Challenging Common Myths About Young English Language Learners Written By Linda Espinosa Essay

To learn a second languages is very important because people have better opportunities in life. For children from ages five and under it is the best time to learn as many languages. Angele Sancho Passe, the author of “Dual-Language Learners (Birth to Grade 3)”, talks about techniques for teaching English in a multilingual classroom and how reading in english to dual-language learners helps teach them oral language skills. Patton O. Tabors, the author of “One Child, Two Languages”, talks about writing case studies of children displaying different second language abilities. In the article, “Ways to Introduce Your Kids to Foreign Languages” by Grace Hwang Lynch, believes two-way bilingual immersion is a helpful way to introduce foreign languages

One of the greatest challenges the aforementioned programs face as stated by Deborah K. Palmer and Ramon Antonio Martinez is: “…bilingual students are placed into classrooms that do not cultivate biliteracy" (379). It is relatively known that most programs emphasize English and completely disregard the learner’s first language, oftentimes providing all instructions in English and leaving those who have yet to learn the language behind. Thus, this practice is unfair to those still learning English and is still being studied in order to refine the programs and give all learners the ability to improve upon their biliteracy, or bilingual literacy. In terms of maintaining bilingual education programs, teachers must support biliteracy development by changing the perspective on language from monolingual to bilingual, in order to create a “learning space for the development of biliteracy among bilingual students” (383). Above all, we must rethink language as a whole (384). To clarify, the focus must be shifted from looking at methods and strategies to improve bilingual programs, to plainly understanding language and what bilingualism even means. Despite the fact that multilingual programs have limitations in their efficiency, there are places where there aren’t even any programs to begin with. As a matter of fact, it is relatively doable to begin implementing dual language programs at any schools, and as said by Dr. Audrey Figueroa Murphy; the added benefit that the programs carry is the potential to be advantageous to any student (47). Continuing on, dual language programs can prosper in schools with; appropriately skilled/certified teachers, students with a native language other than English, and above all, parent support (49-50). Multilingual programs offer a pathway to “academic success, bilingualism, and multicultural

Speaking two or more languages is like a country having an atomic bomb during a war. The first situation is advantageous to a person and the second situation is advantageous to a country. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” is a memoir of Richard Rodriguez’s bilingual childhood and it was originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1981. In Rodriguez’s memoir, he discusses why he disagrees with bilingual education. His audience is bilingual or anyone that has an opinion towards bilingual education. The purpose in Rodriguez’s memoir is to inform people of the effects of bilingual education and persuade bilingual educators why bilingual education shouldn’t exist.

Major Myth #3: Your Child Will Be Delayed In Their Speech Development If They Are Raised With Two Languages

We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.

When examining the District handbook, it is clear that West Chicago highly values student achievement and seeks to create lifelong learners. The handbook is reviewed every year and the district values and asks for the input of students and parents in order to increase investment. Throughout its history “Providing a foundation for excellence in learning” has been the district’s vision. This, coupled with its mission statement: “To impart the knowledge and skills that will empower all students to pursue their maximum potential to confidently contribute to and benefit from our society locally and globally,” inform their policies and attitude towards all students, especially English Language Learners. In a Frequently Asked Questions portion, the District answers the question of whether students will fall behind due to learning an extra language by explaining that dual language is a form of enriched education and that learning two languages has many cognitive benefits as evidenced by research that has shown how students who participate in Dual Language programs outperform their peers on standardized tests.

Two models of dual language that take a front and center in Bilingual education is subtractive and additive. Subtractive is strips the student of cultural capital which could benefit the student in their educational achievement. As opposed to the additive model in the dual language program which seeks to add English to the students already possessed language and maintaining their first language. This method has been known for having a faster academic achieving and cultural awareness. (Ray, 2009)

