Citizenship And Democracy Of The Classrooms : A Need For Soledad 's Society Essay

The curriculum for English-Spanish Learners (ESL) or English-Language Learners, was created to assist students who do not speak any or little English. Angela Valenzuela describes in her article, “Subtractive Schooling, Caring Relations, and Social Capital in the Schooling of U.S.~Mexican Youth,” that

Although bilingual education has some merit, avoiding the implementation of the more popular language of a community is detrimental to the incorporation of mostly you people in society and hinders their ability to develop a keen sense of identity. For example, "language gets learned as it gets used (7).” In other words, one masters the language as he speaks it. Speaking and language skills tend to sharpen if they are used regularly. Rodriguez argues that learning both languages and using them rather than leaving one begins to lead to a better sense of identity and freedom. But according to Rodriguez it makes one become insecure, growing up

Growing up from a different culture, Richard Rodriguez looks back on his experience on how he faced the situation as the child of Mexican immigrants. According to his 1982 memoir, “Hunger of Memory”, Rodriguez uses his own observation “to argue that if the children of immigrants are to succeed in the United States, they must separate themselves from their home culture and immerse themselves in the English oriented atmosphere of the American school” (980). In “Aria”, Rodriguez has created an autobiographic essay of his childhood. In his essay, the author is against bilingual educators, who believe that children in their first years of school should be educated in their native language. According to Rodriguez this education method is wrong, it won’t be helpful, therefore children should be knowledgeable in the same language as the public one. The author’s main point is to strongly motivate children of immigrant parents to adopt English as their primary language in order to comprehend public society and have a better future.

From the perspective of Colombia, the Colombian government was desperate for foreign aid and international support. Accordingly, the leadership of Colombia was more than eager to permit the United States to become closely involved in the development of a Colombian public policy initiative, even if they risked losing other potential supporters and garnering international criticism (Carpenter, 2003). Also, the peoples of Colombia themselves were favoring a movement for change after more than

In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Child”, author Richard Rodriguez emphasizes the negativity of having bilingual classes implemented into schools, by using ethos to increase his credibility on the subject, repetition to exemplify the intimacy of the Spanish language, and nostalgia to explain the difference between a hospitable and public language.

In order to explain the questions of whether or not Chavez has increase or decreased democracy in Venezuela, people needs to know what is the concept of democracy. Due to the fact that democracy is different in every country and that each country has a different perception or view on what democracy really is, has been very difficult to have a specific concept that fits all criteria. For some, democracy is based on how democratic institutions perform in the countries and for others is based on the majority rule. For the sake of this report I will focus on democratic institutions as a based of how democracy has decreased in Venezuela through out Chavez regime.

Latin America is a continent that is constantly struggling between governmental abuse and oppression of its citizens. In Latin America, it is very common for non –democratic systems to be enforced. During recent years, the continent has experienced a governmental shift from an absolute to a more democratic system. This era is called the democratic third wave, which brought about democratic like tendencies to Latin America. Many factors such as corruption, poverty, and inequality pushed the people to favor this new democratic system. The abuse of power is also very common, and the citizen’s unrest is highly noted. Most citizens are in favor of doing away with the old system of government, and establishing a new efficient political system.

Many parts of the world have recently begun to question and focus on the purpose of politics and even have started to propose new alternatives or options to what was traditionally accepted as government. Specifically, in Latin America, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) is proposing the establishment of a political-social organization that would run parallel to the framework recognized as law. The article, “Societies in Movement vs. Institutional Continuities? Insights from the Zapatista Experience,” written by Diana Guillén, explains the the causation behind the creation of autonomous institutions, like the one proposed by the Zapatista,

Each lecture has an important message for the readers. One of the most interesting and motivating readings found in “Prose Reader's book by Kim and Michael Flachmann” is “Public and Private Language by Richard Rodriguez”. In this reading the author narrates the experiences of his life when he emigrated to a foreign country and the difficulties and challenges he had to face. It is a huge challenge, occasionally people are afraid of changes and start a new life. This essay has a sentimental and realistic purpose, because the author illustrates how people who immigrate face the language barrier and how difficult is learning another language. The author faced a few challenges in this reading from the educational, social and family point of view.

We learn primarily through language, and use language to express our understanding. In order for English learners to have access to core content, they need academic language and literacy skills (Echevarria, Vogt and Short). Academic language is used to succeed in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Often English learner students enter school with limited to no exposure to academic language. These students are from homes in which English is rarely spoken. They are bright students who would excel in classrooms whose academic language was the same as their native language. The task No Child Left Behind has given to researchers and teachers is to educate the increased number of immigrants in English speaking classes. It is important to realize that there are approximately 180 native languages among the student body population. Spanish by far surpasses other language groups.

In Latin America, if the issue of democracy is raised, a reference almost obligatory is Costa Rica. This is located as a country with a democratic tradition of many decades, which provides social and political stability without many points of comparison in the region. This characteristic has implied that Costa Rica appears throughout history as a role model, evidence that is based on the position that it acquires in the various international indexes about democracy and protection of political and civil liberties. However, this condition could be questioned and discussed, since over the past two decades there has been a series of political, economic and social transformations that call into question the myth of being the "paradise" of democracy. In addition, a series of phenomena have emerged that seem to account for transformations that have been brewing for several decades and that are now beginning to generate problems, which prompt reflection about the construction of the notion of democracy in Costa Rica and how that has impacted in a certain

The general understanding of democracy is that it is a state of leadership where citizens of a country participate equally either directly or by representative individuals in the establishment of laws, which run the society. However, like many other forms of leadership, democracy has its cons and may not give the citizens the necessary freedoms that they think they have. Different philosophers have different insights on democracy in terms of concepts such as liberty, which they embraced. This paper will look at Benjamin Barber and Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of democracy contrasting their definition in terms of citizenship, obligation, rights and duties of each individual in the society declaring whose idea of democracy creates a compelling vision (Terchek & Conte, 2001).

Also democracy provides political rights, civil liberties and freedom of press, freedom of association and freedom to oppose to their governments without being afraid of the consequences. Each nation has a unique democratic way of controlling things and under a democratic system people in Latin America could be govern by the government that they choose to and not the military authority or dictatorship. In order to form democracy in Latin American there had to be revolution against authority and the violence that imposed to their citizens. (Isbester K., 2011) O’Donelli defines democracy as ‘patterns, formal and informal and explicit or implicit, that determine the channels of access to principal government positions; the characteristics of the actors who are admitted and excluded ... and the resources and strategies that they are allowed to use for gaining access’

English has undergone some changes in relation to its status in the world. Some years ago, it only became the first or second language for several countries. Nowadays, alongside with the development of information, communication, and technology the status of English becomes a lingua franca in the world. That is, a language that is used as a means of communication between people with different language. This change, of course, brings some impacts in the roles of English as a language. English is not seen as a language for identity anymore. Yet, it functions mainly as a means of communication. Added to this, the change of the English status as a lingua franca will also impact to the educational sector especially in English Language Teaching (ELT). With regard to this issue, this paper tries to present the notion of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and its implication to the teaching learning process especially in Indonesian context.

The author has been able to fulfill the target of the book, which is to test and answer the questions raised by critics through the provision of evidence of the reason no democracy exists at the present. The author presents the arguments in a chronological way that gives a better understanding of the past, today, and prospective future of democracy. The root of the present democracy is stated in the book and lays the basis of the other arguments in the book. Dahl argues that there are conditions that any state should attain in order for it to be considered as a democratic