The Importance Of Bilingual Education In Arizona

First off, it’s important to understand the difference between learning and education. Learning is the ability of an individual’s brain to acquire and retain information for a lifetime, whereas education is an aide to further strengthen a student’s learning capacity with the use of resources: teachers, libraries, classroom environment, etc. All students are essentially equal when they enter the educational environment, however students who don’t speak English have an unfair disadvantage in the american educational system.

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.

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.

In the article, Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracan over language and Culture, Juan Gonzalez, a journalist and broadcaster of the daily show, Democracy Now, describes how bilingualism has impacted the United States’ modern education system. He describes an amendment that would constitute English as the official in the United States, which he believes can be a potential threat to the educational system. Gonzalez suggests that instead of having an amendment that constitutes English as the national language, American schools should implement Spanish to highlight the importance of being bilingualism in the American educational system. A constitutional amendment declaring English as the national language would be damaging to bilingual students because it would limit their capability of communicating in English or their native language, and therefore they have would fall behind in classes and will not succeed in the American educational system. To highlight the importance of bilingualism, even more the educational system should implement a variety of languages.

It may be that ideals of strong American nationalism and pride stand in the way of bilingual education. “Opponents of bilingualism, and by extension bilingual education , see the use of multiple languages as a sign that the home country's culture is being diluted by the introduction of foreign languages, viewpoints, and traditions” (Ginsberg 1). According to a video posted by USA Today, even the current US president, Donald Trump, has expressed ideals against Americans conversing in languages other than English (Trump). But the anti-bilingual attitude held by some in America needs to be reevaluated because there are just too many benefits, and not enough evidence of harms, to keep students away from the privilege of knowing more than one

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).”

In the 1970’s bilingual education in Texas was just beginning to emerge. The topic was contentious, towards the end of the 1970’s however we see a shift in the topic, not advocating for bilingual education as it had at first, but looking at the results of bilingual education and the ways in which it could be improved. I will be analyzing the ways in which bilingual education was approached in this decade, focusing heavily on Texas but occasionally looking at the Southwest. Texas has always set the pattern for the rest of the country in terms of academics, by looking at the emergence of the bilingual education movement it will aid in the understanding of where bilingual education is today. The fight for equal education went through various iterations:

When I first started school, I remember how difficult it was for me to make the transition from Spanish to English. My Mom left me at the door of the school in the morning, but since I was placed in an English-only classroom, the next time I opened my mouth to speak to anyone was when she picked me up again that afternoon. I didn't know what anyone was saying around me, and to make matters worse, my teacher didn't speak a single word of Spanish. That day, like every other day, I came home crying because I felt like an outsider. That year was very difficult for me because I ended up in the back corner of the classroom not participating. As a result, I had to take several years of summer school in order to catch up, something that

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

Texas and California are two of the biggest states in America. They also comprise two of the most diverse populations in the country as well. According to Robert E. Slavin, bilingual education “refers to programs for students who are acquiring English that teach the students in their first language part of the time while English is being learned” (2012). Bilingual education can also range from education that uses almost English for instruction to instruction that teaches partly in the student’s native language and partly in English. There are many theories as to which method is most effective and which should be used in schools. With so many diverse students becoming a part of schools, one can almost never apply one perfect instructional strategy

Texas lawmakers need to examine whether the state's bilingual education programs can be more effective at teaching students English. Bilingual education is instruction in all subjects in the student's native tongue in a separate classroom with other students who

Working with many diverse individuals including but not limited to, elementary students, high school students, and college students has allowed me to socially engage with parents, administrators, teachers, and coworkers. I have found it easier to build relationships with those who come from a similar background and are bilingual in Spanish. On the other hand, it can be a challenge to build relationships with those who do not open up with me.

What is Bilingual Education & Demographics? What year Bilingual Education begins? Who made an impact to add Bilingual in Education? How many people suffer from establishing Bilingual Education?

Frank Smith, a psycholinguist recognized for his contributions in cognitive psychology and linguistics, expresses the advantages of bilingualism —“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” However, only 18% of Americans can speak more than one language, while 53% of Europeans and 99% of Latvians are bilingual. The United States does not have a standard foreign language mandate at any level of education; some states permit individual school districts to set their own language requirements in high school, but primary schools rarely offer foreign language classes. This is unfortunate as with the ability to speak more than one language comes a global consciousness that opens

For this investigative assignment, I interviewed three of my closest friends about their perspectives on bilingual education in the United States. One of my friends, who I will call “A,” said that bilingual education is important for students because it helps them broaden their perspectives on the world. Students are exposed to learn different cultures and respect them, promoting multiculturalism in our country. “A” said that if students were only exposed to English-only classroom setting, they would most likely be ignorant of other cultures. She also told me about her experience when she was in an ESL program during her middle school year. She described the program as useless because she and her classmates learned broken English from each other. She somehow managed to get out of the program and put herself into the mainstream English class. My other friend, who I will call “B,” stated that bilingual education is helpful in developing a wider cultural perspective and cultivating a person suitable for the globalized world. As a foreign-born American and working as an international student coordinator, she emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and respecting different cultures. She believes that bilingual education can help students to achieve better knowledge on growing multiculturalism in our country. My last interviewee, who I will call “C,” also believes that bilingual education is important to cultivate young minds by helping them to respect not only their own but