Regarding that poll about English

Wow! I can't tell you how close to home that strikes me. As a bilingual teacher I am continually having to defend what I do and this is one of the reasons I came to DU. I was so sick of hearing the ultra-conservative lies about public education and bilingual education that I just couldn't take it anymore. To see the bovine excrement that I have to put up with check out these sites. They ooze freepernish (did I coin a word?). www.onenation.org , http://www.ceousa.org/bilingualeducation.html , http://www.us-english.org/ , http://www.englishfirst.org/ .

I created my website first for my kids and their parents but it quickly turned into a site defending the use of multiple languages in a society and specifically in public education. Here are two op-eds that I had published. The bio for me at this site is out of date. I now have 12 years of teaching experience 9 of which is in bilingual ed. Oh and to answer the question in the original poll, no language should be the official language, ever. It sets a precedent that could lead to other "official" aspects such as religion or political party. Secondly, it is not needed. English is as strong as ever, even some feel otherwise as the face of America darkens.

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pollard.html

and

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pollard2.html

Also for more info on bilingual education please see www.irvingisd.net/~spollard and click on the bilingual debate link at the bottom.



English Only? But Why?

Ron Unz has eliminated bilingual education in California. In addition, Ron Unz supporters have disrupted bilingual education in Arizona. Now Ron Unz is planning to do the same in Colorado and Massachusetts as well. A few years ago Linda Chavez and her ironically named Center for Equal Opportunity were soliciting people for a lawsuit against Albuquerque’s bilingual program enticing them to join as plaintiffs with a reward of $10,000 in damages. The lawsuit failed. What does this tell me? It tells me that when you can’t find anyone to willingly support your ideology, you bribe them or as is the case of Ron Unz or Linda Chavez you invest millions in a public opinion campaign against what you dislike. It is this type of false propaganda and desperate actions that we have to counter as supporters of English language learners and bilingual education. Bilingual educators continue to hear the ineffectiveness argument from the English Only movement. The attacks we suffer are not because the programs are totally ineffective. Some indeed are, I admit. Nothing is perfect. The attacks come from those who can not stand to live in a pluralistic society made up of different languages and ideas. The attacks come from those that see language diversity as somehow a threat to democracy and divisive. Do some have such an inferiority complex to believe that someone is conspiring against them just because they choose to speak another language? By the way, English will and should be the dominant language of the U.S. but at the exclusion of all others?

The ignorance and bias blinds those that oppose bilingual education. Leo Sorensen, the chairman of English Language Advocates, ELA, in a newsletter sent out March 23, 1998 urges all who support English, as if we don't, to write Congress and lobby for the end of "cancerous" bilingual education programs. He uses anecdotal evidence to drive his case home. Then he states that he supports being bilingual, but cautions, "Without a base of knowledge in one language, it is nearly impossible to master others." He just validated why bilingual education exists! Since many children have a base of knowledge in a language other than English, we need to nurture and expand on that knowledge while gradually teaching the academic English skills necessary to be a successful member of American society.

The English Only movement does not care to learn about successful theory and methodology no matter how convincing it is. To the members of this movement, bilingual education is something very sinister and subversive. They spread their fear. The media plays on this fear and the children suffer.

What is it that strikes such fear in the hearts of the English Only movement that it resorts to such irrational and zealous acts in its support of a monolingual society? I have come to understand that some support English Only initiatives because people see bilingual education as a way to "un-Americanize" the United States. Bilingual education leads to the un-Americanization of the United States? This leads me to more questions. Who is American? What does that person look like? Can that person only speak one language? Does that person's heritage have to be Indo-European? If it's not, should we ignore the ancestral culture and language and simply focus on what is perceived to be American, apple pie, the pilgrims, and so forth? Should we remind the students how Hispanic some of the origins of the U.S. are? Do the opponents think that I and all other bilingual educators want to usurp the American democracy and create a new America? Bilingual education simply uses a native language in the service of English...nothing more, nothing less. There are no conspiracies here.

The claim that language is divisive is, too, a misconception. Rarely are wars fought over language. Cultural divisions occur because of misunderstandings between ethnic groups not because they speak a different language. Religious and territorial disputes are much more divisive than language ever will be. Learning another language will actually bring cultures together.

Perhaps the detractors of bilingual education are afraid that they will lose power. Maybe they fear that English will lose its dominance. Probably more than anything I believe they fear they won't fit in with the new face of society. Society just like language is dynamic and ever-changing. We are witnesses to huge demographic shifts and instead of resisting these shifts, I suggest that the opponents of bilingual education work with us to help the diverging cultures come together by supporting a multilingual, multicultural education system.

The time has come for the English Only movement to promote what it stands for, English. To do this, they too must support bilingual education. To do anything else would be to promote only the acquisition of conversational English which does nothing to help the child progress academically. Is that what they want?

Shiny New Package:
What Are Bilingual Educators Fighting For Anyway?
by Stephen J. Pollard
Irving, Texas

Commonly, the average American misunderstands the purpose and method of bilingual education. In general, Americans are not aware that bilingual educators are fighting for the rights of language minority students; and specifically and most importantly, the right to a quality education, including full and fluent development of the English language. Lamentably, bilingual educators have had to be on the defensive since the modern renaissance of bilingual education in the 1960's. Many languages were taught bilingually in the American schools in the 18th and 19th century. The bilingual programs first appeared in parochial schools and then later appeared in public schools. For example, German was taught bilingually in Texas and Pennsylvania.

In the August 1998 issue of Vista magazine, Max Castro cites a poll that reveals that homosexuality is the only issue that received less support among Americans than bilingual education. What does this indicate? Are Americans so socially insecure that they consider bilingual educators and foreign languages to be some sort of malevolent presence in the United States? Given my knowledge of Americans and love for our culture, I do not think so. It is hard for me to believe that Americans want these kids to perform badly in school. Perhaps then, the reason behind these negative polls is a lack of knowledge by the general public about bilingual education and the process of how kids best acquire a second language. Mis-perceptions about bilingual education are further perpetuated by the "English Only" message and its well-funded propaganda machines.

The English Only camp has it so easy. Their battle cry, "Teach them in English!" is easily stated and easily (mis)understood, though not easily implemented. These programs tout success, but in reality they are horrible failures as they do not foster academic success in English. The Orange County School District in California is well known for its English immersion program and indeed the school district is quick to promote its success. In reality, the program is a failure. The program only met one of its three self-imposed goals. It did increase the oral fluency rates for the children by one year, but bilingual programs can do the same. The English immersion program failed to increase its redesignation rates to fluent English speaker. Nor did the program meet its goal of increasing its standardized test scores. Why is this so? English immersion programs can not teach academics as well as bilingual education. It is as simple as that. To teach academics, the teacher needs to use comprehensible input. Bilingual education is the only program that can do this.

