Bilingual Education Should not Be Offered in Public Schools - Research Paper Example

[Student’s name] [Instructor’s name] [Course name and code] 28 Nov. 2010. Bilingual Education: Introduction: Bilingual education has conventionally remained a controversial topic and has invited debates from educationalists and philosophers. Bilingual education is, indeed, quite useful in some ways, though the many potential ways in which it destroys the educational system can not be denied. In fact, demerits of bilingual education are so many that they outshine its merits in number and gravity. This paper discusses few of many reasons why bilingual education is not appropriate for public schools. Why bilingual education should not be offered in public schools: The most fundamental reason why bilingual education should not be offered in public schools is that it complicates the process of learning manifolds. Students in public schools are in an age in which most of them hardly find any interest in studies. Instead, they are more inclined towards hanging out with friends or remain busy in other outdoor and indoor activities for most of their out-of-school time. In such circumstances, it is indeed, challenging for them to develop interest in studies offered in their own language, what to talk of subjects taught in a language that is not their mother tongue. When intricate concepts of physics and chemistry are delivered in a second language, students are indirectly made to exert much more than what would have been required of them, had the lectures been in the first language. “Immigrant pupils can become more self-reliant if courses in arts, history or music are taught in Spanish and/or deal with their cultural heritage” (Teipelke 5). Not just this, in bilingual education, it becomes even more cumbersome for the students when they have to produce all what they learnt formerly in their exams. This way, bilingual education also invalidates the conventional testing system that is thought of as a means to judge the true capabilities of students. It is so because, we can not say a student did not work hard, only because he was not able to interpret his knowledge into words in the second language. Also, speakers of the language chosen as a standard for the exam tend to perform better than non-speakers because they do not have to cross linguistic barriers in order to make their point. The potential disadvantages of bilingual education can be assessed from its impact on the US educational system as a case study. Bilingual education was introduced in US educational system fundamentally to provide the children from immigrated communities with an opportunity to speak, read and write language of the locals. In the start of its implementation in the schools in US, it was deemed necessary to let the children attain education solely in their own respective languages for at least 3 years, so that they may be able to make the foundations of their education After that period, the system required transition into bilingual setup. The idea was heavily criticized as it surfaced because many thought that provision of separate mentors as per the linguistic needs of different children would serve to enhance the gap between the immigrated children and the local ones. Also, there was great verisimilitude that the children would encounter great difficulty shifting from unilingual to bilingual educational system after expiry of the said period, and this might affect their academic performance. Few years after the introduction of bilingual education in US, school drop out rates sky rocketed. However, schools that offered education in English alone maintained their students. In addition to the general dropout of students in large numbers, provision of bilingual education in schools raised many other challenges for the administrators. In order to accommodate the separate groups of children, many more classrooms were required than there were in schools in US. It is obvious that the requirement of teaching students in their respective languages for 3 years would more than double the load on the administrators. Bilingual education necessitates the provision of mentors who have complete hold over the two languages. Only teachers proficient in both the languages can fulfill the requirements of bilingual pedagogy. Since bilingual education has not been around in the US for very long, difference between the demand and supply of bilingual mentors is not surprising. First, there are not many professionals who are proficient in both languages. Even among the professionals who do know both languages adequately, very few of them choose to adopt mentorship as profession. The meager number of people that take such initiative have to face many challenges in their profession. For example, bilingual teachers have to teach a large number of students at one time and at one place, because it pertains to the needs of all students simultaneously. Controlling the discipline of heavily crowded classrooms comes as a challenge for bilingual teachers. Also, the more the number of students in a classroom, the more difficult it becomes for the teacher to deliver the lecture. In a bilingual setup, many teachers might have to develop their own materials to control the diverse class. (Lemberger 2). All of these factors contribute to the development of one big problem i.e. availability of funds. Funds required to address the issues raised by bilingual education are significantly more than what is required for delivering unilingual education. Yearly cost of sending a child to private BECA schools in Honduras costs as much as $400 - $500, which makes it difficult even for the parents from mediocre financial status to get their children educated, and often requires them to do more than 1 job simultaneously in order to meet the expenses (Mckenzie). An analysis of the problems with bilingual education suggests that many of them can be solved by the availability of excessive funding. For example, with more