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Essay on Should Public Schools Ban Bilingual Education?
Bilingual education refers to the use of two languages as tools in classroom instruction. Many nations employ bilingual education techniques, using hundreds of the world's languages. In the U.S., where bilingual programs have existed in one form or another for well over 200 years, the term implies the use of English and another language .
Where U.S. students whose first language is not English are concerned, bilingual education teaches English in an extremely effective manner. Just as importantly, it also ensures the learning of academic content through native language support (Glenn, 28).
English-Only instruction – touted by some as a viable alternative to bilingual education – can often leave limited English proficient students languishing behind their native English speaking peers in such critical areas as math, science, and history (Collier).
Children who can’t understand what their teacher is explaining have a very tough time doing well in school, and many of these kids drop out at an early age. These facts come as no surprise to the thousands of parents, researchers, educators, and policy-makers who understand the need for learning English AND academic content. It is why they support bilingual education (Cummins, 4).
Methods of Bilingual and English Language Education
In 1973, legislation was passed requiring school districts to offer a Transitional Bilingual Education program whenever there are 20 or more LEP students with a common native language enrolled in one school. TBE programs must be taught by a certificated teacher who is fluent in one of the native languages spoken by the students.
Two-way bilingual programs integrate language minority and language majority students and provide instruction in, and through, two languages. One is the native language of the language minority students (called here the target language), and the second is English. These programs provide content area instruction and language development in both languages.........