Bilingual educators have to explain a myriad of complex issues. Some of these include: the value of academic instruction in the student's native language; the challenges of assessing children who can't be validly tested in English and when valid tests in native languages are difficult to come by; the long time it takes for a student to transition to full academic instruction in English and still be able to achieve in the classroom; and conversational vs. academic fluency in English and the longer time it takes to achieve the latter.

Yet no matter how many times we explain these challenges, we still are faced with the same questions: "How will you do it?," "How much will it cost?," and "How long will it take?;" but not: "What's best for the students?" Unfortunately, bilingual educators have a difficult time answering simple questions with complex answers. The questioners' eyes glaze over and their focus wanes. And bilingual educators are still left with the need to synthesize our message into a concise message that is just as easily understood as the "English Only" message. Research has proven bilingual education to be superior to English immersion in promoting student achievement, but how can we, as bilingual educators, get this message across in a credible way?

Here is one observation. I once saw a job announcement regarding openings for biliteracy teachers. I think this term provides a better description of what bilingual educators do. The term bilingual may lead the public to believe that we are language teachers just like French or Spanish teachers at the secondary school level who teach a period-long class in the target language with very low-level vocabulary. This is not the case. Instead, we teach academic subjects such as math, science and social studies in TWO languages, and parents who put their children in bilingual programs need to understand that we are promoting the development and importance of knowing ALL subject matter in TWO languages. If the term "bilingual education" has been tarnished, even unfairly, then perhaps one new strategy we should use is to call ourselves biliteracy teachers. Some districts' teachers already do so such as the Palmdale School District in Florida. Perhaps this denomination would better connote what we do: that is, we use the best, researched-based teaching methodology currently available to ensure the academic success of our students.

I realize that this is simplistic, but isn't that how the "English Only" crowd have gotten their irrational thinking across successfully?

When I describe my profession using the term "biliteracy teacher" to describe what I do, I am faced with far less cynicism and doubt. Sometimes, a good product needs to be repackaged, as evidenced frequently in the marketplace. When was the last time a proven product was given new packaging to increase sales. I think bilingual, oops, biliteracy education needs new wrappings. Perhaps if we are able to communicate our message in a new, concise manner, we can get back to the business of preparing biliterate students who are ready to compete in the global community of the new millennium.
-----------------------------------------
Thanks for reading all this.

And the multiple dialects of Arabic? Indian? The various Native American languages? German? French? Begining to see where this all heads?

Why only English? Simplicity and streamlining of the system if nothing else.

and if there is enough speakers of those languages concentrated in one area, then there should be bilingual classes. What people do not realize are the sheer numbers of Spanish speaking people in the US. They far outnumber any other minority language speaking group. In fact, bilingual classes are not even offered to any group unless there are 20 or more children from the same language group concentrated at one grade level. This rarely happens for other language groups. But realize that bilingual education started officially as a result of the Chinese protesting unequal education practices in the San Francisco school district in the sixties. It wasn't intended for Hispanics. Really, the only groups that make use of bilingual ed on a regular basis are now the Spanish speaking children, Vietnamese speaking children and sometimes Chinese but now that California banned bilingual ed, Chinese classes have been severely limited so mainly just the Spanish speaking and Vietnamese speaking since there are located in large numbers throughout the US.

Others that take advantage of bilingual education are the indigenous groups of the US. I suppose that in some northern regions of the US and of course Lousiana there are French bilingual classes but I am not sure. Oh and don't compare the Canadian French bilingual system with ours because the premise for both programs is completely different. Here we use the native language to promote the second language, English, which is the language of this country whereas in Canada they use bilingual education in the hopes that some retain the second language over English. That is why you have some of those rules (I don't know if they are still in place) where signs had to be bilingual in Montreal but with French always on top and bigger than English or something along those lines. Bilingual education promotes the use of two languages with the clear understanding that the native language is used to help transfer academic skills to English.

...require all students to speak English at an acceptable level. Those that don't you teach to do so? I sepak, or have spoken, three languages besides English. I htink learning another language is a wonderful thing.

I think all classes outside of language should be taught in English, and all students should be taught to speak English.

English at an acceptable level. They study in English everyday along with the native language. They also are required to take tests in English and Spanish (in my case) to measure academic progress in both langauges.

I can assure you those that are more literate in the first language are much more literate in the second.

Unfortunately it is not the norm.

don't blame bilingual education and the use of two languages. The practice is solid, but as usual, the implementation goes awry as people lose focus of what good bilingual teaching practices really are, but I would like to say that I have met literally hundreds of bilingual teacher from across the nation and I am not an isolated case.

You live and work in a cuontry where English is the main language. Not the official language, but the main one. Whould you move to France and not learn to function in French? How about Germany? Saudi Arabia? Korea?

Sorry. Your agrument is all nice and touchy feely, and it makes for good press. In practice the alternative solution, requiring all classes in English, is a far better and more practical solution.

You are completely ignoring what research says. You are basing your argument on emotion rather than reason. And as far as your question about moving somewhere and not learning to function in the language, are you saying that kids in bilingual programs don't learn to function in English? Have you read what I have written? English is the goal!!! Jesus Christ. Get it through your head. I do not teach in the native language because I feel that some minorities have the right to retain their native language. I teach it to make sure that they learn the second language academically, meaning literacy. We not talking about some Berlitz crap for learning how to get around a foreign country on a trip. We are learning about how to become a functioning part of a new society.

I will tell you right now that if you moved to France, or Germany or Saudia Arabia or Korea as a child and were thrown into a classroom there, you would fall so far behind academically that you would probably never catch up. You might learn to speak the new language but you would never master it academically if you did not have someone there explaining things to you in English or in fact continuing your education in English while learning the target language gradually.

Please read through these research links and then come back and talk, really. You are the type of person that I left at freepers.com.

Research:
http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/research.htm

Is all English Best?

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/is_all_english_best.htm

English immersion failure in California.

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/english_failure.htm

Language Policy in the US

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jwcrawford/home.htm

...German/Canadian. She was raised in Germany by a Canadian Father and German Mother. Speaks German and English fluantly and took German only classes. She is quite well rounded academically.

You retain your native language, just like family history, religion, et. al. at home.

Undoubtedly the father helped her when she didn't understand something in German. Secondly, many children who participate in bilingual homes, at this is the case where I am, come from homes where the parents have little or no education so no defacto bilingual education can occur.

