Bilingual Education

5 Pages 1197 Words

Bilingual education, a preferred strategy for the last 20 years, teaches academic subjects to immigrant children in their native languages (most often Spanish), while slowly and at the same time adding English instruction. In theory, the children don't fall behind in other subjects while they are learning English. When they are fluent in English, they can then "transition" to English instruction in academic subjects at the grade level of other children their same age. Further, the theory goes, teaching immigrants in their native language puts importance on their family and community culture and reinforces their sense of self-worth, therefore making their academic success more likely (Duignan 5). Yet in recent years, bilingual education has created as much controversy as any other education issue. Most educators and parents agree that the main goals in educating students with a native language other than English are mastery of English and mastery of content in academic areas.
But a heated academic and political battle is being fought over how is the best way to reach those goals and how important it is to preserve the students’ original language in the process (Adely 2). Though a fair amount of opposition exists in relation to these programs, the general trend is of support of the economic and academic advantages of the bilingual program.
When schools provide children quality education in their primary language, they give them two things: knowledge and literacy. The knowledge that children get through their first language helps make the English they hear and read more comprehensible. Literacy developed in the primary language transfers to the second language. The reason is simple: Because we learn to read by reading—that is, by understanding what is on the page (Duignan 10)—it is easier to learn to read in a language we understand. Once we can read in one language, we can read in general.
The best bilingual educatio...