Bilingual Education and Debate - Literature review Example

Your       Bilingual Education: A debate Since 1960s, bilingual education has become a roaring debate and a major concern for media, educators, parents, and scholars alike. In today’s multicultural environment, change from traditional education system is crucial; however, there are numerous concerns in case of this paradigm shift. By realizing the need and importance of bilingual education and considering its pros and cons we can develop better understanding of the issue. Debates about the advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education were initiated from the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Bilingual Education Act (1968) which dominantly shaped bilingual education laws (Pandey, 2010).The paper attempts to explore the pros and cons of bilingual education and debate over different aspects discussed by its proponents and opponents. Defining bilingual education In order to convince parents and teachers that bilingual education is beneficial for non-English speaking children, the term “bilingual education” should be unambiguous. However, deciding how to classify bilinguals is problematic (Baker, 1985; Mackey, 1962; Skutnabb-Kangas 1981 qtd. in Baker 2).Baker further explains that defining bilingual is fraught with problems as there are many dimensions to this term (3).However, for defining bilingual education Wink reminds us of Professor Beto who asserts that bilingual education is all about the education that is given in two languages. Beto further adds to the definition and states, “Bilingual education is all about literacy and knowledge. That’s it.”(qtd. in Wink)Krashen further adds to the definition and states, “Bilingual education consists of good, comprehensible input in English, good subject matter teaching in the primary language, and continued literacy development in the primary language. Given these three component, kids will get literacy and knowledge.”(3-4 qtd. in Wink) The concept of ‘bilingual education’ is considered to be the education programs that are particularly designed for students with lacking ability of speaking and understanding English language. Among several programs, some include the features of teaching academic subjects in native language for better understanding, for instance, Spanish or Bengali. In addition these programs teach English as second language (ESL).While some other programs emphasize on learning English by completely immersing students in English-only class. Some of the programs prefer teaching both languages in mainstream class to all students. There are different variations of these approaches and different schools adopt either one or more of these approaches at the same time. The idea of ‘bilingual education’ is considered to be transitional bilingual education(TBE).According to TBE, non-English speaking students are taught in their native language in an effort to develop better understanding for English and get them prepared for mainstream English course. The very objective here is simple; to produce students who are proficient in English (Loreta). Criticism for bilingual education According to the critics, these laws decreed that a non-English speaking child should be taught in his or her native language for a transitional year while learning English as well. Moreover, he or she should be transferred to an English-only classroom as fast as possible. However, these instructions were undermined by bilingual enthusiasts. Consequently, English learning was neglected and Spanish language and culture keep up became the norm (Duignan). Furthermore, bilingual education was considered to be essential to maintain Hispanic pride and to prevent Americanization. Lau v. Nichols (1974) decision is considered to be a landmark for bilingual education for non-English people. Therefore, the practice moved beyond one year transitional year to a multi-year plan in which non-English students were taught in their native language before teaching them in English. This facilitation limited Spanish students to Spanish-only classes where mainly Spanish was taught with only 30 minutes English class. In this way, bilingual education became more of Spanish culture maintenance class rather than a rigorous transitional learning year. Furthermore, criticism for bilingual education increased with several objective analyses which revealed that it is, ineffective, keep the students for a longer period than required, slow down the learning of English language, and keep non-English students from assimilating in American society. High dropout rate of Latin students and low rate of graduates from high school and colleges limited Spanish people at the lower level of economic and education in United States (Duignan). Support for bilingual education It is often claimed that capacity of bilingual education is not supported by research. However, the dominant and hardest critics, such as Rossell and Baker(1996) don’t claim inefficacy of bilingual education, rather, they argue on the little evidence present for bilingual education program to be superior to all-English programs. Despite this argument, the evidence against bilingual education is not very convincing. The major issue is with labeling, for instance, some critics claim that English immersion programs were showed as superior to bilingual education. However, in the case considered, the programs were basically part of bilingual education and but marked as ‘immersion’. Gersten(1985) comes up with another study that claims all-English immersion is better than bilingual education, however Krashen(1996) reveals that sample size and duration of study was not sufficient in addition to missing description of “bilingual education”(qtd. in Krashen).On the other hand, there are numerous studies that showed the efficacy of bilingual education. The studies reveal that bilingual education is effective in properly designed bilingual education programs where students are getting academic  English education are performing better than all-English programs(Cummins,1989;Krashen,1996;Willig,1985 qtd. in Krashen).Willig revealed that with better experimental study design, more positive impacts of bilingual education would have been drawn(qtd. in Krashen). The major critique for bilingual education programs is about the cost involved. Bilingual education programs execution is very expensive as compared English-only programs(notes qtd. in “Bilingual Education”). On the other hand, supporters of bilingual language argue that bilingual education programs may be expensive but most effective when it comes to teaching students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).Immersion is an alternative to bilingual education, however, research proved this method ineffective(Krashan,1999 qtd. in “Bilingual Education”).When student is not proficient enough in a language and don’t understand the teaching, the content and money spent on such education is lost. English-only programs are not sufficient because immigrant students depend on school for other subjects than English, for instance,math, history, science and other skills (“Bilingual Education”). Another major critique is that bilingual education promote separation, it let non-English students to resist assimilation in mainstream culture by avoiding dominant language. These students want to be part of mainstream society and benefits associated with it but without giving up their language and culture(Notes