Bilingual Education on TV

Bilingual Education on TV

Bilingual Education on TV

Majority of the people in the United Kingdom think that America has never designated an official language because there is a common assumption that we have been an essentially monolingual nation. This is because a vast majority of American citizens spoke English as their primary or native language; and immigrants who migrate to UK, learn to speak English as well. However, after the 1960's the immigration rate to UK from countries. Today people think believe there is a great need for bilingual education in UK; in the public schools system and the translation of English to major minority languages such as Spanish, to help and make the transition of life for non-English speakers to English easier(Coffield 2004).

People think bilingual education is necessary in classrooms for the benefit of language minority children, especially where the diversity of students in public schools varies in large numbers; and where there are many students of different backgrounds. The transition of learning a new language is extremely difficult for these students; especially without been able to use their own first language to make the transition to English easier. If American classrooms become solely English then minority language speakers are going to be left behind. For example in the "Anatomy of the English Only Movement", by James Crawford, research on second-language acquisition has shown that:

"When language minority students fail, it is more likely from too little instruction in their native language than too little English. Along term national study has documented higher student achievement in developmental bilingual classrooms than transitional bilingual or structured English immersion classrooms"(Honey 2000).

However, advocates for the English Only Movement believe that English only education in schools can bring unity between the language barriers and provide an equal education to all children. Equal education refers to equal educational opportunities for all children regardless of their backgrounds. One of the major arguments that advocates of English only debates is equality in education, which would make English the sole instructional language for every child. However, people in UK believe this argument may work best for native English speakers, but Majority of the people think it is unfair for language minority children; and fear that if English only should be implemented in our schools they would be at a disadvantage. People believe that the equality in education by implementing solely English, that Proposition 227 proposes makes it extremely difficult for language minority children to receive a meaningful education; and many believe that solely English may also be "detrimental to their familial and social integration". (pg3) In 1974, in the case of Lau V. Nichols, the Supreme Court ruled that: "there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are efficiently foreclosed from any meaningful education".

The impact of the English only has many disadvantages for language minority children on academic and social ...