She couldn't talk to her father until she got to High School. They decided to not confuse her with two languages, adn she learned to speak German as a child. Her father didn't speak German very well.

In the case of your final comment it becomes even more vitally important that the students get English only in order to develop as good a proficancy as possible. They are also not in any danger of losing their "native" language, so we don't need to worry about that either.

kids are not confused by two languages so if you want to end this argument I will say fine, let those that want immersion have immersion, even though I think it is inferior, and those that want bilingual ed. can have bilingual ed. Why take choice away from parents?

Becaseu we have to ahve a standard in education. The government decides what that standard should be. My opinion is that immersion language training is better, and that the classes should be in English.

a horrible failure. California is witnessing all over again and are now making excuses about why it is not functioning like it should have after banning bilingual ed. in 1998.

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/english_failure.htm

Massachusetts, a state that also banned bilingual ed. is seeing that English immersion isn't a magic bullet there either. I worry how far these kids are falling behind academically while the communities just feel more comfortable that English is being used exclusively in American public schools.

Schools say English 'immersion' is slow going
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer April 24, 2004

BROCKTON, Mass.

"English immersion, required in Massachusetts schools under a 2002 ballot initiative, aims to force-feed English to immigrant children. It replaces a system that taught core subjects in native languages while also giving students English-language instruction. The new law says that after one year of all-English instruction, children should be moved into regular classes. Critics said the old system hurt children, mostly lower-income city kids, because it took up to three years to get them ready for regular classes. But as this school year draws to a close, educators are coming to believe that a one-year limit set by the immersion law isn't realistic. Even top students like Jeiza Fernandes may need another year to learn English. "It takes a person seven to eight years to be fluent in one language. So, 180 days doesn't make any sense at all," Andrade said, noting the length of one school year. "We cannot acquire any language in 180 days." Just four of Andrade's 16 immersion students are scheduled to join regular classrooms full-time next school year, she said. Silicon Valley millionaire Ron Unz, the successful financial force behind the ballot initiative in Massachusetts -- and earlier votes in California and Arizona -- said a significant majority should be placed in mainstream classes after one year or less. The law states English immersion is not usually intended to exceed one year, he said, but the spirit of the law indicates one year and out."

"In Massachusetts, there are 49,300 students classified as English Language Learners. Not all are in immersion programs. Many districts still run traditional bilingual programs because parents of students older than 10 can obtain waivers to keep kids in those classes. Although it's up to state officials to enforce the new law, Education Commissioner David Driscoll says he won't be cracking down on districts that don't move a child out of English immersion at the end of a year. Forcing an unprepared student into a regular class, he said, may violate that child's civil rights under federal law. "There are a number of kids that are going to need more than one year," Driscoll said. "They aren't ready to be mainstreamed. There was a major change here in Massachusetts and with that major change did not come either the funding or the time to respond. We're fundamentally changing the way kids are being taught and teachers are teaching. So, what's happened is we're trying to catch up."

"We see new students every single week," said Jose M. Pinheiro, director of bilingual education at Brockton Public Schools. "They sit quietly but they do not understand."
He said schools are obligated to help such students in their native language so they don't fall hopelessly behind. "You cannot continue on a topic if they did not understand," he said. Pinheiro said Brockton students taught under the previous system moved on to regular classes in an average of 2 1/2 years. About one-third of students in bilingual education, he said, were mainstreamed each year.
"We expect the same thing to happen this year. This issue of one year and the student is out is just a suggestion of the law," he said. "The federal law says you cannot put a cap on time that students spend in the program, otherwise you're infringing on their civil rights."

The link is here but I don't know if you can still access it.

excerpts from http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/04/24/schools_say_english_immersion_is_slow_going?pg=full

We do need an underclass in this country might as well start breeding ourselves one. *sarcasm off*

That is far from a failure in the English only system and is more of a failure in the system as a whole. Educational. Societal. Family.

You have to be born into a society where the language is spoken to be fluant. To be honestly fluant. To be functionally fluant? It can be done in 12 - 18 months depending on the language. Federal Government does it every year with thousands of students at the Defense Language Institute in Montery. That would be where I learned one of my foreign languages BTW.

It takes at least that long to ACADEMICALLY fluent in the second language. Look, you are born and how long is it before you are academically fluent in your native language? It takes time. The idea of 5-7 years is for ACADEMIC fluency not conversational. That comes much more quickly. There is a big difference!!!!!

12 - 18 months is doable. In 12 - 18 months the students were holding complex and invovled conversations and reading technical documents.

The first uses the 95% failure rate argument from California which has already been disproven. The second is pure rhetoric but from idealogue. The third is from Jorge Amselle. I've debated him numerous times. He is a far right-winger who knows nothing of bilingual ed. He simply hates it and will say anything to oppose it. By the way, all the figures they have given are proven as wrong with actual research data from the links I provided. He is from this organization to which a I have provided a link earlier but I will do again here, very far right-wing.

www.ceousa.org

I again repeat, point me to actual academic research, not op-eds. Please read posts 42 and 47 again. There is actual research there plus articles on how English immersion is continuing to fail and is not the magic bullet that many promised.

...have a vested interest in seeing it succeed. See where it goes from there?

ask a plumber. We are the experts, not them.

About 95% of what we said would come true in English immersion classes is coming true as witnessed by the newspaper articles. We, the bilingual supporters, said that English immersion would not take just one year as promised and we were correct. We said that reclassification rates to fluent speaker would not rise and they didn't.

It's been a total croc. They was a slight rise in test scores but they have stagnated in the 30th percentile on average. But the thing you don't hear about is that test scores went up for all that started taking the SAT 9 in California including those precious few still in bilingual education as a result of waivers.

And here is the kicker that you don't seem to understand. Whereas those in English immersion are stuck at the 30th percentile meaning 70% of the kids that took the exam did better than them, those in bilingual programs, while still behind in English, and by definition they will always be because that is why they qualify for the program, they are scoring in the 50th, 60th 70th, 80th and 90th percentiles on Spanish standardized tests.

Now, with this high amount of literacy, they will eventually catch up and surpass their English only brethern. Why? They are much more literate. Who is better prepared? It really doesn't to you. You are just happy that those English only kids speak English. Who cares if they actually learn how to learn. You and the people that think like you are the ones holding these kids back with false propaganda.

