Bilingual Education in the United States, Essay Example

Bilingual education implies teaching the majority of courses in school in two different languages. In Unites States the process usually involves subjects taught in English and some another minority language, such as Spanish or Chinese for example. Many educational systems and programs are bilingual to some extent. However, the amounts of each language’s utilization and the structure of the studying process differ greatly depending on the program model. There are several program models such as: Submersion, Two-Way Bilingual Education, English as a Second Language (ESL), Immersion, Three Language System, etc. (University of Michigan).

Nowadays, more than three million students in America have limited English proficiency (LEP). “Throughout their history, Americans have attempted to use education for pragmatic aims of the most contradictory kinds: for the purpose of saving souls, turning out good citizens, turning the foreign-born into good American citizens, or–more recently–giving students a better understanding of their racial or ethnic background so as to resist Americanization and develop multiculturalism” (Duignan, 2009). Partially provoked by the mentioned motives, development of bilingual education has become essential. Bilingual education has been an area under national discussion since the 1960s. Being worked out in the 1960’s bilingual educational programs were meant to help second language learners to succeed in such subjects as math, science, history and social studies while learning English in special  independent class. However, what was initially developed as a transitional program turned out to be such a good alternative for students that nowadays they commonly delay living such programs till the end of their school years. “To cite just one example, a major longitudinal study released in 1991 by the U.S. Department of Education found that the more schools developed children’s native-language skills, the higher they scored academically over the long term in English. Students also benefited from acquiring fluency and literacy in two languages” (National Association for Bilingual Education, 2004).

However, even though being an efficient approach for teaching second language learners, merely using two languages in the classroom is no universal remedy. No need to say that unprofessional and low-quality teaching is ineffective in any language. Bilingual education naturally has its advantages and disadvantages. Starting with disadvantages, it would not be out of place to mention that bilingual education is very expensive. “It costs much more to educate minority-language students in bilingual classes than it does to run dominant-language-only programs” (University of Michigan). Moreover, bilingual education programs results in minority language-speakers’ being strongly opposed to integration into US culture and prevent them from active learning of English. In their striving to preserve own language and culture, they create separate communities, which prevent them from living as a part of mainstream society. Eventually, immigrants turn out to be linguistically isolated which reduces one’s earning prospective. Finally, nowadays it is timely to ask such questions as: “Isn’t there too much separation already of groups according to their ethnicity? Doesn’t bilingual education aggravate this situation by separating students in the public schools into separate classrooms to teach them in their own language?” (Mora, 2003). Term “bilingual education” is turning into a label, not necessarily the one of positive meaning. It actually starts to be associated not simply with immigration, – by using it presently many people start to imply “poor” or “uneducated”. Have bilingual education programs proved to be effective enough to close one’s eyes to the problems of separation they may result in?

However, bilingual education has proved to have its advantages also. Even though its being too costly is true, its efficiency is believed to be worth money. No matter what, running bilingual classrooms has proved to be the most helpful way of teaching limited English proficiency (LEP) students.  An option to bilingual education is immersion, which researches have shown is unproductive. If students do not comprehend the language in which courses are being taught, content is lost for good. Secondly, “bilingualism and multilingualism are actually worldwide norms. The United States is in the monolingual minority and would benefit from educating its students in bilingual classrooms” (University of Michigan). And finally, even though young people of limited English proficiency are resolutely disposed to become successful members of the mainstream of American society through efficient learning of English, they can also benefit from the diversified languages and cultural backgrounds they have. Why not to reserve the culture and language and to learn English at the same time, simply trying to do both effectively enough?

The crucial issue in the debates over the successful functioning of bilingual education programs is whether they truly show efficiency. Bilingual education keeps on receiving disapproval in the national media. A widespread argument against bilingual education is that many individuals have managed to succeed without it. It is also believed that general public is against bilingual education, implying also the mentioned above problem of labelling. However, even the harshest critics cannot firmly claim that bilingual education does not work. They instead propose that there is not enough evidence of its being of better-quality than all-English programs. The argument that bilingual education is unsuccessful in providing students with the fundamental education, as well as that  students eventually turn out to be illiterate of both of their cultures, is also questionable.

In my opinion most of the evidences used against bilingual education are not persuasive. Even though some programs truly proved to be inefficient, and even though not all students succeed in preserving own culture and assimilating into American one, does not mean at all that the whole process is useless. Bilingual education should not be banished, it should only be adjusted in the most appropriate way possible. How can success be achieved? School achievements must be results of well-qualified teaching, performed by well paid teachers who are not overloaded with excessive and superfluous work. Students have to be motivated; their realisation of clear purpose they intend to achieve will help them to gain successful performance. I believe the essence of the bilingual education to be something worth putting into practise, even though the mere process is not yet performed successfully.

Works Cited

Duignan, Peter J. (2009). Bilingual Education: A Critique. Hoover Institution Stanford University. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://www.hoover.org/publications/he/2896386.html?show=essay

Krashen, Stephen. (2004). Why Bilingual Education? National Association of Bilingual Education. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://www.nabe.org/education/why.html

Mora, Jill K. A Road Map to the Bilingual Education Controversy. San Diego State University. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/Prop227/BERoadmap.htm

University of Michigan. Bilingual Education: Arguments For and against Bilingual Education. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/370blinged/pros_and_cons