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Bilingual And Bicultural Education Book Review

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In the chapter “Bilingual and Bicultural Education for Deaf Children” learning English as a second language in schools was discussed and the criticism and benefits that come from it. I’m glad the Education Opportunity act talked about in this chapter includes the child developing a healthy identity and takes into account the psychological well-being of the child (295). There have been studies that suggest bilinguals have an advantage over monolinguals, and that they can analyze sentence structure better (297). It goes to show when given a fair chance, people can flourish. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the students were cognitively able, they just didn’t speak English. The idea of having a teacher who knows sign to teach deaf children English is amazing and I’m glad they tried to implement that in the classrooms. That was they …show more content…

If the Deaf student can’t hear or understands English, they will be separated from hearing student anyway. If the teacher and government officials don’t want to spend the time and energy to teach Deaf students English, how are they going to be able to be a part of hearing groups? I think it's better to “separate” and teach them young so when they are in higher level classes they will have the base English they need to understand their school work.
The book briefly mentions the movement to declare English the nation's official language (299). American is full of immigrants, that’s the history/ culture it should be proud of. Having English as the official language erases all the cultures that live here, erases the complexity of the people who live here. I think it's ironic, officials don’t want to spend the time/energy to teach English to Deaf children, want English as the official language. Even then they would still have to teach the kids written English. Or would they just talk crap about them like they treat people whose first language isn’t English

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