Here is some more actual academic research on the subject regarding test scores. http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/Prop227/celdt04lao.htm

And here http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/skyrocketing.htm

She never talked to her father until High School? I find that a bit incredible. Really. He never spoke to her and they deliberately witheld that language from her for the sake of not confusing her. Sorry that is extreme if it is true and absolutely unnecessary. Kids are not confused by two languages. That is a common fallacy.

They could communicate, but couldn't hold a colnversation. As one who is familier with language I am sure you know what the difference is.

but it is extreme and exposing her to two languages simultaneously would have been much better IMHO.

unlike spanish. i've heard it's very difficult to learn to speak english if you native tongue is a romance language.

While there are many Latin words that both languages share, the grammar is quite different.

have absolutely no need to learn English in the US. Their media are in Spanish, their employers and coworkers speak Spanish, their neighbors speak Spanish, their doctors and lawyers speak Spanish. Strange but true. Some New Yorkers, Miamians, Angelenos, never learn English because they rarely have to use it.

We are here to teach English. :)

Maybe some day every public school kid will be.

There are many models of biligual ed. Many native English speakers do not realize that they could lobby their districts to start one of these for their children as long as there are enough native Spanish/Vietnamese/Chinese, etc...speakers to fill the class with the native English speakers.

thread - What does Europe do (other than those silly eastern countries with official languages)? We all know Europeans who speak 4 or 5 languages, even if it is Italian, Spanish and French. First, do any of them have this concern about linguistic dominance? I knwo the French are a bit on the protective side, but that might be just against English. And how do they teach? The suggestions that American kids learn more language earlier in school is fine, but I never learned any new language - and I studied several in school, starting in elementary school - well enough to converse in it until I was in my mid-20's and joined the Peace Corps. Then it was amazingly easy and quick, such that I was really pissed off at all the language curricula I'd had such small success with. Well, okay, Korean isn't that easy, but Malay was, and I bet I would never have even begun to learn either the way our schools teach them. So, do European schools teach differently, or is it simply that by driving down the road a coupla hours you can be in another country where the language is different that facilitates matters? Any thoughts?

By the way, Malaysia has an official language, largely used to keep the Chinese minority mindful of their position.

Many countries use bilingual ed. or some form thereof. Many times it is the native language with English, then as they move into higher grades the kids start studying a third or fourth langauge. It is also much easier to practice the "other" language since many in Europe can travel just a few hours and they are in another country.

For example in Finland there is Finnish/Russian bilingual education. There is bilingual education in Mexico with the many indigenous tongues and Spanish. Let me see if I can find a list for you of the countries with bilingual ed. Hold tight.

...for your assertion please.

"Condemned Without a Trial: Bogus Arguments Against Bilingual Education" by Stephen Krashen Chapter 3, pages 22-48. published 1999 by Heinemann, www.heinemann.com Stephen Krashen's website is www.sdkrashen.com.

Basically he talks about these countries: Norway, England, Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, and China.

...but you weren't the one I asked.

Whom did you ask?

Apaprently I did ask you, though that was not my intention.

learn English- it's all around them and no one thinks a thing about it. My high school French teacher was born in France to an American father and a French mother. By 5 he could speak and understand French, English, Italian, German and a patois, Nicois that he said was a combination of French and Italian that even if you were fluent in both languages you would understand little. He had no accent and could mimic any. Especially funny was speaking French in a German accent.

will be after the empire? That's the one we should choose.

Name the republican congressman who said it!

Anywho, English Onlyists are some of the most despicable scum around. If they want to simplify and streamline the system, then let's pick something like Latin. So that they have to learn a new language.

Fucking nazis.

You know, many of our forefathers wanted to abandon English when they created America, because it was a symbol of our English oppressors.

I actually agree 110% with Dr. Wierd!

That's sad.

Why do you agree with him calling fellow DU'er Nazis simply because they disagree with him on this one subject?

I thought he was referring to the republican congressman! I agree with Dr. Wierd in that he supports what I support. I do not support calling fellow DUers Nazis. Got it! Good! As you can tell by my answer which I meant to be funny I have had my disagreements with him.

Good to know what your opinion of some of your fellow DU'ers is. Nice, very civil.

Now, tell me please how requiring every person in the US to suddenly have to learn a completely new language and start sepaking and reading it solves the situation? Or were you just being reactionary? Somehow I thnk this would be like trying to get them to use the metric system, only about 500 times worse.

I'm sorry, don't YOU want a bunch of Americans to suddenly learn a completely new language and start speaking and reading it? Or were you just being hypocritical?

Oh, and the metric system is a good thing. English units are for functional illiterates.

I don't want the entire country to learn to speak a completely different language.

I agree the Metric System is a good thing. I use it every day. I'd love to see us move to it. Ain't gonna happen.

I guess by your opening comment that you are calling me a Nazi then?

Do I have to draw you a picture?

I'm very aware of how effective immersion is. If I can learn as much Spanish as I did starting the language at age 49 and only going to class one hour a day five days a week, imagine how much a 5 year old or 16 year old would learn of any language being exposed to it 6 or more hours a day five days a week. Younger people are absolute language sponges.

We all learned our first language by being immersed in it. Fluency in any language is best gained by immersion. Bilingual programs seem to offer something a lot less than immersion. A grade school kid should not have to spend three or four years in a bilingual program and still not be speaking, reading, and writing English fluently.

I want to point out that in earlier years immigrant children were invariably completely immersed in English in the school and almost without exception became completely fluent inside a year.

What's really sad is the cases you hear of the third generation born in the U.S.A. who needs bilingual education because somehow in three generations no one has learned English.

English is the global language and is likely to remain so for some time.

This is one of my pet peeves. You learned other langauges so fast because you already had an academic base in your first language. Children, when they enter school, only have a conversational base in the first language. They are sponges, but only at the conversational level. This is called Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills or BICS. What the child needs to be successful in English is a strong academic base in English, not just speaking. The soaking up of the language only refers to conversation. Literacy transfers so it makes much more sense to teach the child complex abstract skills such as reading and reading comprehension strategies in the native language and then transfer these skills to English. This takes time of course which is what many DON'T want to give us. Just think about it, when is a native English speaking child completely literate? It takes a while, even some would argue, never as we are always learning, but a basic literacy base takes years.

We develop this literacy base in the native language and teach English at the same time so that the child does not fall academically behind his or her peers.

Do not confuse conversatinal English with academic English. My goal is academic English so therefore I make use of literacy from the first language to make input more comprehensible in the second.

