English First Response - Essay Example

Yung Le’s argument in “English First” has both strong and weak points.  I’ve heard many arguments both for and against bilingual education before, and the arguments against always seem stronger, especially since they typically come from people that have grown up bilingual, so I might be a little more inclined to think Le’s argument is solid.  As mentioned, there are points that he makes that are as strong, but they don’t affect the other better points that are made.

I thought that the point Le made about a social studies class being taught in Spanish would leave the students without the proper English vocabulary to be important.  The point of bilingual education in part is to ease the transition of students whose first language is not English into the school setting, and while it might accomplish this goal, it leaves the students with more difficulty in the long run.  As Le points out, it leaves the students inept in both languages to a certain degree. 

Le’s main audience seems to be non-minority citizens who might be voting in regard to bilingual schooling.  He seems to be of the opinion that the push for bilingual schooling comes just as much from these English-speaking citizens who feel that they should attempt to preserve the culture of non-English-speaking students in schools.  Le is of the opinion that one should learn one’s native language and culture at home and not in school.  There is also the difficulty of determining which second language should the subjects be taught in.  Though the majority of non-English speaking students in the US might speak Spanish, there would still be some school districts where the majority of non-English speaking students might speak Chinese or some other language.  The question then becomes how school districts can have any sort of regularity to them if they are all teaching in different languages.  When all of the particular needs of every single group are attempted to be accommodated, nobody ends up with what they really need.

As far as points that Le made that weren’t as strong, he first points out English as being a difficult subject to learn.  First, this is a matter of opinion and isn’t necessarily true.  English does not have gendered nouns which makes languages such as Spanish, French, and German difficult for English speakers.  That doesn’t even begin to touch on the difficulty of learning a tone language such as Chinese.  Secondly, it is not so much the language itself as it is the spelling system.  English is in need of a spelling reform, which many of these other languages have gone through, therefore removing this difficulty.  There are so many different ways to spell the same sounds in English that it becomes a matter of memorization, as opposed to simply learning an alphabet and a handful of phonetics rules. 

Also, as children learn foreign languages more easily at a younger age, Le’s suggestion to keep foreign languages out of elementary schools isn’t as strong either.  While social studies or science or any other regular class shouldn’t be taught in multiple languages, classes specifically in foreign languages should be offered at young ages.  Even though there are a few weak spots in the argument, the overall effect is enough to keep the argument on its feet.