Bilingual Literacy

Around 1959, bilingual education took flight in the United States. Starting in Miami and quickly making its way San Francisco, bilingual education soon led to the Bilingual Education Act, which promoted “No Child Left Behind”. Only twenty years later, the act acquired the attention of high schools around the country. Nonetheless, bilingual education is not always taken to be the cure-all for acclimating immigrants to the United States. In his article “Aria: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez argues that students should not take part in bilingual education by explaining how it takes away individuality and a sense of family through the use of ethos, diction, and imagery; Rodriguez also uses parallelism and ethos to point out how a bilingual childhood can help students feel connected to society.

Were they laughing at me? I did not understand what they were saying. I was not always bilingual. My roots and upbringing were implanted by Ukrainian principals. When my parents came from Ukraine, they did not know the English language; therefore, I was brought up only speaking and understanding Ukrainian. This caused a barrier in the way I interacted with kids my age. I was shy and timid, never leaving my parents side. Upon entering school, I had very limited knowledge of English. Making friends was hard because my accent was heavy and my school lunch smelled funny. I was mortified to go to school everyday. My papers always came back with a bit more red errors and I never did well on spelling quizzes. I lacked the ability to read books as efficiently as the kids in my class. Reading gave me the most trouble: silent vowels did not reach a recognition point, basic comprehension skills were lacking, and my words per minute was always below mediocre. Eventually, I was enrolled in an English Language Development (ELD) program for lagging behind in class. I loathed being the only kid in the class that had to leave. I was taken

I taught for 25 years at an inner city school. My students were all second language learners, and often their parents were totally illiterate. I entered this career not as a teacher, but as a social worker turned teacher. The Los Angeles Unified School District was in dire need of bilingual educators, so they offered a district intern program where I took college courses while I worked in the classroom.

Bilingual Education where Supporters feel that students miss a great deal by not being taught in their family’s language. That children that retain their family’s language will retain a sense of individuality. Their ethnic heritage & cultural ties. Helping Students acquire the skills of a classroom crucial for public success. Rodriguez also discusses the use of teaching and using a single language.

People of all ages constantly learn how to speak multiple languages. Children are taught to become bilingual, which increases their knowledge. A young boy named Richard Rodriguez grew up in San Francisco, California with a household of Spanish speaking family members. Rodriguez barely knew English when he entered his early years of Elementary school. Through the course of his education Rodriguez took note of how different he was from his family, and slowly began to lose his heritage. Rodriguez’s family embarrassed him since he was categorized as a Scholarship boy, which means a good student yet also a troubled son whose moderately endowed (Rodriguez 19).

The video “My Bilingual Education” was about a female adult, who is bilingual, giving information about how she was impacted and what she went through when it came to reading and writing.

In the 1960s, Mexican Americans began organizing to address a broad range of issue of bilingual education. In New York, Puerto Ricans began to demand that schools offer Spanish-speaking children classes taught in their own language as well as programs on their culture. Latinos were demanding the right for school to teach students in their language because they feared abandoning Spanish would weaken their extinct culture. Additionally, women were excluded from education because it was believed that if women were well educated it would ruin their marriage prospects and be harmful to their mind. In this saying, Latinos were allowed to have education but it was the belive that a woman must stay home. Women with little education often believed that

Asylees are foreigners that have been admitted to the United States and are unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution. They need protection from persecution based on their race, religion, membership in a social group, political opinion, or national origin. They are capable of applying when they are in the United States or at a point of entry.

"America's strength is not our diversity; it is our ability to unite around common principles even when we come from different backgrounds, we can still unite with those bilingual people that have the same dream. The American Dream..." That is what Raj answered when I asked his opinion in regards of bilingualism and how diverse the United States is becoming. Bilingualism is the use of two alternative languages that are interchanged depending on the situation the speaker wants to convey or communicate (Myers-Scotton, C. (2006). Multiple voices: An introduction to bilingualism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.) In this Bilingual Profile I will share my interviewee's background, explain the reasons of his language of choice, and explain

