual education. “An 1839 Ohio law allowed for instruction in German, English, or both in the classroom, according to the wishes of parents” (Leal and Hess 2000). This was a system constructed to help non English speaking students learn English and still prosper in schools. However, more recently we have seen hostility towards languages other than English being the language of instruction. After the devastating events of 9/11 and the more recent increase in legal and illegal immigration, many Americans have become weary of anything that appears to be un-American. Fears of foreigners coming over to “their” country and taking over are being exacerbated by the media and various laws have been proposed and enacted to outlaw non-English instruction in American primary and secondary schools. The articles, The Politics of Bilingual Education Expenditures in Urban School Districts and The Proposition: English Only for Educating Children, touch on just how controversial and complex this issue has become. The issue of bilingual education started to gain more attention in 1998 when the state of California proposed an act that would end all bilingual education in that state. This proposed act was called Proposition 227. After the proposition was announced to residents of California, the state government received numerous lawsuits and criticism from people who were in...
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