Bilingual programs are beneficial to immigrant children

Bilingual programs are beneficial to immigrant children

Introduction

Bilingual education for immigrant children is a topic that has garnered a lot of controversy since a long time. People who immigrate to developed countries like the United States of America (USA) is often confronted with the paradox of raising their children in the local culture or their native one. To help such people in assimilating into the local culture, bilingual education systems have been developed so that children belonging to such backgrounds are allowed to make an impact on society. Besides this, this form of education allows for the preservation of the native culture of the student. The controversy arises when these children compete at the academic level with the native speakers of the language where it is argued that immigrant children do not get a fair chance of competition. In the case of the United States, this language is English.

Discussion

Being a controversial subject by its very nature, bilingualism has its own set of proponents as well as opponents. One of the main arguments offered by its opponents is that since the modern world has become globalized, the need for learning more than one language has been rendered ineffective. This view is harbored by individuals who see the United States as a monolingual entity. Moreover, such individuals also believe that protecting and maintaining the respective cultures is, at best, the responsibility of the family and not of the state. Implementing bilingualism is also seen as equivalent to opening up another front of segregation in a society that is already divided along many lines. For the detractors of bilingualism, the state is not responsible for adjusting itself for the immigrant community. The biggest problem of bilingual education is that not enough teachers are usually available to impart this education. ...