A recent study on the implementation and effects of a balanced literacy approach in San Diego City Schools indicates that while all students may benefit from aspects of good instruction, ELL students require additional instructional supports. Instruction for ELLs should include the use of their native language, the use of differentiation to adjust literacy instruction, and a focus on Academic language development with the understanding that “one size does not fit all”(O’Day, 2009). Specifically, ELL students need more explicit language instruction, and teachers must have enough knowledge of second language acquisition to anticipate potential barriers to ELL students’ comprehension. In the same study, researchers found evidence of an overall decrease in the emphasis on biliteracy education. The study revealed that three out of the nine case study schools included in the study had no biliteracy classrooms after 2004-2005, and three of the remaining six schools drastically reduced the number of bilingual classes offered (O’Day, 2009). Teachers from the remaining three schools that continued to offer biliteracy programs reported an increasing focus on early transition and on English (O’Day, 2009). Students who were moved from biliteracy classrooms into mainstream classrooms presented a challenge to teachers. These teachers reported feeling unprepared for the instructional needs of ELLs (O’Day, 2009). Similarly, the study noted that approaches designed for ELL students, such as differentiation, are not effective unless a teacher has a background in second language acquisition, and understands how to tailor texts for literacy instruction. These teachers must be able to understand potential barriers to an ELL’s comprehension of the text as well as be able to analyze and monitor a student’s linguistic needs and progress (O’Day, 2009). Use of

The state of Texas has specific regulations for their Bilingual and English as a Second language programs. These programs are a vital part of the Texas Education system as it supplies the educational needs that students with limited proficiency in the English language need to be successful. The TEC states that all English language learners will be provided with the opportunity to participate in a bilingual or ESL education. In these programs, they will be taught though instructional approaches that were specially created for the unique needs of English language learners.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth century there was no set way of how to teach an English-language learner. Some schools practiced bilingual education. Other schools placed immigrant children in English-language learner programs to prepare them for the English-only classroom. Other schools segregated schools specifically for the immigrants aimed at teaching them the language. Some schools just placed immigrant children in English-only classrooms and hoped they would learn. Even though schools like those in New York reported that 60 percent of their student body was immigrants in the early twentieth century, there was no law or regulation of how to teach the students. This varied across the country and two counties in the same state could have differing policies. It depended on the superintendent’s and school board’s view on language programs.

I grew up studying in a private school where the only Spanish speaking class was the Spanish class, the rest were in English. Even in the hallways we needed to speak in English or they will charge us. I studied there from first to twelve grades. No being a teacher I work in a dual immersion public school where my first graders receive 90% Spanish instruction and 10% English instruction. I do feel it is very important now a day for students to be able and know more than one language. It worked for me years ago, that is why I got a job in the United States, I am able to do my master in a complete English language without struggling. The way I have seen bilingual education has changed over the years and more with the information learned this week. My school ELL teachers always emphasize to my parents to keep focusing on the child’s native language in order to become proficient with other languages. Based on her arguments and on Dr. Stritikus ( Laureate Education, n.d) it is really important to consider the students’ language in order for them to have success. As a Spanish classroom teacher I have native English speakers who are learning Spanish and as recent as this school year I had a student that stop taking books from the library because he wanted them in English. This made me reflect on my goals a teacher towards him and think deeply if I was being

Bilingual education is an academic approach followed by some instructors, which is using the native language for new English learners for instructions. Within the international context, bilingual education has become a necessity due to the high number of immigration, colonialism and the great number of local languages (Yushau & Bokhari, 2005). This approach in instruction has reflected back positively or negatively in many dimensions such as social, psychological, and pedagogical. However, bilingual instruction is an effective way of teaching English as a second language, in case of well implementation it can be seen as an educational advantage. This literature covers a wide variety of opinions that revolves around a topic that researchers find it controversial, this review will highlight the major question and findings which emerge in

According to “The Growing Importance of Foreign Language Skills in the U.S. Job Market” which was reported by New American Economy, the need of bilinguals in America is increasing quickly; the demand has been doubled in the past five years, as it reached to six hundred and forty thousand. Meanwhile, “high prestige” job, such as financial, manages, and industrial engineers, which are considered as high technical or knowledge requirements experienced a sharply increase from 2010 to 2015 (2017).