The Negative Effects Of Bilingualism In Education

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

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.

Many studies look into the idea of executive control. Executive control is the ability to control tasks involving inhibition, attention, and conflict or even broader, anything that requires effortful selection (Clare et al., 2014; & Bialystok, 2011). This ability develops late in cognitive development and declines with age (Bialystok et al., 2012). Researchers hypothesize that bilingual individuals have a continually activated executive control system as there are two competing languages that must be selected from based on the social context. Due to the joint activation of two languages, there is an attention struggle that is not present in monolingual individuals or bimodal

While some may think that this is not certain studies have proven otherwise. In The Power of a Bilingual Brain, Jeffery Kluger states that, “Research is increasingly showing that the brains of people who know two or more languages….. Multilingual people, studies show, are better at reasoning, at multitasking, at grasping and reconciling conflicting ideas.”(1) Clearly, a bilingual education places students a step ahead not only in their education careers but, as well as in their daily life’s outside school. Jeffery Kluger discusses how a bilingual brain is not necessarily smarter brain, but is a more flexible and practical brain. Evidently, demonstrating to us one of the many benefits of a bilingual

Topic: This study attempts to determine the nature of the relationship, if any, between bilingualism and overall academic performance. For the purposes of this study, bilingualism refers to being able to speak more than one language and learning another language(s).

Learning a foreign language has always held a higher prestige than speaking one language in one’s community, where it is important to maintain one’s native language, Einar Haugen stated that, “Bilingualism has been treated as a necessary evil, a rash on the body politic, which might be expected to cure without the need of calling in the doctors…,” (Haugen, 1952, pg. 2). In the English-only outlook, English acts as a social glue that holds the nation together, in which state sponsored bilingual services removes incentives to learn English and keep immigrants out of the mainstream. It is not enough for immigrants to learn English, they must also renounce their native tongue, where in their eyes bilingualism is regarded to as divided loyalties. In reality however, bilingual education holds much academic value, where acquiring another language is regarded to as a necessity for future work, travel and personal relations. Students who are fluent in different languages work together and aid one another

The topic that I will be discussing is the debate over bilingual education in the United States school system. Equality in education is an opportunity that is open to everyone "regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost"(Cochran). As the creation of The Bilingual Education Act of 1974 proved to be useful in providing federal funds "to meet the language needs of non-English speaking families"(Cochran) giving the stability for these bilingual programs to continue. This argument can strengthened even more through the data gathered in the 1970's revealing that over 70 percent of these programs were established. Usually in the regions where districts had high population of non-English Speaking families usually programs "were created in the Southwest and Pacific Coast areas"(Cochran). A issue that also arises in bilingual education is the lack of minority teachers that are present to help school systems. Minority teachers "currently make up slightly more than 14 percent of the teaching profession"(Cochran) which has been researched to be due to the salary structure for teacher to seek a profession with an increased income. Diversity has become a valued in many universities for its benefits towards higher education. This occurs when "varieties of racial, economic, ethic, and social groups interact on the same campus"(Cochran). Similar to proposition 227 that recently was revoked two years ago in California which virtually outlawed bilingual education (Cengage).

Imagine living a life in Spain, then one day the job gets transferred to Texas in the United States of America. Now getting accustomed to this job may be hard because of the new environment, but adapting to the culture may be even harder. Well this problem can be eliminated because bilingual education should be required in all American kindergarten through twelfth-grade school systems. Not only should students be required to take one class a year, there should also be alternative elective courses of foreign languages. There are many benefits of learning a language that is not profound to a specific person. One is that learning a new language is a great way of meeting new people and making friends. Another possible positive outcome is that new language is an excellent source for traveling and could benefit a person’s employment opportunities. The United States should provide bilingual education to students in kindergarten through twelfth-grade because learning another language is good for meeting new people, traveling and expanding employment opportunities.

Bilingual education is a highly-debated subject in America and in many other countries. Many people are quick to point out problems produced by bilingual education. In my opinion, the benefits of bilingual education outweigh the problems. In this paper, I will discuss some benefits, problems, and solutions to these problems while also advocating the importance of bilingual education.

Due to the rise in bilingual programs in the U.S., researchers began to wonder how a child’s brain was able to process two languages simultaneously. To their utter amazement, students who were bilingual benefit in multiple areas of their lives. For example, they have greater cognitive flexibility, superior language skills, and a higher IQ. Nevertheless, some parents, teachers, and even some researchers were concerned that immersing students in the target language, with no instruction in the first language, may cause students to lose their ability to converse/use their first language. In other words, fear began to rise that teaching in only the desired second language may cause the students to favor that language over their native language. This is where the research controversies

Many people do not believe in bilingual education because they think that the student would confuse the two languages and in the end speak neither one correctly. A closer look at when the two language mixes reveals that most of them master one of the languages to the same degree as a monolingual speaker (Korth 3). Through their bilingualism, they can use linguistic means creatively in accordance with the demands of the situation. This flexibility is a cognitive ability, which monolingual speakers can achieve only through effortful learning and training. Switching from one language to the other can be interpreted as an indication of the speaker’s fluency (Korth 3). In some cases, the languages are only spoken in specific places. If a child speaks

On June 4, 1998 Proposition 227 was passed by California voters, denying bilingual education to the majority of Spanish-speaking children in California (Ballotpedia n.d.). On November 8, 2016 Proposition 58 was passed, repealing much of these bilingual education restrictions (Ballotpedia n.d.). Taken together, these propositions emphasized two sides of the bilingual debate—on one side, those focused on the monolingual, nationalistic tendencies of “one nation, one language;” on the other side, those focused on multilingualism as important in indexing identity. Unintended social and linguistic effects resulted from these propositions, placing the bilingual education system deeper within the political framework of California’s language

By placing emphasis on the linguistic and cultural side of bilingual education, confusion and controversy often arise. Transition to the mainstream language and maintenance of the native culture are both important, neither should be the central theme of a bilingual

Communication is a powerful tool in every setting that involves human interaction. The importance of bilingualism is felt when there are communication barriers orchestrated by multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism. The effect of communication barrier is more profound in the learning environment. This is reflected in the way it incapacitates understanding of the course contents.

Not so long ago bilingualism was thought to be bad for your brain. But it looks more and more like speaking more than one language could help save you from Alzheimer's disease.