Benefits of Creating Dual Language Programs Essay

Some students are fortunate enough to be offered English as a Second Language classes (abbreviated ESL) or bilingual programs in school. Sandy Yanes, a third grade

Bilingual Education and ESL are programs that are both designed for immigrant children, but the goal of them are slightly different. The pure purpose of bilingual education is to help the non-native speakers to learn the English

By expanding ourselves past the comfort of the native tongue, we are able to create connections with other people. When learning another language, we may start to understand not only the language itself, but also comprehend new cultures, ways of thinking, and other people. From the very beginning of deciding to become a teacher, I knew I wanted to expand my ways of thinking so I positively benefit students of all cultures and language. I believe language learning allows people to view the world in different ways by becoming positively influenced by other cultures, people, and different ways of thinking. However, after deciding to become an ESL teacher, I truly believe that bilingual education is needed to help students develop and maintain high levels of proficiency and literacy in both their L1 and L2, while learning in the content areas. This is why I personally believe it is better for children to be raised bilingual instead of learning a second language later in life. One reason for this is that even though I was born in America, my parents wanted me to learn their language, which was Polish. Now, I am fully appreciative of the fact that my parents taught me Polish and placed me in a Saturday school where I was being taught both English and Polish. If I was taught Polish later in life, I think I would not use it to this day because I would not have made personal connections with the languages, as I was able to by being raised bilingual. There are many benefits of being raised bilingual instead of learning a second language later in life. It is important to understand that it takes on average 4-7 years to become academically fluent in a language; by raising a child bilingually, the children are able to use both languages more efficiently earlier than those students who learn a second language later in life. Since the child has been bilingual for a longer time, there are educational benefits commonly found. Bilingual children tend to have a higher concentration and are better at working through distractions while doing their schoolwork. Bilingual children also perform higher on average on tests that involve multi-tasking, creative thinking, or problem solving (Marian & Shook, 2012).

It is important in the United States to have a competitive workforce, and a great way to do that is to have a society of learners that can communicate with people of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Although there are efforts for teaching school children other languages, most programs are primitive at best, left to be forgotten before the skills reach the point of relevancy. Dual language programs should be established in the US wherever feasible to give parents, at the very least, the choice to expand the minds of their children. Recent years have seen the inclusion of voluntary language immersion programs in places such as Athens, Georgia, in which students are taught from Kindergarten in two languages. These are steps in the right

There is substantial information about the benefits of students learning better in their primary language the book “Growing up Hispanic” by Landale, McHale and Booth has important data on the reason why the Latino students are not making adequate progress in academia like their counterpart whites, Asian and Afro-American. One of the reasons is that United States schools contrary to Canada and Sweden don’t have a consistent and systematic bilingual and second language acquisition policy in place to support students that speak other language than English (Landale, 2010). There are third world countries such Philippine that are making adjustments to their education policy because they want their people to be proficient in their mother tongue language, but also be able to compete in this global economy. According to President Aquino “Philippines should learn English to connect ourselves with the world, Filipino to connect ourselves to our country, and our mother tongue to connect ourselves to our heritage” (Inquirer, 2010). While there are international initiatives to revitalize native language and promote multilingualism United States is stock in the obtuse idea of one standard language. Although according with Melvyn Bragg the 80% of modern English vocabulary does not have English roots, which demonstrates that the power of a language is its flexibility to

Taking dual language programs will help students have great advantages for employment opportunities. This programs allow students to travel to foreign countries for better work opportunities. As for traveling to foreign countries, students won't need the help of interpreters to communicate. According to the College Grad, students taking dual language programs in high school or throughout their education career, students have a higher opportunity of being their own

For example, bilingual education would allow students to learn English, while continuing to progress in their main subjects. Students might experience less anxiety about succeeding because they may do well in learning English and continuing to develop in their core subjects. Another positive aspect of bilingual education, is the student does not lose their first language and thus becomes truly bilingual. However, there are cons to the bilingual approach, for example, finding qualified teachers that speak the various languages, learning English at a much slower pace and possibly being separated from native English speakers. Structured English Immersion has its pros and cons as well. For instance, SEI students will learn English at a much faster rate because they are hearing it much more, but there is a risk that they may fall behind in their core studies. Both sides have been able to show studies that support their argument, but it is reasonable to assume that the studies are difficult to prove because there are many different factors that could affect the success of either

In San Antonio, a number of local school districts are working to convert and improve their bilingual education models into dual language programs in an effort to fully integrate ELs’ home languages into instruction.

The United States is a country built by immigrants who speak more than one language. Being bilingual has many benefits that vary from traveling with ease all through having a brain that can multitask faster. In the past decade many schools in California, as well as other states, have started a program called the “dual immersion” or something of that nature in which they have a class that is in another language, usually Spanish, and they teach the kids all the required material in that other language. The “Dual Immersion” program is something that should be instated into more schools, specifically in the bay area, because of the diversity seen here.

"Substantial evidence exists to support dual language (DL) education as a viable and enriching method of supporting high levels of academic achievement for both English language learners (ELLs) and English-speaking students.

Studies have shown that dual language students perform higher than any other group of students; however, I personally, do not feel that way. I came from the Spanish immersion program. The program has always made learning the rules of English difficult to comprehend and remember. Despite that, my love for reading and writing in English has never been deterred. As a child, my favorite book was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. It was primarily my favorite because it was the first book I read be myself. That book also opened my mind to a broader world of thinking and creativity at the tender age of 4. I mean who knew that orange juice could fall from the sky, and giant pancakes could immobilized cities? I certainly could not

Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.

First, in this paragraph i will be discussing studies that are in favor of bilingual education. According to a study done by Aqel (2006) investigated the reaction of students and instructors toward bilingual instruction method in the department of english and modern european languages at Eh university in Qatar. The findings of this study highlighted the most astute way to deliver the information in the shortest time, in addition, it pinpointed the effective role of L1 in teaching the foreign languages. Likewise, Jadallah and Hasan (2011) targeted in

With the powerful influence of globalization transforming every aspect of our world humans must adapt to the new cultural environment being created. One major change is that of language evolution. English is the third most spoken language worldwide after Chinese and Spanish, but it is the most popular second language overall (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2014). The English language is taking over, so what, you may ask, is the point of putting in the energy to learn a second language? Why should you enrol your child in a language immersion school program? Well, as an English Canadian, learning a second language through an immersion program comes with a collection of cognitive benefits that can influence a variety of things, including mental health, academic performance, and employability, not to mentions that it plays a vital part in preserving the many cultures in our country, all while promoting acceptance diversity.

Requiring two years of foreign language study for high school graduation would benefit students greatly as they move onto college. Acceptance rate, ability to succeed in and graduation rate would increase greatly if all college students were bilingual.