funds, more classrooms can be built to shed away the load on individual mentors. Also, handsome salary packages would convince more bilingual people to adopt mentorship as a profession. In fact, many issues pertaining to the formulation of a bilingual educational setup that are generally known today would have become meaningless, had the available funds been sufficient to meet the challenges adequately. Soon after bilingual education was introduced in US, the society was divided into members supporting and opposing the system. People hold mixed views about bilingual education and have solid reasons for their opposition as mentioned before. The general consensus to make bilingual education a necessary part of the curriculum in public schools has sapped the interest of many students from non-English communities in studies. Let’s analyze the matter in the context of a culturally and ethnically diverse society. Education offered in bilingualism has caused 1 out of every 5 Latino students to abandon school in the US, which is primarily, the most fundamental causal factor behind the enormous Latino dropout rate from public schools in US (Porter). It fundamentally happens so, because in such societies, English speaking students assume an intrinsic edge over their classmates from non-English families from the very start of their academic career. For English speaking students, learning English is equal to learning their mother tongue. A comparison between the grades of an English speaking student and his non-English classmates is hence, out of question. The obvious supremacy of the English speaking classmates discourages non-English students when they are forced to study in an educational setup, where they are to learn English in addition to the regular curriculum. Eventually, the class is divided into groups on the basis of language. As a result, the environment in schools does not remain conducive to the attainment of education adequately. Some people believe that bilingual education has enormous benefits and tend to deny the disadvantages. The main argument they come up with is that bilingual education is the need of a culturally and ethnically diverse society. By offering bilingual education, schools impart the knowledge of second language that may benefit the non speakers throughout their academic and professional career. It is generalized that acquisition of the knowledge of second language allows immigrated individuals to socialize with the local people more easily. According to the proponents of bilingual education, it serves to reduce the gap between local and immigrated students by bringing both together on the same platform. However, such an assertion is an overt denial of the differences that arise between students from differing ethnic origins as a result of the implementation of bilingual educational system in public schools. The intrinsic superiority local students assume in comparison to the immigrated students when the latter are forced to study in the local language in addition to their first language can not be denied. As identified in the case of US, the students belonging to non-English families left the schools in large numbers soon after the bilingual educational system was introduced. This fundamentally happened because the children from immigrated families found the system biased towards the local students, though the inclination was not intended by the designers of the bilingual educational setup. Such concepts are natural to arise in bilingual setup. Ultimately, such conceptions lead to widening the gap between immigrated children and locals even further instead of reducing them. In fact, the division of society commences right from the very early years of an individual’s life and hence, chances of conformity, harmony and conciliation are minimized. This fundamentally contradicts the general concept that bilingual education is suitable for a culturally and ethnically diverse society. Conclusion: “Public discussions of bilingual education and languages in society often commence with the idea of language as causing complications and difficulties” (Baker 383). Bilingual education has proved opposite to what was expected of it when it was initially offered in schools in terms of its social, economic and cultural impact on the society. Bilingual education calls for increased exertion not only on the part of teachers but also makes it difficult for the students to concentrate upon the lecture given the large number of students that have to be taught simultaneously. Also, it becomes very difficult for the students to comprehend the lecture when it is offered in second language. In order to grasp the concept, students first have to translate the lecture into their mother tongue, and comprehension follows the translation as a secondary activity. This creates differences between the native speakers and the immigrated children. The former are naturally privileged over the latter because of having complete hold over the language. Even if there were not differences between the students, bilingual education was still not the right option as it requires significantly large funding as compared to unilingual education for numerous reasons. Owing to the issues discussed in this paper, bilingual educational system should be abandoned. Works cited: Baker, Colin. Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism. 4th Edition. USA: Multilingual Matters Ltd. 2006. Lemberger, Nancy. Bilingual education: teachers' narratives. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1997. Mckenzie, Sinead. “Bilingual education in Central America.” Helium Inc. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2010. Porter, Rosalie, P. “The case against bilingual education: Why even Latino parents are rejecting a program designed for their children’s benefit.” May 1998. Web. 27 Nov. 2010. Teipelke, Renard. Bilingual Education in the US: English as a Second Language for Hispanic Children in School. Germany: GRIN Verlag. 2008. Read More