Bilingual Education in the United States
Christian Sotomayor
ITT-Technical Institute
GE217
02-24-12

Abstract
Controversy over bilingual education has been around for much longer than people may think, But only in the past few decades as the migrant population has increased the issues is once again back in the table to be discussed over. Some Americans fear that their sense of identity could be lost if bilingual education is taught at schools and on the other hand other people is conscious that the so called “American Identity” is nothing but a mixture of different cultures and by teaching students to become proficient in two languages it is going to make them more competitive for the job market. In a few words, we can make things better for students by encouraging them to keep their native tongue and become proficient in the English language.

Bilingual Education in the United States
Many people do not realize that this great country was founded by immigrants from all over the world. The so called “American identity” was not formed by just one group of people but a great variety of cultures what we also call a “melting pot”. Bilingual education has been a very controversial issue and as more people migrates from all parts of the world this issue will become more and more important and will have to be taken care of by our government.
The controversy over bilingual education, whether it should be encouraged in an American school system or not, has been a topic of great importance for educators. The traditional educational model discourages this practice because it sees it as an obstacle from learning to communicate in a society as well as disrupting American unity and sense of identity. However, critical education encourages it since it recognizes that one’s identity and culture comes with one’s language and the preservation of this language does not necessarily pose a threat to American values, ideals and character, in a few words bilingual education could be used as a tool to reunite us as a country and should not be seen as the “End” of the American Way of life. It Is a given fact than when we come from other countries we assimilate the new country’s culture and values as well as the language, so instead of just becoming part of this country and let our own values fade away we should be allowed to keep our own language and culture and become proficient in both languages, that is going to make us a more marketable for future jobs and will make the country stronger knowing the fact that we will not have to depend on another country for translating purposes when we already have our own American people with the skills to speak many other languages. Rather than pushing for a simple assimilation from one culture into another, critical education tries to set up a two-way cultural communication in which a person will be able to keep his or her language and thus cultural identity while at the same time being able to being involved in and communicate with a foreign culture. I can always look back at my own experience as a youngster; as I was able to integrate eventually, with Americans. I joined the Marines at a very young age and having been immersed in English, I began to communicate with others through it, I still believe that assimilating into the American culture came at a very high price. Today, while I can easily say that it is easy for me to belong to American society I can also say that in the process I lost a great deal of my Spanish cultural values. Through bilingual education, both things could be kept at the same time, therefore because bilingual education allows the reaping of benefits from both the predominant language and our own culture, it should be encouraged in any school system within the United States. Latin American Population had surpassed the African Americans as the largest minority group in America. Across the United States this enormous group of primarily native Spanish speakers has become more visible in some areas than others. Due to the rapid increase of this group it can be seen that many migrant children have not had the time or the opportunity to learn English well enough to achieve success at their grade level in the public school system.
It is a shame that the “Fathers of the Country” had disregarded these children’s education without realizing the atrocious damage they are doing to them. Many of these smart children of foreigners fall by the wayside upon entering the American school system. Due to the rapid increase in populations of foreigner students in various parts of the United States it has become necessary for local school systems to implement programs, utilizing technology to incorporate English as a second language programs to help teach foreign students, so that they might have a greater chance at accomplishing success and continuing to stride to get a better level of education (Baker 2008). Over the past three decades a rise in the Hispanic population in the USA has become evident, and as the amount of migrant children is increasing, so has the need to incorporate these children into the local school systems so that they might have a chance to catch up with other children of their own age. Since the great majority of migrant children, primarily of Spanish speaking countries have increased so quickly, the need for language proficiency programs has become a very important and vital tool to help migrant children learn the language. Because the people from Spanish-speaking countries don’t just come into the United States and become Americanized, and never think about their native country again, we need to do our part to make this transition easier. In fact, Hispanic parents are trying to teach their children the culture and customs of their native country while the child also becomes a part of American society. If you can read and understand this, you are at a great advantage in today’s job market. By looking at the population at large in the United States, some of the typical jobs, one can see that being bilingual; especially with English and Spanish is a very marketable resource.
As much as these teachers supported bilingual education, they surprisingly felt that bilingual education is important for one to maintain their culture and identity but not essential. One teacher replied by saying that if their cultures and traditions were not reinforced in school, then they would be reinforced at home. If the interest is there, then one will take the initiative to reach back to their roots and learn about their culture.
Technology also plays an important factor on education. There multiple programs that can help the migrant children to educate himself at home or during its free time. CD ROMs, voice recognition programs are available at some universities or schools however; this is not the case at schools where money cuts are always an issue. According to A. Bishop there is a great way to incorporate assistive technologies to help better educate migrant students. “New developments in technology and its use in education hold a promise of better, faster and more equal access for bilingual learners (Bishop, 2000, pg. 1).” Bishop claims that there is much technology for migrant students to utilize and benefit from.
There two main types of programs being used nowadays. The first one only allows for the student to slowly assimilate or become part of the American society by only learning to speak, read and write in the English language without having any possibilities of keeping their own culture and language. The second one will allow the student to become proficient in both languages , the native as well as the English language and in addition it will allow the student to keep his own culture and values as well as assimilating the more common American values.
Mr. A. Akkari, says that there are two main types of transitional programs aimed at teaching migrant students the primary language of instruction in local school systems. Classes are usually split up into LEP students and non-LEP students focusing the LEP students on spelling, rules, grammar, and repetition exercises that are all conducted separate from non-LEP students (Akkari, 1998, pg. 21). Students can also lose sight of their real goals as they feel inadequate as to pursue them due to the communication barrier that hinders their achievement of their dreams. In contrast to a segregated program, the goal of an integrated/enrichment program is to promote the practice of speaking two languages. Integrated/enrichment programs pull together the native language and the non-native language, English in this case, to create a classroom environment that encourages the use of both languages. Akkari (1998) also believes that the non-native tongue is easily picked up outside the classroom, stating why it is not imperative to have all English language instruction in the classroom. Simply because the students will have to learn the language to get by outside of the classroom, “Structured Immersion” is a program often utilized in the United States as a form of an Integrated/enrichment program. This program incorporates the use of both languages but is structured in how it presents a new lesson or topic to be taught by teachers. Teachers use the native language to clarify and explain only when necessary, and the main class and instruction is taught in English. Before the instruction the teachers will tell the students the vocabulary that will be used during the lesson. The use of the native language is used in this program to clarify any mistakes and misunderstandings of the concepts, so as to promote the learning of English while retaining the use of the native tongue. Mr. Akkari also describes a more contemporary immersion program called “Two-way Immersion”. Two-way Immersion programs incorporate both languages equally so as to make everyone in the class bilingual and so on there are many other techniques that can be used to teach kids to be proficient on both languages. My personal opinion is that we all should look and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of teaching two or more languages. We have to sit and watch the pros and cons of bilingual education after all, other countries such as China or even in European countries the proficiency of different languages it is highly encouraged therefore we should be better as a nation and not just try to get rid of any vestige of foreigner culture but try to assimilate the best of everything.

REFERENCE * Bishop, A. (2000). Technology Trends and Their Potential for Bilingual Education. National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. http://www.ncela.gwn.edu/pubs/issuebriefs/ib7.htm * Baker, C., & Jones, S. (1998). Languages in Contact with the World. In The Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. (pp. 438-447). * Akkari, A., Loomis, C. (1998). Toward a New Understanding of Language Minority Students’ Experiences with Bilingual Education in the United States. (pp. 20-30)