Bilingual Education - Report Example

Running Head: Bilingual Education Bilingual Education Authors Name Institution Name Introduction Ethnic identity in varied urban society is maintained against force to assimilate, in part, by an opposing process of pejorative and odious distinction. Name-calling serves to expound and to restate demarcations against which one positively mirrors oneself and one's group. As ethnic groups in the schools in the United States are professed as occupying sociopolitical, cultural positions within a hierarchical system, the implementation, demonstration, or privatization of ethnic practices are inclined by factors such as physical, cultural and ethnic markers, antagonism, emulation, social facsimile, power, situational events, and scales of inclusion and contribution ( Hollins, 1996; Jones, 1997). These factors influence the scale to which ethnic identity attribution, or self-labeling, is internally driven, outwardly imposed, or both. Some scholars think that evenness in self-labeling and the acknowledgment and performance of established modes of behavior in social areas in which ethnic identity is reconfirmed and authenticated begins around 8 years old (Aboud, 1984, 1987). However, Spencer (1985) pointed out that identity is a developmental process in stable transformation. Developmentally, the traditions young children accept, display, and integrate ethnic identity content into their personal and group identity diverges from the ways they are demonstrated and given significance at other life ages. We know that young children (birth to three and four years old obtain ethnic values, customs, language styles, and behavioral codes long before they are competent to label and know them as ethnic ( Sheets, 1997; Spencer, 1985). Intellectuals who study ethnic identity development in young children from a socialization viewpoint believe that the ethnic identity progression for children of color begins at birth, at the initial interactions between the child, family, and community (Sheets, 1997; Spencer, 1985). Sheets (1997) sustained that the continual existence of personal and societal markers such as skin color, language, food choices, values, and association in a dominant or non-dominant group instills in children ethnic roles and behaviors that practice them for eventual self-labeling. Likewise, Alba (1990) referring to White ethnics, continued that this early home-life frame of satisfactory alternatives creates an exceptional identity. He argued that this personality, conversant by ethnicity, exists at deep levels, present even while individuals reject their ethnicity. This agrees with identity theory in social psychology, which conjectures that, the multi-identities within an individual function at diverse levels of importance. Stryker (1968) recognized this degree of confession and commitment as salience. This constituent of choice in identity labeling for White ethnics seems to be less challenging for White ethnics than for ethnics phenotypically or ethnically marked. However, for a developing ethnic identity, feelings of shared aims with a particular ethnic group implies explicit movement toward a conscious acknowledgment of and assurance with the group (Alba, 1990), resulting in self-identification with diverse degrees of salience. Thus, deliberately or unconsciously, cognitively or behaviorally, individuals use ethnic identities to classify themselves and others for the rationale of social interactions in varied settings. At school level, in order to deal with multicultural issues Bilinguals is used that utilizes different languages depending on the setting and the addressee. Children often use the heritage language with older relatives whereas they use English with contemporaries. Church services may be in the heritage language, but Sunday school is often conducted in English because the younger generation is typically not fluent enough in the heritage language. Limited use of a language is particularly harmful for the development of those heritage languages that are highly contextual. Development of the nuances of these languages depends on opportunity to use them in different contexts. Japanese, for example, uses very different terms when the speakers are of different age and social standing. Children who are not exposed to the language in different situations and different speakers do not learn the full range of the language. A Japanese student recalled moving back to Japan and being unwilling to speak to her school principal for fear of using improper language. Korean children in the United States report abandoning Korean after adults scolded them for not being addressed using the proper form of the language. Bilinguals, when communicating with other bilinguals, frequently alternate languages. Such code switching is more common in oral than in written language. A number of linguistic constraints determine when and how the switch occurs (Romaine, 1995). The syntax, morphology, and lexicon of the languages play a role on possible switches. Code switching occurs at the discourse, sentence, or word level in the communication between bilinguals. A person may be talking to somebody in one language but switch to a different one when switching topics or when a different person joins the conversation. Bilingual mothers and teachers often employ code switching to call children's attention. Basically, Children from linguistically and culturally diverse environments share learning, communication, and motivational styles that are at discrepancy with those of the mainstream