For more info on BICS vs. CALPS, please see http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/bicscalp.html

Oh and please do not insinuate that my kids receive "less." Children in bilingual education do NOT receive remedial education, but rather enhanced or enriched education as they become not just bilingual but biliterate. I have seen far too many successful kids pass through bilingual programs to think otherwise. But as we all know, successful anybodies don't sale newspapers. The media is always looking for controversy. We rarely see the "feel-good" story in education and much less so for minorities and especially minorities who sometimes are not even citizens yet.

She disagrees with you. Amazingly surprising that you beleive her to be completely wrong.

I am sick of that argument. You can't compare the learning of an adult with the learning of a six year old child. It's nothing personal against her. What's your problem. You seem to be riled up since I don't agree with you too.

My point is that in American schools we should teach all classes, outside of foreign language classes, in English and just in English. I thought that was pretty obvious.

no harm to teach in two or more languages as evidenced by other countries, why not? I thought that was obvious also.

You aren't comparing apples and apples.

Are kids different in other countries? Look, the fact is, bilingual education works. It works at my school and it works wherever it is supported by the community and is implemented correctly. Is it 100% effective? No, give me a program that is. Are mistakes made and children misplaced in bilingual programs? Yes, but that happens in all programs. Heck, in high school I was placed my freshman year in remedial science by mistake. It took half the year for my parent to get me out.

I really wish you could spend some time at my school and others in my district. I think your mind is made up so I don't think I could ever change it but I do think that your view of what we do would be a bit clearer.

...it's less effective than single language environments. That's all that really matters. Which one works best. They are both going to have problems and issues. Gee, they call that reality don't they?

You accused me of being against this on purely emotional reasons. It would be far easier to say you are for it because you are so deeply invested in it. I see that a lot with my fellow scientists.

imposed on children around the WWI in the US since many schools had German bilingual programs.

Several states that bilingual ed are also seeing how failed English immersion is.

Please point to research that says that English immersion is better. Really find some. Meanwhile, I will point out much to support bilingual ed.

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/english_failure.htm

excerpts from http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2004/04/24/schools_say_english_immersion_is_slow_going?pg=full

Schools say English 'immersion' is slow going
By Ken Maguire, Associated Press Writer April 24, 2004

BROCKTON, Mass.

"English immersion, required in Massachusetts schools under a 2002 ballot initiative, aims to force-feed English to immigrant children. It replaces a system that taught core subjects in native languages while also giving students English-language instruction. The new law says that after one year of all-English instruction, children should be moved into regular classes. Critics said the old system hurt children, mostly lower-income city kids, because it took up to three years to get them ready for regular classes. But as this school year draws to a close, educators are coming to believe that a one-year limit set by the immersion law isn't realistic. Even top students like Jeiza Fernandes may need another year to learn English. "It takes a person seven to eight years to be fluent in one language. So, 180 days doesn't make any sense at all," Andrade said, noting the length of one school year. "We cannot acquire any language in 180 days." Just four of Andrade's 16 immersion students are scheduled to join regular classrooms full-time next school year, she said. Silicon Valley millionaire Ron Unz, the successful financial force behind the ballot initiative in Massachusetts -- and earlier votes in California and Arizona -- said a significant majority should be placed in mainstream classes after one year or less. The law states English immersion is not usually intended to exceed one year, he said, but the spirit of the law indicates one year and out."

"In Massachusetts, there are 49,300 students classified as English Language Learners. Not all are in immersion programs. Many districts still run traditional bilingual programs because parents of students older than 10 can obtain waivers to keep kids in those classes. Although it's up to state officials to enforce the new law, Education Commissioner David Driscoll says he won't be cracking down on districts that don't move a child out of English immersion at the end of a year. Forcing an unprepared student into a regular class, he said, may violate that child's civil rights under federal law. "There are a number of kids that are going to need more than one year," Driscoll said. "They aren't ready to be mainstreamed. There was a major change here in Massachusetts and with that major change did not come either the funding or the time to respond. We're fundamentally changing the way kids are being taught and teachers are teaching. So, what's happened is we're trying to catch up."

"We see new students every single week," said Jose M. Pinheiro, director of bilingual education at Brockton Public Schools. "They sit quietly but they do not understand."
He said schools are obligated to help such students in their native language so they don't fall hopelessly behind. "You cannot continue on a topic if they did not understand," he said. Pinheiro said Brockton students taught under the previous system moved on to regular classes in an average of 2 1/2 years. About one-third of students in bilingual education, he said, were mainstreamed each year.
"We expect the same thing to happen this year. This issue of one year and the student is out is just a suggestion of the law," he said. "The federal law says you cannot put a cap on time that students spend in the program, otherwise you're infringing on their civil rights."

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/research.htm

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jwcrawford/greene.htm

Ramírez, J. David; Yuen, Sandra D.; and Ramey, Dena R. 1991. Final Report: Longitudinal Study of Structured Immersion Strategy, Early-Exit, and Late-Exit Transitional Bilingual Education Programs for Language-Minority Children. San Mateo, Calif.: Aguirre International.

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/linguistics/people/grads/macswan/fillmor2.htm

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jwcrawford/Krashen5.htm

http://www.crede.ucsc.edu/research/llaa/1.1_final.html

http://www.stanford.edu/%7Ehakuta/Docs/CivilRightsCommission.htm

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jwcrawford/SFUSD.pdf

And in fact there is more, but I will stop here. I am not fighting for what I think is correct. I am fighting for what I know is correct. Too many times, too many children are harmed by people who mean well, but just don't get it. I am certified to teach in the bilingual classroom, the ESL classroom, the regular ed. classroom and the gifted and talented classroom. I choose the bilingual classroom because it offers the most to the kids and it is a great model for those that enter schools not speaking English or being limited in English, period. It works.

English immersion has failed. It's no magic bullet.

http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/Prop227/celdt04lao.htm

...how come it works?

You are blinded by your emotional response that it should.

And you are blinded by your emotional and financial attachment to the project.

instead of arguing to the point, the debater impugns the motives of his opponent, in this case talking about financial committments creating a bias. More properly, the debater should address the supposed bias directly. I run across this technique every time on this board that the issue of vaccines comes up - almost invariably I get accused of having ties to big pharmacy companies rather than direct responses to my evidence.

...the other individual involved using the same technique. You did read what they said didn't you?

Like I have said in this thread before, but apparently you not really reading half of what I post, I am certified to teach in the regular ed. classroom, the bilingual classroom, the ESL classroom and the gifted and talented classroom. I choose the bilingual classroom because it is the most effective and enriched curriculum for teaching, period, regardless of language used. Try again. If the worst came to pass and their was no bilingual ed, I would still have a job. I guarantee you that.

