Bilingual Education

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Bilingual Education
Chapter Seven
2
Perspectives on Bilingual Education

• Social history
• Has its origins in the 19th century
• Nativist fears during World War I eliminated most
  programs in U.S. schools.
• Experienced a resurgence with the Civil Rights
  Movement, notably because of interest in native
  language instruction, placement of children with
  disabilities, and desegregation

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The Bilingual Education Act (1968)

• Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Act
• Established bilingual programs for children whose
  first language was not English
• Became the basis for a number of seminal court
  cases

4
Important Court Cases

• Diana v. State Board of Education (1970) court
  ruled that testing for eligibility for special
  education services be done in the language of the
  student
• Larry P. v. Riles (1972) court ruled that
  schools are responsible for providing tests that
  do not discriminate on the basis of race
• Lau v. Nichols (1974) court ruled that
  affirmative steps must be taken by school
  districts to rectify language deficiencies in
  students

Continued
5

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School
  Children v. Ann Arbor School District Board of
  Education (1979) court mandated linguistic
  instruction for teachers in Ann Arbor with
  respect to the legitimacy of Black English as a
  dialect
• Casteneda v. Picard (1981) court ruled that
  districts must take appropriate action to
  overcome language barriers and set standards for
  examining such actions

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Responses to Bilingual Programs

• Those who promote bilingual education as
  reasonable and democractic
• Those who oppose bilingual education
• On the grounds that American education has always
  provided upward mobility for those willing to
  work
• On the grounds that the nation will be destroyed
  if we do not continue to offer a monocultural and
  monolinguistic education
• Those who assert that pluralism in education is
  less a remedial effort than it is a long overdue
  affirmation of a social reality

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The Bilingual Education Backlash

• The Ebonics debate in Oakland, CA
• Attempted to recognize the use of ebonics by some
  of its students, and to overtly use ebonics as a
  starting point for improving student performance
• Did not advocate teaching in ebonics
• Has since been amended somewhat

Continued
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• Proposition 227 (also in California)
• Requires teachers in California schools to teach
  limited English proficient students in special
  classes almost entirely in English
• Reduces the time students are allowed to stay in
  these classes (usually one year)

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Other Bilingual Education Issues

• Defining who is and who is not bilingual
• The 1984 reauthorized Bilingual Education Act
  defines limited English proficient (LEP)
  individuals as
• Those not born in the U.S.
• Those whose native language is not English
• Those from environments in which English is not
  the dominant language
• Those Native American groups where languages
  other than English are commonly used

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Types of Bilingual Programs

• Submersion Programs a sink or swim approach,
  students are placed in regular English-speaking
  classrooms
• English as a Second Language (ESL) students stay
  in the regular classroom for most of the day but
  are pulled out at various times for English
  instruction

Continued
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• Transitional Bilingual Education efforts are
  made to phase out the students native language
  while developing a facility in English as quickly
  as possible
• Structured Immersion Programs students are
  taught by teachers fluent in the students native
  language, but instruction is in English and
  teacher responses are also primarily in English

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Ethical Issues Local and Global

• The degree to which debates about bilingual
  education and English as a second language
  revolve around issues of cultural domination as
  opposed to what is best for students
• The degree to which assessment of student
  progress is measured by culture-biased tests that
  favor students fluent in standard English

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• The degree to which language provides the key to
  understanding other people in an increasingly
  interdependent world
• The degree to which the adoption of English as a
  global standard in the communications media
  results in the disappearance of many small
  languages
• The degree to which the American attitude against
  the acquisition of other languages hinders both
  our knowledge and understanding of global issues

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Something to Think About

• The National Education Association believes that
  limited English proficiency (LEP) students must
  have available to them programs that address
  their unique needs and that provide equal
  opportunity to all students, regardless of their
  primary language.
• --NEA Resolution