Educating Emergent Bilinguals - Essay Example

Garcia 2009 asserts that in most of today’s society, the most misunderstood issue in our education system is how the students who speak other languages that are not English-related will be educated.

Calling children this term emergent bilinguals creates a positive characteristic as compared to the earlier term of English language learners that was used to refer to this group of individuals. This term does not suggest that these children have a limitation, but it suggests that they have the potential of developing bilingualism. These groups of children are noted to have an advantage over those children who only speaks English as their language, and they have difficulties in becoming bilinguals (pg. 322 lines 1-27). Bilinguals are known to can develop academic English if they are to be given the same opportunities for coeducation as the other white children who are wealthy. A new curriculum and pedagogy that is equitable must adapt to the needs of emergent bilinguals. The inclusive curriculum that is challenging for emergent bilinguals must be adaptive ecologically as bilingual students, and biliteracy emerge. In early childhood, emergent bilinguals at one point must have been allowed to interact with caring adults, and apart from speaking their home languages; they do understand their cultural practices.

These adults also guided their bilingual development by providing the children with opportunities to practice how to speak and use the English language. The language that the child is to use must occur in the home of the child’s language (García & Kleifgen, 2010), pg. 87 lines 9- 15.)Sometimes, it is seen as necessary to provide separate spaces for instruction away from students who speak English to develop literacy in emergent bilingualism. Care should be taken where integrated spaces are needed in cases of interaction between those children who only speak English as their language and emergent bilinguals.

For young emergent bilinguals, it is seen to be necessary if they can be created early childhood programs that are culturally and linguistically relevant (García & Kleifgen, 2010). Like any other sign language, American Sign Language is considered to be a language. I agree with Garcia (2009) that the term emergent bilinguals can be used in deaf children. What Garcia argued about the use of the term “emergent bilingual” with students who speak any other language apart from English, is also applicable to students who are deaf because they use ASL.

The deaf children's use of language is always considered bilingual. One of the languages used is sign (ASL) while the other language used for the hearing majority is English, which often appears in its written form. These groups of children, deaf bilinguals, do share several characteristics similar to hearing bilinguals. Deaf bilinguals tend to use their languages for several purposes that are different, for different life domains, with different types of people, and for different communication that depends on the listener who can either be monolingual or bilingual.

SummaryDespite the use of two different languages by the deaf, there is no widespread acceptance by society that these groups have bilingual rights. Therefore, many deaf children across the globe are denied the opportunity to master both sign and oral languages as early as childhood stage. Depending on the child, the mastery of both languages will apply to different roles. Some children will show pure dominance in sign language while others will be pros in oral language, and some will show equality in both languages. Just like any other child who is bilingual, deaf bilinguals will use their languages to perform their daily lives activities in their two worlds, that is the deaf and the hearing