It continuously amazes me how people can pass over all of the research and evidence that doesn't agree with their perception. This isn't new stuff; we knew it well before the "English Only" push, just like we knew the about standardized tests before we started using them to "grade" schools. We knew that their highest correlation is to parent income/ed level, having nothing at all to do with what happens in school.

We have one dual immersion school in my district; I think our district would like to have more, but we can't get qualified spanish speaking teachers. The dual immersion school lost several under the new "highly qualified" criteria, and is scrambling to remain viable.

Meanwhile, I do little spanish lessons with my kids on video, since I don't speak spanish. I have some words and phrases, but can't converse. We spend a little time with the video, and my fluent spanish speakers tutor us. The kids love it; it amazes me how motivated they are to learn a 2nd language! Of course, it isn't exactly a priority, since it isn't a "standard;" but we try to give them a little, anyway.

I knew you would come in again with a voice of reason. :pals:

El tiempo, mi amigo.

How'd I do?

That expression can't really translate literally like so many idiomatic expressions.

You could say

En cualquier ocasión, mi amigo.

That would roughly translate:

On any occasion my friend. Same idea, eh?

I took this question to two of my spanish speakers yesterday. It was fun listening to them argue over how to say it; one gave me "en tiempo, amigo," but wasn't happy with it; he didn't understand the idiom, but wanted to please me by giving me a phrase. The other didn't understand the idiom, either. He shrugged and said, "we don't say that in spanish."

Both of them enjoyed 15 minutes of teaching me spanish during recess; we were out on the field on an extended break between standardized testing sessions.

translate literally. I still think my way was pretty good. ;)

Your analysis and all the links. This is really interesting stuff. I'm studying education this summer - language arts, but am considering taking a little more time to get the bilingual certification. All your info & arguements have really helped. My only concern is taking the extra time & money to get up to speed then find districts yanking funding left & right. but it seems that bilingual ed will inevitably be something that's in demand - in some form or another - in the future. I just wish there were more certainty and support (finanical & otherwise) for it. It seems like there are HUGE misconceptions and a big uphill battle first, tho.

I tend to pick my battles well. I am certainly not going to die on certain hills, but this is one hill I will die on for sure. If you live in Texas or wouldn't mind relocating to Texas, specifically, Irving, TX. send me a private mail. If you really are interested, come see me.

and was unusual in maintaining the language for a couple of generations.

My great-grandparents came from Germany in 1899 and received no formal instruction, as far as I know. They lived into my teen years, and neither of them ever really became a fluent speaker of English, despite living amidst English speakers most of their lives. Most of the time they spoke a bizarre half-and-half dialect all their own, basically German in structure but with a lot of English words thrown in.

My grandmother, born two weeks after her parents arrived from Germany, didn't speak English when she started school. However, she was the only German-speaking child in the class and picked spoken English up fairly quickly. This was supplemented by German literacy classes offered by the German Lutheran church on Saturdays and in the summer. However, she struggled with schoolwork and with World War I-era teachers who hated "krauts" and she never finished high school, and at the same time, her German had a definite American accent.

My mother, whose father was Latvian, was brought up in English at home but had a lot of interaction with the German extended family and could communicate with them on a "kitchen" level. When she was nine years old, she picked up a German book that was lying around and realized that she could sound out the words. However, I would not characterize her as a fluent speaker or listener by any means.

I've always been a language buff, and I understood German fairly well before I began studying it in high school and college. (My brothers were not interested.) Thanks to my formal study, I knew a lot of words that my mother did not know, and I could correct her grammar.

Back in the 1980s, I helped evaluate employee language tests for a major U.S. airline. These tests required people to carry on a conversation with the tester and then role-play some situations that commonly occur on airplanes and in airports. A lot of the people trying the Japanese test were the children of Japanese immigrants or the children of mixed marriages, and they almost always did poorly, because they didn't know how to function as adults in Japanese culture. In the role playing situations that required them to get a passenger to do something or to stop doing something, they sounded like parents scolding their children.

Some of the best tests actually came from employees who had begun learning Japanese while working in Japan.

Formal knowledge and informal knowledge are two different spheres.

It seems that your grandmother received de facto bilingual education especially with the classes on Saturdays and in the summer. Many Asians do that now with their kids today even most are not in formal bilingual education programs.

is predicated on being literate, then how in the world does someone learn the first language? WE LEARN BY BEING IMMERSED. Most of us don't learn to read and write until we're at least five years old, by which time we're remarkably fluent.

Given that if children are raised in a multi-lingual environment, they will learn as many languages at once as there are speakers around them, I find the argument that a kid must be good at reading and writing the first language before going on to the second one to be utter nonsense. ESPECIALLY when we're talking about very young children who don't fully read and write in their first language.

conversational language by being immersed. As educators I am concerned with both conversational and academic therefore immersion only solves part of the problem. I use the literacy in the first language to provide the literacy base in the second. Again, please refer to:

http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/bicscalp.html

Thanks.

second language learning. I hope you enjoy it if you are so inclined to read about and are interested.

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/ncrcdsll/epr5.htm

kids bilingual - in fact with our oldest child, we maintained Korean only in the home until he got into day care at around age 4. My wife is Korean, a former Peace Corps language instructor, and I'm a former volunteer, speak Korean at around FSI 3+ - pretty fluent with spoken, not so hot reading & writing. Also my mother-in-law lived nearby or with us, & she was a retired university professor. Anyway, our son got into day care, picked up English pretty fast & we helped him when he asked. So by the time he hit 1st grade he was pretty fluent, unaccented in English, sounded like any other kid. The school district, though, put him in ESL classes, which were simply him and coupla other kids, I think 3 times a week. That was fine, I think some vocabulary holes were filled in, that kind of thing, and it helped the ESL program meet a quota. Our daughter, 3 1/2 years younger, heard a lot of English from her brother from when she started talking, so she never got as solid in Korean as he did. But they can both communicate okay in Korean, and speak native English - although our son still messes up with irregular verbs, and a couple of other oddities that we wouldn't notice except for my brother bringing our attention to it (my brother's a master's level ESL teacher). End result, bilingual kids, and we did the Korean immersion because it's an English-speaking world out there & they've got so much more chance to learn/speak English than to practice Korean, especially living as we were in the midwest US. The only slight downside is that the kids picked up both my wife's and my accents. My wife speaks a slightly outdated aristocratic Seoul dialect, and I speak Korean very much like farmers from south Cholla province (where I lived) - which to a Korean has the same effect as an Ozarks hillbilly accent. The kids, therefore, tend to really confuse native Korean speakers. But it's fun.

there was support at home in another language for clarification purposes, but at any rate, I have never said that bilingual education is for all kids. Sounds like you did a great job with your kids. I applaud you for that. I am doing the same with mine excpet it is Spanish/English. What many do not understand with Spanish speakers is that the level of education of the Spanish speaking immigrants we receive is quite low often. My kids tell me stories of their lives in rural Mexico or Guatemala or San Salvador. We are talking about poor campesinos, farm workers. They had little or no schooling so bilingual education becomes even more important for the children of these immigrants because of the lack of education at home. Certainly not all Spanish speaking immigrants are like this. My district about 5 years ago received an influx of Argentine immigrants that were transferred by an Argentine company with a branch in the US. They were all very educated and their children many times had already been exposed to English so their time in bilingual ed classes was short and some didn't even need it.