Bilingualism significantly reduces the barriers between people with different roots, interrupts fears and shame before confronting culturally different people. Bilingualism also opens opportunities to get to know different global issues, which is very helpful during travel or living in a place different culturally and linguistically as New York. In retrospect, despite the initial difficulties on the way to bilingualism, the participant considers that "bilingual persons have easier life" which she experienced to a large extent. Guided by this observation she made the steps so that her sons could be multilingual. Unfortunately, she only reached its goal in half. Her older son attended a Polish school learning the rules of grammar and spelling of the Polish language, therefore, he achieved fluency and the ability to write and read in Polish. The younger son found it difficult to assimilate the grammatical and phonetic rules of the Polish, which is in the head of the most arduous languages of the world. He did not want to attend additional classes, so he only gained fluency in speaking, which was the result of using only Polish at home to talk. Despite the obvious benefits of being bilingual, the participant did not want to force her son to do extra jobs, remembering her experiences along the way. Nevertheless, both boys also learn the basics of Spanish at school, which is currently the second most-used

In a globalized world, English is and has been universal language for communications around the world. For that reason, U.S. has never had an urgency to learn and appreciate foreign languages. Most of school systems treat language classes not important as the core curriculum. According to the current positions on bilingual education, schools in the United States teach languages at exactly the wrong time and exclude children from all the benefits that extend beyond pure communication. It’s extremely important to be bilingually educated to adapt into increasingly globalized world. Moreover, even necessary, for those who should reach out and speak at least one other language. Being bilingual comes with various advantages and immeasurable benefits.

The continued growth of speakers of languages other than English is reflected in the rapidly increasing students in U.S. schools for whom English is a second language. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2005) show that the number of school-age children who spoke a language other than English reached almost 10 million in 2004. Such a dramatic increase continually challenges educators to provide effective language programs with quality instruction for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Some educators choose to view these challenges as opportunities by offering a dual bilingual program as an educational option for meeting the needs of monolingual speakers.

Over the years, many schools have grown increasingly with diversity. As teachers, we must be aware of the many different students we will have in the classroom. This means that all our students will learn at different rates, take in new information differently, and overall have a different perspective on certain topics. With so much diversity in the school system, education policies for students who are English Language Learners (ELL) have greatly emerged. Many individuals move to the United States for better opportunities or to ensure their children obtain an education. With such a growing number of people entering the United States each day, emerging laws and cases must aim to support English Language Learners to ensure a fair and equal education for everyone.

This article is about the different Dual Language programs available and their effectiveness. It analyzes different researches and literature available on this topic and it evaluates its efficacy and results after implementation. The article begins by explaining the 90:10 and 50:50 Dual Language model and its successful outcomes. It explains that students in the Dual Language programs become proficient in two languages and by the time the reach fifth grade they are performing at or above their monolingual peers. It also states the challenges these programs face, including instruction, assessments, materials and curriculum. It also provides ideas that can help the program work effectively.

When completing the reading Chapter 6: Linguistic Diversity in U.S Classrooms the chapter was focused on the impact education can have in students’ learning more specifically language. Despite the hostility, bilingual education has ultimately proved to be an effective program for students. Still, teachers should take on the notion of additive bilingualism which is a situation where a second language is learnt by an individual or a group without detracting from the development of the first language. The reading emphasizes that a second language adds to, rather than replaces the first language. Students should embrace their first language as being bilingual is an advantage. As a pre-service teacher his reading informs me to give students the

Many of the diverse children that are in classrooms today speak, or are learning to speak, two languages. This can become very confusing to the child at times, and make understanding him or her challenging. However, teachers need to recognize that it is important to support the development of both of these languages, because they both make up the identity of a child. Some ways in which teachers can support duel language learning is by, encouraging children to use their home language at school, interacting with duel language learners as much as possible, creating opportunities for peers to interact with the ELL students, developing predictable routines and activities that use the English language, but do not require a response from the ELL student, and concentrating on the meaning of what an ELL child is saying and not on the grammatically correctness of

The readings of last week deal mostly with bilingualism. As a multilingual myself, I have never thought about all the obstacles that bilinguals are thought to face while growing up in a monolingual society or everything that goes in the process of learning two languages whilst growing up. The article Rearing Bilingual Children in a Monolingual Culture: A Louisiana Experience by Caldas and Caron-Caldas is the first article I have read that provided empirical data on this phenomenon. The article by Caldas and Caron-Caldas piqued my curiosity on this topic not only because I was impressed by what they were able to achieve, but also because I might face the same dilemma in the near future, so I started to read more about this topic; to my surprise,