qtd. in “Bilingual Education”).Contrary to this observation, supporters believe that minority students can be part of their culture and language and learn English simultaneously. It is more about their identity and there is no point in giving up ones culture for becoming part of a mainstream culture. If it happens, the spirit of multicultural world would die. In fact it is the diversity of though and ideas that enrich learning process as English Plus point out, there is no doubt that non-English students need and want to be fluent in English in order to become part of mainstream culture but they also have much to offer from their diverse cultures and languages (qtd. in “Bilingual Education”). According to Rizwan Ahmad, bilingualism is mostly associated with immigrants in United States; therefore, the term “bilingual child” may refer to poor and uneducated. However, the fact is that United States had monolingual minority and will certainly benefit from providing education in bilingual classrooms (qtd. in “Bilingual Education”).According to a research conducted by US English Inc., bilingual education programs designed to help immigrants to get assimilated in American society but it works in an opposite manner because they are isolated which limit their earning potential, however, Krashen(1999) support his argument by Lopez and Mora study(1998) which reveals that difference between former ESL and bilingual students is little and not even statistically substantial( qtd. in “Bilingual Education”).Fallows supports this stance by clarifying the misconception about immigrants’ and particularly Latino’s resistance for assimilation. He gave statistic demonstration of the fact that young Latinos are more assimilated in American society and speak better English in comparison to their parents and grandparents. He concluded that immigrant people are “moving down the path towards assimilation” (qtd. in Lipka). Rosalie Pedalino Porter claimed in her article “The Case Against Bilingual Education” that bilingual education has completed its adequate trial time to be proved a failure. She considers bilingual education as the most controversial area in public education. Despite acknowledging its benefits, Porter fears that increasing immigrant involvement and general understanding of non-English people may do more harm than good (Porter, 28-35). Porter refuted different justifications for bilingual education that also include the “theory of incompatibilities”. According to this theory Spanish-American children are very different from majority of mainstream American children, therefore, they should be taught in both languages in order to ensure their success. She asserts that such theories may be intended to support bilingual education goals but in reality, they work against it. The goal here is considered to be English language proficiency and non-English student’s academic achievement in English-only classes. Porter further argues that despite the fact that bilingual education was started with “best of humanitarian intentions,” in reality, it became “terribly wrongheaded” (28-30). Lipka tries to observe if bilingual education produced the desired results in classroom. According to her observation, research of past thirty years give little justification for teaching children in their native language in order to help them learn English or other subjects better while this is the only major objective of legislation and judicial decisions for bilingual education. Generally, bilingual education advocates self esteem and stress among non-English students in all-English system. However, Lapika argues that self-esteem of children in bilingual program student is not higher. There are no considerable self-esteem issues among the students who are exposed to English-only class right from the first day at school. Despite all the debate some people still believe and emphasize the importance of bilingual education. One of them is Fallows, who questioned and doubted bilingual education as it was considered to influence student’s progress in negative way. However, he explains that after complete investigation he found that there is little association between the political debate and actual practice. According to Fallows, bilingual education debate is quite inflammatory as there are points of concerns on both ideological and methodological levels and debate is generated because of both educational and political reasons. For many advocates of bilingual education, it is symbolic heroic claim for Spanish while some activists consider it a representation of Latin cultural pride and political power. Fallows consider that ideological concerns regarding bilingual education are counterproductive. (qtd. in Lipka). Lipka realizes that the concept of bilingual education was simple; it was designed to support immigrant children to learn English and compete in English-speaking mainstream society. But in reality, bilingual education has become what is not the spirit of letter and the law. It was intended to be a transitional period of maximum three years in which children were taught in their native language to understand and learn the academic subjects while learning English. However, from this experimental idea started an education industry that went far beyond its original mission of making students proficient in English language. Irrespective of the law and basic idea of bilingual education, the practice became more concerned with teaching native language and working on ethnic culture maintenance rather than teaching English for three years. Consequently, the practice added to the segregation of non-English speaking students. Despite all the controversy, the concept of bilingual education was genuine, even its opponents accept it. It was intended for better learning of non-English speaking children and collective good of American society. Law and social forces should reject and deal with the negative influences attached with an honest effort. For some, bilingual education may be a symbolic victory, for some, it may be a threat to assimilation, but for children and parents, it is just a method of education to help them for a better life. It is high time to understand that it is not a matter of ideologies but methods that may or may not be beneficial for our children. Work Cited Baker, Colin. Key issues in bilingualism and bilingual education. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 1988.Print. “Bilingual Education.” sitemaker. umich.edu. University of Michigan, n.d.Web.4 November.2010. Duignan, Peter. “Bilingual Education: A critique.”Hoover Institution Stanford University.hoover.org., September 1.1998.Web.4 November.2010. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. eHow, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009. Krashen, Stephen. “Why Bilingual Education? ERIC Digest.”ERIC Digest.ericdigests.org., n.d.Web.4 November.2010. Loreta Medina.  "Introduction." At Issue: Bilingual Education. Ed. Loreta Medina. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. August 2004. Web.4 November 2010. Lipka, Sara. “Flashbacks: The Battle Over Bilingual Education.”The Atlantic Online. The Atlantic Monthly.theatlantic.com.11 December 2002.Web.3 November 2010. Porter, P. Rosalie. “The Case Against Bilingual Education.”The Atlantic Online. The Atlantic Monthly.281.5 (1998):28-39.Web.4 November 2010. Wink, Joan. “Defining Bilingual Education in Various Contexts.”Joanwink.com.n.d.Web.3 Novermber.2010. Read More