So in short, the educational levels of the home and the fact that possibly one or both of the parents already speaks the target language would probably mean that those children will only need ESL or just a little time in bilingual ed. But at any rate, bilingual education certainly would not hold back their academic development if it were properly implemented.

I was running a survey of asthma prevalence in 6th grade kids, using a standardized survey (the ISAAC instrument, if you're curious). Omaha is largely German/ east european old blue collar, with segregated neighborhoods of african americans & latinos of all sorts. Originally a lot of cubans (batista refugees, not castro), now more Mexican and dominican. Knowing I would be surveying a heavily hispanic school, I had the survey translated, and went to do the survey myself, taking along one of the med students who was working on the study and who spoke spanish. The survey is a questionnaire on asthma symptoms to be answered by the kid. Well, you can guess - we got there, sat down with all the kids, and the spanish-speaking kids couldn't read the questionnaire - my student had to read it to them. Then they were fine, but they were illiterate in spanish. As a not of interest, Omaha has a lot of pretty conservative churches that do a lot of mission work and so on - a friend of mine who was city superintendent of schools told me that in 2000, the 4th most common language in Omaha Public Schools was Nuer, a southern sudan language. We'd had a lot of refugees move in, you see.

for Urdu speakers. I believe they are from India but I am not sure. That is very sad about the Spanish speakers in your town. Were they in English immersion classes or recent arrivals without much education in their home country?

I receive a least one child a year from some neighboring districts in my area that have bilingual education in name only. They put these kids in so-called bilingual programs but never use Spanish with them at all. It is English immersion. They come to our program, placed in my classroom or my co-bilingual teachers' classrooms and speak a wonderful oral English and can phonetically read pretty good in English but they have no comprehension of what they read. So we say, "Okay well let's work on those comprehension strategies in Spanish." You guessed, they are even worse readers in Spanish. Some have no phonemic awareness at all in Spanish. So what has English immersion done. It has created a kid functionally illiterate in two languages. I see this all too often. We have two transfers like this, this year.

:kick: Kick up. What they hey, I think this is important.

one of the Spanish professors on our faculty, who was born in Mexico and received the equivalent of a high school education there before coming to the States, conducted classes at the local community college that were basically Spanish literacy for native speakers.

Imagine the children of these workers, growing up in a house with no books, speaking low-level Spanish, suddenly thrown into an English-only classroom with other children of similar backgrounds. If they were native speakers of English, their socioeconomic circumstances would make school difficult for them.

We, my district, actually have special classes for these types of adolescent children, not elementary, with very low to no education when coming to the states. They usually stay there a year or two and then move into sheltered English classes in Jr. high or high school.

Oh and as an equivalent for Spanish as a foreign language in high school there are classes for Spanish for the native speaker.

in response to your question, yes - they were new arrivals with poorly educated parents, and they were in English immersion. The questionnaires were written at a 6th grade level, so they theoretically should've been able to read them - and they could understand them fine when my student read them to them. I should've asked my friend about this; why the English immersion. Omaha, despite being a community of Italian, German, Yugoslavian & Czech immigrants, most no more than 3 generations, are surprisingly intolerant of things like bilingual education. As you might expect, most folks use the line of "My grandfather never had any special favors....." - although they do seem a bit more prepared to extend some special help to the sudanese kids. Just enough more exotic, maybe.

1) In the old days of immersion-only, part of the curriculum included "Americanizing" children by making them ashamed of their native language or forbidding them to speak it on the pain of punishment. Entire Native American tribal languages were destroyed in the BIA boarding schools in this way. Even European immigrants faced attitudes such as, "You don't want to talk like a kraut" or "Yiddish isn't really a language--just an ignorant peddlar's jargon."

I'm convinced that this attitude took so firmly in American culture that it's led to a psychological resistance to learning foreign languages.

2) The foreign language immersion classes that yuppies are so fond of sending their children to produce unimpressive results. Portland had a Japanese immersion program made up mostly of native English speaking children, and the results were extremely disappointing for all the effort involved. The ideology was that the children would learn Japanese "naturally" by having it spoken at them, so there was no formal instruction in any aspct of the language except writing kanji. No explicit teaching of grammar or vocabulary. What happened was that the children developed a "classroom dialect" that bore only passing resemblance to the actual Japanese language. By the time they got to high school, their pronunciation and handwriting were excellent, but their grammar was appalling in a non-native way, and their vocabulary was deficient.

I met some of the high school kids who had been in the program since kindergarten, and they spoke about as well as second-year students who started studying Japanese in college. They told me--in English, because they couldn't say it in Japanese--that their high school teacher was emphasizing grammar and vocabulary because he was so dismayed at the way they spoke.

Of course, none of their parents could speak Japanese, so what did they know? It all sounded fine to them.

Early research about Canada's French immersion programs for English-speaking children showed similar results: the children made weird mistakes because they were in effect devising their own dialect of French. I believe that they have since remedied this problem by including more explicit language instruction.

To be successful, immersion requires that a majority of children be native speakers of the target language, but even in that situation, you find tremendous individual differences. In my eleven years of teaching Japanese, I had at least one returned exchange student per year, and their level of Japanese ability varied amazingly, from practically native to practically incoherent.

Bilingual education began because schools where the home language of the majority of children was Spanish or Chinese or Navaho had classes where an English-only teacher expected them to perform on the same level as children who were native speakers of English--without any formal instruction in English, and even punished them for slipping up. This led to kids who were completely capable of doing normal schoolwork being left behind and made to feel stupid because they couldn't catch on to what that teacher up front speaking English at them wanted them to do.

3) The immersion courses given to adults at Monterey or in university programs are carefully structured to start with the basics of the language. (I am the product of an academic immersion program in Japanese that was based on the program offered at the Foreign Service Institute.) They are not "sink or swim" courses that throw you into studying everything from math to history in the target language, which is what happens to immigrant children in an immersion situation.

