Bilingual Education - Research Paper Example

Bilingual Education The call for bilingual education is growing rapidly in the current world because of the importance of it in the present globalized environment. Since English was an international language, Americans, did not care much about learning another language. But at present English is losing its importance in international arena with the emergence of heavily populated countries like China and India. This paper briefly explains the history, importance, pros and cons, criticisms and different types of bilingual education available. History of bilingual education The history of bilingual education in America was started from the colonial period. “The first Bilingual Education schools opened prior to 1800, were not public, and were chiefly parochial institutions. German, French and Scandinavian immigrants opened bilingual schools” (Bilingual Education). Immigrants started to settle in America from the early part of twentieth century and the debate about bilingual education gained momentum from then onwards. In many of the schools established by the immigrant community, their mother tongue also stated to teach along with English. Importance of bilingual education The New York State Association for Bilingual Education maintains it is important to foster "the awareness and appreciation of biculturalism and bilingualism as an integral part of cultural pluralism in our society" (The Bilingual Education Debate: Part I, 1998).Americans did not bother much about bilingual education till the recent past. But the emergence of heavily populated Asian countries like India and China, and the exhausting of English speaking countries like America and England, forced Americans to think in terms of encouraging bilingual education in schools. Globalization has revolutionized not only the traditional business principles but it forces even the US like countries to implement a second language in their school syllabus. It is difficult for a country to survive in the globalised world by implementing only the strategies suitable for their domestic culture in the school curriculum. Most of the big companies are operating in a multicultural environment at present and it is difficult for the Americans to stay away from encouraging bilingual education in their schools. Moreover many advantages like cognitive development, increased academic abilities and brain development has been associated with learning a foreign language. English is definitely a beautiful world language. “But learning a foreign language exposes young people to new cultures and new horizons and helps them understand English better"(Foreign Languages: An Essential Core Experience) Pros and cons or criticism of bilingual education Children in foreign language programs have tended to demonstrate greater cognitive development, creativity, and divergent thinking than monolingual children” (Foreign Languages: An Essential Core Experience). Many studies proved beyond doubt that people who are competent in more than one language outscore others on tests of verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Many American people witnesses second language mastery as a nuisance. In their opinion, only those people who want to work outside US may benefitted from the second language. Now, many of the Americans started to realize the meaninglessness of the above argument as many Americans forced to work in foreign countries because of Globalization and internationalization of business. Second language learning may contribute immensely to the development of a person’s personality. Many psychologists are of the view that bilingual education may increases cognitive development, creative thinking and also the numerical abilities. Learning another language enhances the academic skills of students by increasing their abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics. “Studies of bilingual children made by child development scholars and linguists consistently show that these children grasp linguistic concepts such as words having several meanings faster and earlier than their monolingual counterparts” (Foreign Languages: An Essential Core Experience) “Brain science has discovered that functional plasticity of the human brain is driven by language, and it is beginning to find out that knowing a foreign language can actually change the brain's anatomy by adding gray matter” (Foreign Languages: An Essential Core Experience ) Gray matter is an important part of central nervous system which helps the sensory activities. Adding more gray matter to the brain of a person means aiding the person more in his sensory activities. When the sensory activities function more, the person’s overall intelligence and analytical abilities will increase rapidly. Thus second language learning indirectly helps a person in developing a sound personality and character. Critics of bilingual education say that many non-native English speakers are graduating from school systems with poor reading skills in both English and their native language. They cite low test scores to support their argument (The Bilingual Education Debate: Part I, 1998) Critics believe that bilingual education actually creates two types of students in the country and also the quality of education will be lowered. Separate classrooms for bilingual education will prevent the overseas students from learning the exact English language skills since the teachers are using simple language and vocabulary in the bilingual classes. Bilingual students will take conscious effort to improve their language if they taught along with the native English speakers and hence their English language skills will be improved. Types of bilingual education Bilingual Education, Submersion, Two-way bilingual education, English as a Second Language (ESL), Immersion etc are major types of bilingual education in America (University of Michigan). Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) is a prominent approach intended for bilingual students who learns English as a second language. Based largely on findings of studies on cognition, CALLA model integrates academic language development, content area instruction and explicit instruction in learning strategies for both content and language acquisition” (Chamot & O’Malley). It is difficult for non native English speakers to speak or learn English as similar as the native English speakers. Because of this difficulty in learning English, the subjects taught in the classes may not be properly learned by the bilingual students and hence they will lag behind others. CALLA is an instructional model designed for bilingual students to make the learning process much easier. Conclusions Learning in any form will give immense advantages to the students. The importance of bilingual education cannot be underestimated at present because of the immense changes happened in the global political, economical and cultural circles. The prominence of English as an international language is exhausting and hence it is necessary for the Americans to encourage bilingual education in their schools. Works Cited 1. Bilingual Education, 15 November 2010, http://cerdahdz.webs.com/historyofbilingualed.htm 2. Chamot, Anna Uhl & O’Malley, MichaelJ. 1994, Implementing CALLA: Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994. 15 November 2010, 3. Foreign Languages: An Essential Core Experience, 15 November 2010, 4. The Bilingual Education Debate: Part I, 1998, 15 November 2010, 5. University of Michigan, Bilingual Education, 15 November 2010. Read More