culture. Language and culture of children emerge to play a significant role in the ways children communicate with and relay to others and in their methods of perceiving, thinking, and problem solving. Individual differences in cognitive functioning are due not to distinctions in intelligence, but, rather, to personality appearances inherent in the sociocultural system. Oral and written language development of bilingual learners is affected in many ways by their linguistic context. The sociolinguistic categories of languages influence the way languages are regarded in our society and the relative status they hold in comparison to English. It is not surprising that Standard English predominates in schools and other situations, given its status as world, national, and official language. The type of languages students speak and the type of writing system used by the languages will influence the ease of acquisition of English. The greater the difference, the more likely that families and school will neglect the development of the heritage language. Often these students develop limited oral language skills in their heritage language whereas they become fluent and monoliterate in English. The function and amount of use of a language influence proficiency of specific languages and language skills. Our society offers opportunities to use English in a wide variety of contexts. Heritage languages are mostly relegated to use at home or ethnic neighborhoods. When the language is used only in casual conversations, the student will develop the informal oral register of the language. Practice of the written language in academic settings is needed to develop the language for successful schooling. Opportunity to use languages stimulates motivation to learn and to practice them. Intensive exposure to English helps develop English proficiency among students who are native speakers of other languages. As the heritage language erodes due to its limited use, speakers become less motivated to search for such opportunities and their families, school, and churches accommodate increasing use of English and contribute to the loss of the heritage language. Persistent language loss among young members of an ethnic group results in language shift for the whole community. Other social, cultural, political, and economic variables contribute to the maintenance or erosion of heritage language use within an ethnic community. Fundamental to the lack of communication in discourse on bilingual education are diverse perceptions of bilingual education. Bilingual education broadly defined is any "educational program that entails the use of two languages of instruction at several point in a student's school career" ( Nieto, 1992, p. 156). This simple definition is not what most people have in mind while they think of bilingual education. Lots of people in the United Kingdom, particularly its critics, think that bilingual education is giving "instruction in the native language most of the school day for several years" ( Porter, 1994, p. 44). Various proponents describe bilingual education as "dual language programs" that "consist of instruction in two languages equally distributed across the school day" (Casanova & Arias, 1993, p. 17). Schooling usually defined as bilingual education really comprises a variety of approaches. Several programs have as goal bilingualism, whereas others ask for development of proficiency in English only. Programs are intended to serve different types of students: English speakers, international sojourners, or language minority students. Some models assimilate these students. Models differ in how much and for how numerous years they use each language for instruction. The preliminary language of literacy and content instruction differs across models. Several use mostly the native language originally, others deliver instruction in both, and still others begin instruction in the second language, adding up the home language subsequent to a few years. There are special programs for language minority students in which all the teaching is done in English with a second language approach. The difference between bilingual education and English-only instruction models is significant. Bilingual education presumes use of English and another language for instruction. Submersion, structured captivation, and ESL models work with bilingual learners but are not bilingual because they rely on simply one language English for instruction. "Programs that do not provide significant amounts of instruction in the non-English language should not, in fact, be included under the rubric of bilingual education" (Milk, 1993, p. 102). As Ofelia Garcia’s statement with reference to bilingual children’s underachievement in education: ‘The greatest failure of contemporary education has been precisely its inability to help teachers understand the ethnolinguistic complexity of children …… in such a way as to enable them to make informed decisions about language and culture in the classroom.’ (Cited in Baker, 1996). The present UK National Curriculum, for example, specially does not suppose to tell teachers how to teach (only what to teach), whereas the highly significant Offices for Standards in Education and Teacher Training Agency both appear more anxious to assess teaching by quantifiable outcome and evidence of preparation than by the excellence of teacher—student relations (TTA 1998). With allusion to bilingual students, the dearth of the pedagogic perspective is mainly noticeable. In its current document The Assessment of the Language Development of Bilingual Pupils’, for instance, the Office for Standards in Education (UK) is principally concerned concerning the validity and expediency of ascribing ‘levels’ to bilingual students over and exceeding the levels already accessible through the National Curriculum (OFSTED 1997). Moderately, the absence of a learned pedagogical perspective from ‘official’, centralized educational discourses has been reflected in a consequent absence at the local level. In the quarter of continuing professional development for teachers, for case, there is a still a propensity for the prime focus to be on teaching materials for bilingual students, while in books and published research there remains an importance on de-contextualized theory rather than on the application of this theory to analysis of actual teaching and learning events. No one would desire to deny the instant value of classroom materials for teachers of beginner-bilingual students, numerous of whom are denied any constant support in the classroom, in the form either of an experienced EAL teacher or of proper and adequate training linked to working with bilingual students: positively, the provision and development of appropriate as well as working classroom materials have offered a helpful lifeline to lots of teachers on the brink of despair. As in a real case, a teacher who is deal with a work of art by recently arrived a bilingual student a work which apparently does not conform to any of the preset, outwardly fixed criteria by which the student will consequently be adjudged to be a proficient artist. The teacher’s retort to this student, as someone who is simply not compliant up to standard of artistic practice, leads her to treat the student totally in terms of the amount of time and effort he is likely to demand and of the improbability of his ever being able to attain the necessary skill to pass a public assessment in the subject. Her pedagogy in relation to this student as a result becomes one subjugated by the need for repression and surveillance rather than by a stress on development. Against this, there is the teacher who, on encountering an almost same situation, assesses the student’s work (a) within the potential frames of allusion of a hypothetical alternative set of cultural practices and predilections, This might not match to the criteria by which the student’s capability will be judged here, but could they possibly conform more strongly to those that apply somewhere else?’), as well as (b) within the framework of the skills and general expertise the student will require in order to be considered competent within the terms of reference of the new symbolic value system within which they are now working (‘What extra skills will the student need to attain in order to be successful in the public examination in this subject?’). These two quite diverse perspectives on and interpretations of bilingual students’ work, partially caused by deviating, autobiographically rooted views as to what the teacher’s role must be, can lead to two quite distinct pedagogies and contribute to two very diverse learning outcomes (Alladina, Safder. 1995). Teachers do not require being secluded from notions of improvement. Certainly, to treat them as if they do is as impertinent as to believe that their presented experience and expertise must be ignored. Teaching to children's low level of English is found even in bilingual programs and in spite of the children's academic proficiency in their first language. In several schools the bilingual language curriculum is so impecunious that children cannot function in the more complex English-language lessons except at the lowest levels available. In writing instruction for secondary level limited English-proficient students, writing is frequently used mainly in response to test items or worksheets, to the elimination of more demanding expository writing (Moll & Diaz, 1986). More lately, this similar phenomenon has become apparent in computer instruction. Poor and LEP students do drill and practice; affluent and English-fluent students do predicament solving and programming ( Boruta, Carpenter, Harvey, Keyser, Labonte, Mehan, & Rodriguez, 1983; Mehan, Moll, & Riel, 1985). In all cases, students are locked into the lower levels of the curriculum. Part of the predicament is the devastating pressure to make LEP students fluent in English at all costs. Learning English, not learning, has become the controlling goal of instruction for these students, even if it places the children susceptible academically. This prominence, usually based on the assumption that a lack of English skills is the prime if not sole determinant of the children's academic failure, has become yet another means to preserve the educational status quo and contributes significantly to the domineering failure rate of Latinos and other minority youth in schools. This argument does not counteract the goal of children mastering English and achieving rationally in that language. Parents and teachers want that; it is obviously an important goal. The pedagogical validation for the reductionist practices described above is as follows: These children require learning how to deal with English-language schooling; therefore it is crucial that they learn English as soon as possible; otherwise they might never be competent to benefit from instruction. Thus, while faced with LEP children, usually at diverse levels of English-language fluency, the foundation makes it seem quite rational for teachers to group children by fluency and regulate the curriculum