4) Foreign language learning in Europe usually starts in the equivalent of fifth grade, and it includes formal instruction.

5) The idea that immigrants "don't want to learn English" is a myth. There aren't enough English classes available, and those that exist are always over-subscribed. With proper instruction, their children do well. In fact, they usually end up with an American accent in their parents' language or start refusing to speak it at all.

The impression of vast armies of people refusing to speak English is due to the huge surge in adult immigrants, and language learning is much harder for adults than for children, especially if they have to work twelve hours a day to survive.

Very well spoken. I could kiss you. Un beso para ti. :loveya:

:-)

It really is a pleasure!

In the past I used to quite frequently travel around and speak to districts or speak at conferences about what bilingual education is or really what it is not. This is a PowerPoint I put together some 5 or 6 years ago that describes bilingual education. I am not sure if you can view it without PowerPoint but I think it is just an HTML document now but I am not sure. It has been so long since I put it on my site. Here is the direct link if you would like to view it.

http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/Using%20the%20Native%20Language_files/frame.htm

If you have problems try accessing it, try from here. http://www.irvingisd.net/~spollard/Parent%20Resources.htm Click on the Using the Native Language link.

Enjoy if you are so obliged. :)

I haven't seen a better explanation.

:yourock:

Reading through it, I was brought back to one point:

<bigsnip>

Celebrate, embrace and strive to encourage the proper use of the native language

This is so huge. We see many single-language, native english speakers who are not fully literate in their own spoken language. They benefit from the same kinds of support 2nd language learners do; they need to move from BICS to CALPS in their native language!

Some of the best teaching strategies are ESL teaching strategies because they strive to make the input more comprehensible which is what many native speakers need as well. Good teaching strategies are good teaching strategies, period. I use these strategies in the native language and English.

:kick: This really is important to me. :)

If anyone wants to know why I teach and why most other teachers teach, it for times when we get notes or letters like this. This was actually a journal writing assignment for this girl and it was in English in a bilingual classroom in fifth grade. This girl came from El Salvador and her she started school here in the states in 3rd grade with me. Within two years she was able to write like you see in English. This is unedited. I have permission from her mom to post this on the web. It is also available at my website.

I am proud to be bilingual because I always teach my mom and dad English. When people send letters to my mom and dad especially like the house we are getting I translated to Spanish. My whole family is proud of me because I am bilingual. Did you that if you are bilingual you could make more money than the people that only know one language? I am also proud to be bilingual because you know how to speak, write and read both languages very well and can enjoy both cultures. Sometimes I even solved problems. Like one time my friend told me to tell the teacher that a boy was hitting her. I told the teacher and the boy was saying other thing but it wasn’t true. That kid thought that just because my friend didn’t know English she couldn’t say anything but I am bilingual and could help everybody. I am so but so proud that I am bilingual that I promise that I will never say that I forgot how to speak, read and write Spanish. I want to thank Mr. Pollard for helping me become bilingual in third grade.
Cindy

I ask her to then write in Spanish for me. I actually had to edit some of her Spanish curiously enough. :)

Estoy muy orgullosa de ser bilingüe porque siempre les enseño a mi mamá y a mi papá el inglés. Cuando se les mandan a mis padres cartas especialmente por la casa que compramos yo traduzco al español. Mi familia entera está orgullosa de mí porque soy bilingüe. ¿Sabía Ud. que si Ud. es bilingüe, Ud. pudiera ganarse más dinero que los que sólo saben un idioma? También estoy orgullosa de ser bilingüe porque uno sabe cómo hablar, escribir y leer en ambos idiomas bien y uno puede disfrutar de las dos culturas. Aun a veces, yo resuelvo problemas. Como una vez cuando mi amiga me dijo que le dijera a la maestra que un niño le pegaba. Se lo dije a la maestra y el niño decía otras cosas que no eran de verdad. Ese niño pensaba que sólo porque mi amiga no sabía inglés, ella no podría decir nada pero yo soy bilingüe y puedo ayudar a todos. Estoy muy pero muy orgullosa de ser bilingüe que nunca voy a decir que se me olvidara cómo hablar, leer y escribir en español. Quiero agradecerle al Sr. Pollard por ayudarme a ser bilingüe en tercer grado.
Cindy

:kick:

You do important work. Thank you.

I appreciate that. I can't tell you how much.

:toast: to the fine work you are doing, and to your informative post.
bi-lingual education just makes way too much sense, and of course, lacks the punitive component that neocon and moran americans treasure so much (except when it applies to them, of course) :eyes:
keep up the great work in teaching kids to speak english (without punishment and humiliation) :toast:

I thank you for the kind words. Sometimes this what teachers need most and then to add on top the fact that you are a teacher in a controversial field that is not well understood even by some democrats, can start to grind on you, but again, I stand my ground.

that shows the superiority of bilingual education over English immersion.

EFFECTIVE READING PROGRAMS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS A Best-Evidence Synthesis
Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk
Robert E. Slavin and Alan Cheung
December 2003


This report reviews experimental studies of reading programs for English language learners, focusing both on comparisons of bilingual and English-only programs and on specific, replicable models that have been evaluated with English language learners. The review method is best-evidence synthesis, which uses a systematic literature search, quantification of outcomes as effect sizes, and extensive discussion of individual studies that meet inclusion standards. The review concludes that while the number of high-quality studies is small, existing evidence favors bilingual approaches, especially paired bilingual strategies that teach reading in the native language and English at the same time. Whether taught in their native language or English, English language learners have been found to benefit from instruction in comprehensive reform programs using systematic phonics, one-to-one or small group tutoring programs, cooperative learning programs, and programs emphasizing extensive reading. Research using longitudinal, randomized designs is needed to understand how best to ensure reading success for all English language learners.

READ the report: http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report66.pdf

:kick:

In recent years I've developed a bit of a prejudice against mono-lingual people. They tend to be SOOOO uniform. ;-)

And let me point out that I am not suggesting that all people be bilingual or that we assume Spanish as a second language in the US although in parts whether people like it or not it is. :) I also love your "uniform" statement. ;)

But anyhow, I want to make it clear that I believe it is very important for anyone who lives here in the States to learn English. I also want to make it clear that I use Spanish in the service of English, no conspiracy theories here. I teach kids to be literate thinking human beings in a language they understand; in my case Spanish, and then take that literacy and expand it to English.

As a side benefit, the children can become bicultural and biliterate but none of those are the main goals of bilingual education. They are great side benefits. The main goal remains English!