Why I Want To Be A Bilingual Education

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.

I taught for 25 years at an inner city school. My students were all second language learners, and often their parents were totally illiterate. I entered this career not as a teacher, but as a social worker turned teacher. The Los Angeles Unified School District was in dire need of bilingual educators, so they offered a district intern program where I took college courses while I worked in the classroom.

As the previous discussion has shown, the notions bilingualism and bilingual education are pretty complex. Summing up, bilingualism exists in different levels, which are defined as termed individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism. These forms are typical either for the whole language minorities (communities) or for an individual. This should be taken into account for bilingual education, which can be described as language possession at the individual level. From the research that has been carried out, it is possible to conclude that this issue is very complex and can be described by various dimensions, such as language ability, achievement, competences, performance, proficiency and skills, as well as the age of language acquisition, the balance of two languages, context of language usage.

I remember that day when I received a call from the Carteret Schools District, and the lady told me, “I was selected for the position of Bilingual teacher.” That day was the best day for me, and I was so proud of myself by choosing a teaching career as I always wanted to be a teacher, and this realization came to me when I was in the high school. However, when I started this career, I realized that I have to travel this journey with strong vigor and motivation. In the end of every day, I love to reflect on the strategies that I used with my students were successful or not. If not, what are the reasons behind that? Every day is not the best day for me; however, as a teacher I can understand that a person can learn from her/his mistakes. I always consider my weaknesses, and try to turn into strengths as we all know hard work, motivation and dedication are three essential ingredients to become a successful teacher.

The transition from a bilingual elementary school to an all English K-8 school was not the easiest. I had to adjust to

Being bilingual will not only help you communicate with others but also give you many different opportunities. Being bilingual is just not about speaking another language but also learning the culture that comes with it. From the new language you will learn about other traditions, music, food, and overall the way others speak and express themselves. Another thing you can acquire from being bilingual is the chance of getting a better job and develop professionally better. Studies also show that bilinguals express themselves better and that it’s better to start learning a second language at an early age. There is doubts about teaching a children a second language because some people believe that if they teach them a second language at an early age it can cause confusion in the child, and they will end up not being able to learn either one correctly. This information has not yet been proven what studies have shown is the complete opposite which is that a bilingual person has a higher possibility of being successful than a monolingual.

Language is used every day in our everyday lives all over the world. Marian and Shook state that “language is used to communicate our thoughts and feelings, connect with others, identify culture, and understand the world around us” (Marian & Shook ,2012,para.1) There are many languages all over the world and some people understand more than one language such as understanding both English and Spanish. People that are Bilingual are exceptional in a way that they are intelligent, helpful, and have advantage openers.

Yes, Bilingual education should be maintained. The purpose of bilingual education is not to slow down the assimilation process or encourage students to only learn their language, but to allow students to have open-mindedness and learn to communicate with their community. Moreover, bilingual education is now supported by the Proposition 58 that was approved on Nov 8, 2016, in California ballot and repealed most of the 1998 Proposition 227.

My education life started since I was 6 months old. Both of my parents speak Spanish fluently, but don't talk to much in English. My first 6 years, most of the time I heard and learn spanish at home and at my school. However, I graduate from kinder, reading and writing, at the age of 5. My elementary school was a bilingual school where I started learning both languages, English and Spanish, at the same. At first it was hard to me because I never heard a word in english before, so my mom bought me little Winnie the Pooh books in English so I could start reading and comprehend better in English. In those books there is one that is my favorite, not because of the context, but of why I have it. This book it was given by my English teacher in 1st

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

The perpetuation of poverty occurs in many ways in America one of which is educational inequities. Unfortunately, poor schools produce students which are ill-prepared to deal with the demands of college. This may be attributed to policies which negate the importance of bilingual/bicultural education for Latino students, especially those who are nonnative English speakers (Casas and Ryan, 2010). Take for example Proposition 227, in California which establishes the official language as English, undercutting the importance and notion of bicultural education (Casas and Ryan, 2010), something which appears to show promise for nonnative English speakers as a means to possibly close the academic disparities between Latinos and other groups. Improvements

One important thing I have learned about the education of emergent bilingual students is that there is not one correct way to teach them. Instead, there are many different factors that impact the way students are able to use their home languages and cultures as resources in the classroom that are important to their education. Leopold Elementary School is one example of a school in the US that must implement certain practices to support their population of bilingual students. While 42% of the student population at Leopold is English Language Learners, the school has many successes and areas of improvement that would benefit this group of students. Through the uses of students’ funds of knowledge, bilingual competencies, and a push for standards

1. What is the goal of bilingual education programs? Of ESL programs? How are the goals different/alike? (89.1201)

As per the 2013-14 Department of Education report, 43.3% of New York City students talk a dialect other than English at home. Before the end of grade school, most bilingual students don't have adjusted biliteracy. Moreover, their bilingualism could be portrayed as subtractive, or prompting the loss of the home dialect. With a specific end goal to bolster these percent of students a bilingual training project was framed. Half of all ELLs (English Language Learners) were conceived here in the United States. There are projects that can offer these students some assistance with succeeding in doing great in English and the home dialect when they get out into the world.

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