English Language Learners

Running Head : BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS

Bilingual Education Programs in schools (Your Name (Your School

BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS IN SCHOOLS

Bialystok Ellen (2007 ) defines bilingualism as someone who has fluency in two languages ' or someone who can function in each language according to given needs ' Bilingual education can be simply interpreted as educating children by incorporating the use of two languages . The amount of languages used depends on the model of the program . In the United States , English is used as the main teaching language but students are also taught using

other minor languages like Spanish , Chinese , and other languages that have minority users in America . In the United States , bilingual language program was introduced by senate in 1967 with two aims of developing the academic language , and the second being to develop heritage language

It was aimed at introducing non-English speaking students gradually to English-instructed curriculum . It has a lot of advantages but it has also met a lot of resistance especially from the native Spanish and Black Americans who argue that the program is aimed at confining their children to low status jobs which don 't require the use of English as the official communicating language . The program has been criticized in that , in some instances , children undergoes bilingual classes for seven years before they are allowed to transitional English classes which lowers their English skills . According to Salvador , Bernadetter Rivera and Laurie Ford (1997 , it has been attributed to high dropout rate especially among Hispanic children where the rate of dropout has been double that of whites . It has been attributed to falling education standards since 1960 . According to Grandfather Education report , the quality of American education has registered a 71 decline since 1960

There are those who are supporting bilingual education . Bilingual education has a lot of effects on children 's education . Bilingualism affects children 's development of literacy ' Bialystok Ellen (2007 Proponents argue that is the easiest way for students to learn English when they have native knowledge of what they are learning . All bilingual models utilize the home language in addition to English to give instruction to the students

Bilingual education models

Some of the program models used includes the following among many

Transition bilingual education that involve educating children in their native language for the first two or three years . This program is used in most countries all over the world . After the native language education , the child is introduced to subjects like math , science and other studies . In some cases , these subjects are taught in the native language but the child still continues to learn other languages like English , German , French and others . This system is widely used in the United States with emphases created on English as the main language

This program is important as it helps the students to learn in the language they understand better in their early days in the class room It is also important for continuity of these native languages in this era of globalization . It...