English Language Literature Review

The need for bilingual education is not directly related to the need for the student to have a more pleasant learning experience, but based more on the increasing need for these individuals to learn about their heritage, how they can present themselves to others in different scenarios, and being knowledgeable in both languages at a dual equivalence. The key

Cultural Diversity has lead schools to promote dual language and bilingual programs for ELL students. However, raising bilingual children according to Marsha Rosenberg is not something that simply happens. Parents must carefully consider how they will raise their children in their new culture. Unfortunately, many parents often forget that neglecting their primary language in the process of raising their children will only hurt them in the long run. However, what they fail to understand is that our current society insists on developing diverse learners, who can speak two or more languages and are diverse (Gensee, n.d). Therefore, in order to raise bilingual students they parents must provide the children with rich experiences at home as well as in a variety of settings (Broekhuizen, n.d.). Furthermore, families need to maintain a close family unity and sense of belonging when dealing with the bilingual issue at home.

With the powerful influence of globalization transforming every aspect of our world humans must adapt to the new cultural environment being created. One major change is that of language evolution. English is the third most spoken language worldwide after Chinese and Spanish, but it is the most popular second language overall (Haviland, Prins, Walrath, & McBride, 2014). The English language is taking over, so what, you may ask, is the point of putting in the energy to learn a second language? Why should you enrol your child in a language immersion school program? Well, as an English Canadian, learning a second language through an immersion program comes with a collection of cognitive benefits that can influence a variety of things, including mental health, academic performance, and employability, not to mentions that it plays a vital part in preserving the many cultures in our country, all while promoting acceptance diversity.

When an educator walks into her classroom for the first time, she needs to be prepared to encounter students that come from a variety of backgrounds. The children will be in different stages of language development, and the educator must accommodate for each of these students. Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera (2013) state, “The US Census Bureau projects that by the 2030s, children whose home language is other than English will increase from roughly 22 percent to 40 percent of the school-age population” (p. 9). This increase in second language learners will cause the educator to accommodate for those needs. Second language learners “need teachers who welcome them and recognize their unique abilities, what they know, and what they need to learn” (Magruder, Hayslip, Espinosa, and Matera, 2013, p. 10).

For this particular reason, immersion education at an early age should be strongly encouraged. Nevertheless, this kind of education is not always feasible for practical reasons. The main difficulty is to find teachers who have native fluency in the target language and, at the same time, a degree in the subject that is taught. Developing the curriculum, the educational material and teaching objectives is also an arduous task. Moreover, immersion education is not always accessible to all pupils. For example, children with learning difficulties could experience academic problems in an immersion programme. Even if immersion education is certainly the ideal method to learn a new language and reach native-like proficiency, there exist many other ways to teach a second language efficiently. The most important is to offer a stimulating and varied language environment through enjoyable activities, which can be stories, songs, games or arts and crafts. It would already be great if all children could acquire some basics in the foreign language and develop an interest in other cultures at primary

Many of their learning needs are similar to those of other children and young people learning in our schools. However, these learners also have distinct and different needs from other learners by virtue of the fact that they are learning in and through another language, and that they come from cultural backgrounds and communities with different understandings and expectations of education, language and learning”. (NALDIC, 1999).

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

In order to improve educational outcomes of ELL students, the school district Z needs a dual-language immersion method rather than a bilingual education. The top three policies I would propose to the local school board for dual-language immersion would be: academic/ cognitive enrichment, enhanced intercultural relations, and competence in two languages. The program provides the same academic content and addresses the equivalent standards as other educational programs. The dual-language immersion program will hopefully close the academic achievement gap between ELL students and their classmates.

According to oncology nurse, Suzanne Robin in her article “Why Is It Easier for a Child to Learn a New Language Than an Adult,” “Young children are hard-wired to learn language in the first few years of life. When frequently exposed to two languages, they unconsciously acquire the second language naturally, applying the same skills they use to acquire their native language. Older children and adults have to learn the language consciously by studying it.” (2014, para. 2).

For all immigrants and refugees, language is an important tool in their new society for economic and social progress. To help non-English speaking immigrants in their road to success, English as a second language (ESL), became inseparable program for almost every colleges and universities in America. Increasing number of immigrants and refugees, from non-English speaking nations, requires more and more studies to identify challenges that these students encounter in their ESL education. Native language and culture of these newcomers were fixed subjects for studies and researches for many years. According to Niranji, Pathirage, Morrow, Walpitage and Skolits (2014) “international students often face several challenges due to cultural differences as well as psychological issues during the transitions”. Learning a new language is not a simple process; it is a complex procedure of development and transition which includes learning/adopting another culture and connecting with new society.

Heritage languages refer to the languages spoken by immigrants and their children and has recently come to be used broadly by those concerned about the study, maintenance, and revitalization of non-English languages in the United States (Montrul, 2012). Heritage language learners contain a heterogeneous group ranging from fluent native speakers to non-speakers who may be generations removed but who may feel culturally connected to a language (Deusen-Scholl, 2003). A heritage language program is any language development program that is designed or tailored to address the needs of heritage language learners, and heritage language programs may be at any level or setting and vary in terms of their approaches to teaching, populations they serve, and other factors (Chao, 1997). Heritage language programs have three major educational contexts: community-based program, K-12, and higher education. Heritage language schools are often created out of a community’s desire to pass on their language and culture from one generation to the next in order to maintain connections within families and communities

First of all, children will learn easier and faster any language in this age. It is obvious that kids in this age have an incredible ability to learn anything than old one. They can learn any language and became as a native speaker very easy. Oppositely, it is harder with teenager or adults. For example, my kids speak two languages. They speak English as a mother language

Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.

Firstly, it will be useful to us to examine an older view of the age factor and the importance that it is said to play in one’s ability to learn a second language, as it provides a more binary idea of the variable of age in L2 learning; i.e. ‘younger = better’. The main basis for the argument that age plays a fundamental role in successful acquisition of native-like proficiency in a second language lies in the exploration of the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) (Lenneberg 1967). Lenneberg applied the principle of CPH to first language acquisition, in that he suggested there was a cutoff in the ability to innately acquire language, which occurred somewhere around

Whilst it may be easy to think that language immersion is all about living in a foreign country, the truth is that it is actually more about creating an environment around you. It’s all about the way you’ll be willing to provoke opportunities to bring English in your everyday life.