Bilingual Education & Multicultural Education

Bilingual Education & Multicultural Education

Introduction

Bilingual education is defined as an educational program that allows students to take an initial step in developing their bilingual skills. A large number of such programs focus on the developing the ability of the students in understanding English language (Hakuta 1989, p374). In the United States, there has been a lot of discussion surrounding the topic of bilingual and multicultural education at individual and social level. The individual level observes the costs and benefits associated with the introduction of a system that fosters bilingual education to young kids from various cultural backgrounds. Whereas, the social level observes the consequences and issues that arise from the concept of bilingualism in United States in the context of providing support for multi-lingual people in the institutions.

This essay provides arguments for bilingual education by drawing support from various studies and personal experiences.

Discussion

There are a large number of students in schools across the United States that fail to reach their academic potential due to their lack of understanding of the primary language of education i.e. English. There are more than 10 million students currently enrolled in the US education school system, whose mother language is other than English (Zelasko 2000, p5). These immigrant students do not have a good understanding of the language and fail to grasp the basic concepts that are taught in the classroom and later develop complex learning disabilities. If they go on and learn the language, that is done on the expense of losing touch with their mother tongue and culture. This results in dual personality that causes them to develop a weak sense of their personal identity.

The Bilingual strategy aims to teach immigrants children in their mother tongue. It has been prevalent in the United States for more than 20 years, where instruction in English is slowly added to their courses. This allows the students to develop a broader and more in-depth understanding and appreciation of the subject matter. Their development throughout the academic career is monitored and as they develop a fluency in English, the later more advanced subjects are imparted to them. Bilingualism maintains that teaching students in their native language allows them to build a strong image of their self and helps them grow as an academic.

There are two different types of bilingual programs that are offered in the educational system throughout the world: enrichment and remediation. The two-way bilingual programs focus on imparting education in their mother and country primary language in an integrated manner. However, remediation focuses on helping students to develop their language and analytical skills on the basis of educating in English only. Remediation works by slowly making the students to develop a better grasp of English while distancing them their mother tongue. Such educational programs are extensively employed in the United States (PPRC 2010, p1-3).

The theory of language acquisition that proposed that the ability of the individual to learn a new language depends on the total immersion in that language has ...