Controversy in the Schools: Bilingual Education

Bilingual education is a very controversial issue facing the United States today. There are various forms and categories of bilingual education. These include: Transitional bilingual programs, Immersion bilingual programs, Two-way bilingual programs, Restoration bilingual programs, and Developmental bilingual programs. I will focus on two-way bilingual programs. This is a form of bilingual education in which students study two languages, in order to form literacy and native language ability, regardless of their original native language.

Personally, I have always wished that learning a second language had been part of my education while growing up. Being proficient in another language has been and still is a major goal in my life. If I had been given this incredible opportunity at a young age, I would most likely be completely proficient in a second language by the time I graduated from high school, if not sooner.

One article titled “Bilingual Education” by James Crawford has a section speaking against bilingual education. “Some ‘English Only’ advocates go further, arguing that even if bilingual education is effective – which they doubt – it's still a bad idea for the country because bilingualism threatens to sap our sense of national identity and divide us along ethnic lines. They fear that any government recognition of minority languages ‘sends the wrong message’ to immigrants, encouraging them to believe they can live in the U.S.A. without learning English or conforming to "American" ways.

However, two-way bilingual programs help to eliminate this conflict. Since majority and minority students are all put together, each learning the other group’s native tongue as their second language, “all students have the opportunity to be both first language models and second language learners.” This helps eliminate the feeling of a singled out, minority group in the school.

When a study was done of the Amigos program in Cambridge, MA, the students had a number of positive comments about the program and their experience in a bilingual school.

Spanish Amigos

• "feel equally competent in both languages”
• "are confident that they can understand nearly everything presented in Spanish media”
• "feel comfortable translating "most things"

English-Amigos

• "can get the main idea of Spanish media”
• "feel comfortable translating ‘some things’”
• “feel that they are not at all behind in English but likely ahead”

Both

• “reveal no ethnic or linguistic bias in their choice of close friends”
• "perceive Hispanic Americans as they would other Americans"
• "favor bilingual classes over monolingual classes"

Stephen Krashen’s article, titled “What Works? Reviewing the Latest Evidence on Bilingual Education,” stated that, “Study after study has reported that children in bilingual programs typically outperform their counterparts in all-English programs on tests of academic achievement in English. Or, at worst, they do just as well.”

In addition to performance in the classroom, two-way bilingual programs help to confront the issue of diversity at an early age. By learning another language, one comes to know and appreciate the culture associated with it. Since language and culture go hand in hand, the earlier we learn another language, the better we are at accepting diverse people in the United States and the world. “Claiborne H. Marshall stated, in “Exploring Bilingual Education,” “let us continue to promote diversity by recognizing peoples’ differences and helping them to keep their dignity and spirit alive while continuing to encourage the growth of present and future forms of language programs.” “Children of all ages need bilingual programs to be able to either maintain their own cultures, identities, heritages and languages or explore new ones in this growing global society.”