Education of the English Language Learner

Bilingual education has been a debatable subject since its conception during the case of Lau vs. Nichols, in the early 1970’s. However, in that case, the court only ruling was that the children’s

As our nation shifts towards a more culturally diverse population both educators and families have to find a common ground to ensure that English Language Learners are academically successful. All stakeholders must carefully consider the social cultural impact on an ELL education. The process of raising bilingual learners take more than a language a school and a language learned at home. The transition must have a purpose and a goal.

Movements for bilingual education rose in 1974 with the Equal Education Opportunity Act and Bingual Education Act, which ordered federally funded schools to meet special educational needs for students not proficient in English. Unfortunately, dropout rates and lack of English-language proficiency alarmed the states that these bilingual programs were not efficent. Because of this, arguments between English-only advocates and supporters of bilingual educations emerged. Articles such as the New York Times have proclaimed the failures of bilingual education. One cause could be the resistance of immigrants from English language acquisition, who hold tight onto their first language and culture. Despite this, studies show that generations

School principals will find in the following lawsuits the legal framework to provide educational services to ELLs in public schools. Baker (1997) points out that a landmark case in favor of bilingual education in the United States was a lawsuit in 1970. The case was a class-action suit brought by the parents of nearly 3000 Chinese students against the San Francisco School District (Lyons, 1990). This case originated that in 1974 the Unites States Supreme Court handed down its only substantive decision regarding the responsibilities of school districts serving ELLs (Lyons, 1990). The court indicated that under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Chinese students were entitled to receive specific support to allow them full participation in the school program (Crawford, 1989). This case was known as Lau v. Nichols and its verdict outlawed English submersion programs for language minority students, and resulted in nationwide ‘Lau Remedies’ (Baker, 1997). Lyons (1990) writes that the ‘Lau Remedies’ specified how to identify and evaluate language minority students, determine appropriate instruction, decide when ELLs were ready for mainstream, and determine the professional standards expected of teachers serving language minority students. Under the Lau Remedies school districts were encouraged to provide

Recently, as the schools in the United States become more diverse in cultures, the needs for new English learners to learn the basic of English and grow in fluency has expanded. Nevertheless, a major of English learners receive insufficient education and have low achievement at school. Therefore, the approach of the schools for English learners might not be sufficient for them to unchain themselves from the boundary of differences in language and culture. As a result, the article “What It Takes for English Learners to Succeed” from Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher provides a guideline for teachers to help their English learners by using the four practices of “Access, Climate, Expectation, and Language Instruction.” The four practices can be divided into two categories. Access, climate, and expectations focus on educational settings, while language instruction focuses on teaching contents.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the initial drive for bilingual education in the United States. It granted financial assistance to the public. The Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. The Act symbolized a less negative attitude to ethnic groups, and possibilities for increasing tolerance of ethnic languages, at least in the Federal level (Baker, 2011).

“Language is power. If you cannot understand or be understood you have no power. You are at the mercy of everyone.” – (Rudat, 1994, Stow, Dodd 356) Should Americans be required to learn Spanish as a second language? The construction of our nation stands on documents written in English, however English is not our official language nor has it ever been. America is a “melting pot” in which English is the most prominent language, followed closely by Spanish. Requiring Americans to learn Spanish is a great controversy; I strongly believe that it should be a requirement, because it improves academic achievements, career success, and cultural and social understanding. The controversy has great counter arguments such as the double standard Americans are held to, and further division of the country. Regarding the counterarguments, I still firmly believe that it should be a requirement because the integration of a second language in our schools is more beneficial to our country’s success as a whole.

The greatest concern of mandating “English only” schools in California for example is that 80 percent of the population of students is Latino. Miner further explains, “Good bilingual programs are about more than learning a language, it should be about respect for diversity and multiculturalism (Bilingual Education, 1999).”

It is no secret that the debate over what is the best course of action to educate our non-native English language students across the country is a highly charged topic that runs from the classroom to Capitol Hill. There have been many shifts in direction and focus of educational programs for English Language Learning (ELL) students during the past century in our nation's history. In 1968, with the passage of the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) legislation was

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Federal Bilingual Education Act of 1968, ended the War on Poverty. Bilingual education is the use of more than one language to deliver curriculum content. The bilingual education system is designed for students to become proficient in English, and also encourage students to become bi-cultural; and function in two, or more linguistic and cultural groups. The policy expressed U.S commitment to the needs of the growing number of children in the public schools, whose first language was not English. In 1968, the government passed the Bilingual Education Act, which required language minority students to be taught in both their native language and English. I myself had to undergo English as a

Since the early 1800’s, our nation has been trying to adopt English as a universal language among our citizens. Louisiana, in 1807, was the first state to begin this movement in its constitution as a condition to admittance to the Union. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, there were several tens of thousands Spanish speaking civilians that moved into our country, and this didn’t include the other non-English speaking people who lived among us. While we remain to be a free country, we are a people who needs to be on the same page. Laws and education need to remain consistent throughout.

Immigrants often are overlooked and mistreated because of their seemingly lower status. Many immigrants move to America to pursue better education or work options. Many of these immigrants bring families or meet people in America and start families here. These children have challenges of their own, moving to a new home, or the seemingly simple problem of the language barrier. Congress tried to overcome this challenge by passing the Bilingual Education Act (more commonly known as Title VII) in 1967, but it was met with strong debate. Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez is a strong argument against bilingual education.

“Following the Immigration Act of 1965, legislation was passed to contribute the public schools in dealing with the influx of non-English-speaking students. Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 supported programs for educating these students, including transitional bilingual education programs” (Echevarria and Graves 2011, p.350). This Act did not fully articulate how to go about educating these students, so an unclear message was received or not received in whether there was going to be a process of their first languages or a complete transition to English. “The outcome was that most ELs were consigned in English-only classrooms without suitable

This legislation undermined the English-only legislation still official in some states (Baker, 1997). The original Bilingual Education Act of 1968 had the following main purposes: “(1) increase English-language skills. (2) maintain and perhaps increase mother-tongue skills, and (3) support the cultural heritage of the student” (Leibowitz, 1980, p. 24). According to Crawford (1989), the White House exerted pressure on Congress to approve no funding for Title VII during the first year. In 1969, a scanty appropriation of $7.5 million was sufficient to just fund projects that served 27,000 ELLs (Crawford, 1989). Crawford (1989) states that about 112,000 ELLs were served in 1972 out of the estimated 5 million school age

Despite different parts of the world as defined as being english dominant or having another language as their primary language, communities and societies still are quite diverse in both their culture and their languages. Here in the U.S., English is the primary language spoken by a majority of the population, however, we see plenty of citizens speak a multitude of different languages whether they be other well known languages like spanish or french or languages that many wouldn’t really recognize right off the bat like Swahili or Cambodian. With these languages also hold a strong connection to the culture and identity of these peoples which have long persisted to this day. Despite that being so, Californians voted in 2016 to pass Proposition 58 that permits bilingual education in public schools. As such, language (let alone bilingualism and multilingualism) doesn’t play a strong role in defining authority in public education as some may argue.