Bilingual Education

10 Pages 2525 Words

Bilingual education in the United States is growing rapidly. The growing number of immigrants and the need for children to adapt to American culture while keeping their culture as well is very important. There has been many break throughs and different views on which method is the best way to teach immigrants and children.
One goal, which is to take place at the elementary level, is bilingual education. Bilingual education is the sanctioned use of more than one language in schools throughout the United States. In 1968 the bilingual Education Act was passed to mandate schools to provide bilingual education programs. The act states individuals who have a limited proficiency of English must be taught to speak the language. These people can be referred to in three ways. A) Any individual who were not born in the United States or whose native language is a language other than English. B) Individuals who come from environments where language other than English is dominate and C) individuals who are American Indian, Alaskan natives and who come from areas where language other than English has had a significant impact on their level of English proficiency, and who by reason by reason have difficulty speaking, reading, writing or understanding the English language. To deny such individuals the opportunity to learn and successfully speak the English language in a classroom, denies a person the chance to communicate within society and therefore is a violation of this act.
In the article New Trends in Language Education for Hispanic Students by Wendy Schwartz, she writes about bilingual strategies for the youth. Native Spanish speaking students need to stay in the bilingual program until they have a foundation that enables them to master other academic subjects. Students learning a second language require constant school assistance and effort. The schools must also convey high expectations that the student will become literate in E...