accordingly, typically starting with the teaching of the simplest skill at least until the children know adequate English to benefit from more advanced instruction. Of course, learning English will take a little time, and the students might fall so far behind academically that disappointment is guaranteed. That risk seems inevitable to those who advocate this approach. It is as well found that current bilingual education teaching and learning strategies gain from a holistic approach for biliteracy instruction ( Rigg & Scott Enright, 1986; Rivers, 1986). Such an approach values the bilingual students' background knowledge and strengths in developing discovery and inquiry learning modes. Thus, teaching is hasty rather than structured instruction. Most assaults on bilingual education arise from an unsupported fear that English will be neglected in the United Kingdom, whereas, in fact, the remaining of the world fears the opposite; the attraction of English and interest in British culture are seen by non-English-speaking nations as an intimidation to their own languages and cultures. It is duplicitous because most opponents of using languages other than English for instruction also desire to encourage foreign language requirements for high school graduation. Finally, it is regressive and xenophobic as the rest of the world considers capability in at least two languages to be the marks of good education. Educating bilingual students has to go outside merely teaching them English or merely sustaining their native language. The worlds of work demands that graduate attain not only high-level literacy skills in English, and even facts of other languages, but also analytic ability and the capability to learn new things. Bilingual students have not simply the potential but also the right to be prepared to meet up the challenges of modern society. Criticisms of bilingual education are not all tenuous. Some bilingual programs are inappropriate for conveying quality education even if they have marked off some successful students. Much of the credit goes to the daring efforts of individual teachers (Brisk, 1990, 1994a). Numerous bilingual programs are substandard. Somewhat than offering a blanket approval for programs on the basis of whether they use the children's native language, advocates of bilingual education need to be selective by supporting only those programs and schools that adhere to the principles of good education for bilingual students. Bilingual education too often falls victim to political, economic, and social forces that feed on unfavorable attitudes toward bilingual programs, teachers, students, their families, languages, and cultures. Such approaches translate into school characteristics that limit quality education for language minority students. Research on effective schools exhibits that schools can arouse academic achievement for students regardless of how situational factors persuade them. Deliberations of language and culture facilitate English language development devoid of sacrificing the native language and the ability to function in a cross-cultural world. Implementation and evaluation of bilingual education programs require to move beyond supporting what have too often become compensatory programs. All students, but particularly bilinguals, deserve quality programs that prevail over negative stereotypes. Abundant consequences from empirical research and experience can help show the way. Numerous bilingual programs exist as school districts must fulfill with legislation and court decisions. They survive in segregation within unsupportive schools where the attitudes toward the program are negative and the prospects of students are low. Students reject their identity in schools that do not accept their culture, but cannot adopt a new one ( Commins, 1989). Such students often become angry and unsettling ( Brisk, 1991b; McCollum, 1993). "One wonders what the achievements of such students would be if their energies were enlightened by an environment in which they no longer desired to trade ethnicity for school learning" ( Secada & Lightfoot, 1993, p. 53). Schools without clear goals depend on the individual teacher for the quality of the program and are more vulnerable to ideological pressures. Devoid of explicit goals for bilingual education, confusion and discontent between staff and community are expected results. Lack of leadership and inclusion of the program leads to disparities in opinion with respect to the purpose of bilingual education. While English-speaking and a bilingual faculties do not share goals, a profound gap in communication develops amongst the faculty members, affecting teachers, students, and language use. Though many teachers are well qualified, escalating demands on personnel have resulted in the hiring of inadequately qualified teachers or the recycling of mainstream teachers with no training to teach bilingual students. Because the program is often seen as remedial, curriculums are narrow, materials are deficient, and assessment is inadequate to English language development. Such bilingual education programs must not be supported. The bilingual education should be supported not merely because it is good for bilingual students, but also because its accomplishment can benefit schools as a whole. References: AAhad M. Osman-Gani & Zidan, S.S. "Cross-Cultural Implications of Planned on-the- job Training. Advances in Develpoing Human Resources, vol.3, no.4, pp.452-460. November, 2001. Romaine, S. (1995). 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