The Bilingual Education Act

Abstract

The Bilingual act of 1968 has undergone a number of modifications that display the requirements of the confined English learning students. It is emerged from providing only primary guidelines in order to offer more concrete laws and motivating amplified national control program curriculum. Being able to deliver students greater job opportunities, to expand their intellectual skills and to offer them access to information as well as being able for teachers to take benefit of textbooks, to elucidate lessons easier and to integrate subjects with each other, bilingual education policy has demonstrated itself advantageous for both the teachers and students.

Introduction4

Bilingualism4

Discussion5

The Bilingual Education Act5

Key Roles of Bilingual Education Act5

Principles of Bilingual Education and Policy7

Reauthorizations of Bilingual Education Act8

New STED Inspection and EAL Learner Outlook8

Brown vs. Board of Education10

Mendez Et Al vs. Westminster Board of Education10

Leading up to Brown vs. Board of Education11

Current Developments in Bilingual Education Act11

Conclusion12

References14



The Bilingual Education Act

Introduction

Bilingualism

Bilingualism is the ability to use, or the regular use of, two languages with advanced proficiency and nearly equal fluency in each language. Bilingualism is broadly classified into simultaneous bilingualism, in which a person is introduced to two languages concurrently, and sequential bilingualism, in which a person is introduced to a second language after having been introduced to a first language by the nature of the acquisition process. Simultaneous bilingualism generally refers to childhood bilingualism as a result of exposure to two languages in roughly the same degree from birth or very early childhood.

In the field of study of second language learning, the definition of bilingualism, as in almost all conceptualizations of terms, has not been left to create dichotomies. Among the most popular are the dichotomies that have been given by leading researchers in this field such as:

a) Coordinated vs. Bilingualism Compound

b) Early vs. late bilingualism

c) Simultaneous vs. Successive bilingualism

d) Additive vs. subtractive bilingualism

e) People vs. Elitist Bilingualism

The first three refer to individual characteristics while the last two are related to characteristics of social groups. Thus, these distinctions lead to the study of specific aspects of bilingualism. Similarly, the research perspective depends on the nature of the discipline that deals. For example, psycholinguistics focuses their attention mainly to the mental and cognitive properties of bilingual people. Sociolinguists have become more interested in categorizing social groups based on the language settings in relation to dominance, prestige and other sociological and institutional characteristics.

Discussion

The Bilingual Education Act

The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 is reported as the initial official recognition of the federal government of the student's requirements having limited English speaking ability (LESA). The Act has been re-authenticated with alterations four times since the year 1968. The authentication reflects the modifications required of those students and for the entire society. Indeed, the populace definition served has been expanded from constrained English identifying with limited English speaking (LEP) learners. It is vital for those who are concerned with LEP pupil to attain comprehension of the development of bilingual education that they are better educated when ...