Saturday, April 4, 2009
Well, after reading the chapter on Bi-lingual education, I find it a very difficult topic. I thought that the author used some good examples. The example in the beginning with the college commencement speech in Russian was bad because Now you are starting to get into this argument that everybody should know every language, which is silly. Do we really all need to speak russian to accomodate .2% (which is probably still a stretch that it's that many) of the population? Am I a bad person because I don't speak Uzbeki or Tagalog? No. However, I did like how the author made sure to say "the bilingual goal should never be to restrict students to their own vernacular." I would go a step further and say it would be irresponsible to not try and get these kids to speak English as fluently as possible. Much of the world speaks English, especially the business world, and our job as teachers is to best accomodate these students to be successful in that world. Trying to have a seperate bilingual program for every language is expensive, unfortunately it might be something that has to be done.
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This is a major problem in our school system, because we need to come to some consensus to what languages can we offer a bilingual education system without it being under utilized. Yes there are some languages that are rarely utilized within the United States, but then there are others which are actually quite prominent, and none the less are ignored as being "not English". This is problematic as it ignores these students cultural backgrounds and places them at a disadvantage within the context of their education.
ReplyDelete"I would go a step further and say it would be irresponsible to not try and get these kids to speak English as fluently as possible."
ReplyDeleteI feel this is probably our most important job as educators, whether its in the science classroom or history. Students need to at minimum be able to adequately speak and write english to survive locally and nationally. I'm sure there is a strong correlation amongst income and english comprehension. Success within this country largely depends on your ability to participate within its system.
Bilingual education does not suggest that the students should not learn how to speak English. Quite the contrary, the purpose of bilingual education is for the native language to serve as an educational bridge so that students can learn more fully. Providing bilingual education, then, is the best effort to teach non native English speakers to learn how to speak English as fluently as possible. It also helps students learn Social Studies, Science, and Math as well as possible. Access to quality education is what correlates with earned income later on.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with all of you. Although English is not the official language of the United States, let's face the facts that it is what we speak in the school system, helps us land a job, and basically function. It needs to be taught in school and emphasized. However, I absolutely see the merit in learning new languages, even multiple languages. It expands a person's knowledge of their native language, and provides an ability to cross cultures for travel, unique employment or help you understand a topic that you are interested in. I think that what people really have a problem with, are the particular dialects of English. It is funny that we would embrace the Slavic or Celtic tongue, but AAVE or Mexican Spanish (and yes I mean Mexican specifically)is poopooed upon. This is where I would say that racism is quite prevalent in or hearts; by dismissing someone's form of English as inferior.
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