Bilingual Education and Dual Language Programs

Bilingual Education and Dual Language Programs The most urgent of all educational challenges is not curriculum and instruction. It is the challenge of changing social/cultural relations through languages while simultaneously improving curriculum and instruction.† Dr. Henry G. Burger Ph.D. (Mazon, 1976). Schools in America are faced with a challenge; educating linguistically diverse students. Schools not only must accommodate large numbers of students from non-English language backgrounds, but must also cope with the linguistic diversity of their student bodies (McLeod, 1994). There is much controversy over the most effective way to teach literacy of standard language or languages for education in multilingual settings. In 2002 the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was repealed and replaced with the English Acquisition Act. This emphasizes English rather than Bilingual instruction and encourages a rapid transition to English only instruction (Farver, 2009). By doing this we are not only losing history but more importantly ide ntity. For many students from a non-English language background, education in America is not a successful or enjoyable experience. Linguistic minority students do not perform as well in school as the linguistic majority group. Millions of public school student have limited English proficiency, and this number will continue to grow if drastic changes are not put in place. English language learners begin school behind fluent English speakers, they continue to fall behind in language and academic areas, if they do not catch up the results will most likely be outrageous. (Jost, 1) Children whose first language is other than English face considerable challenges in becoming literate and are at high risk for reading difficulties and low academic achievement. Spanish speaking students currently constitute the largest bilingual subgroup and are the fastest growing in English language learners (Farver, 2009). Rosalie Porter, Board member of the Center for Equal Opportunity states â€Å"Bili ngual Education is the least effective method for teaching English language learnersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦students would learn the English language rapidly and master school subjects taught in English.† The Supreme Court found â€Å"documented academic support for the view that structured English immersion is significantly more effective than traditional bilingual education† (Jost, 2009). Bilingual education should not be just the transitioning a student to a target language. It should not be just simply teaching subject matter in a foreign language. It is not teaching the first language to a non-English speaking child, nor is it just teaching English as a second language. While traditional Bilingual education, in the context of teaching non-English speaking people in both their native language and English, is considered to be failing, Dual language Bilingual education programs are emerging. Dual language is a type of Bilingual education program that helps students develop ful l literacy skills in English and another language. Dual language education or â€Å"two way immersion† has become increasingly popular in the United States. English-speaking children as well as minority language speaker learn together in the same classroom, with the goals of bilingualism, bi-literacy, cross-cultural understanding, and high academic achievement for all (Palmer, 2010). They key with dual language education is it has to start when the child is just beginning school. Dual language classrooms usually divide their days or weeks between the two languages of instruction, expecting all class members to interact in only one language at a time (Palmer, 2010). Moving between languages has been frowned upon and bilingual education had traditionally argued that languages should be kept separate in the learning and teaching of languages. This is considered separate bilingualism and is used as a means to not cross-language transfer (Creese, 2010).