Bilingual Education in America

"The School is a curious place for language. In it there is a mixture of official, private and school languages, mother tongues, foreign languages, schoolgoers slang, the slang from the block. When you look at all these languages living together you say to yourself that the school is perhaps the only place where they can find each other in all their diversity and overlappings. But, we need to be vigilant and take advantage of this beautiful diversity," (Garcia 2009 chap 7, p136, Steiner and Ladjali, 2003: 83-4). On a daily basis I interact and see students from around the world at the international ESL language school I work at. A student from Saudi Arabia ( Arabic) is holding a conversation with someone from Japan (Japanese) and next to them maybe a student from Korea (Korean) speaking to a student from Brazil (Portuguese) all holding conversations in English. All of them are international ESL students and here in America we speak thousands of languages. The problem is we are not embracing our diversity of people and languages as we should in our educational system. Our current educational system is not validating the home language of the language minorities and our national security and economic system are suffering as a result. A by product is that our growing number of students in our school system that speak a primary language other than English are also suffering.

Educational success for the bilingual student should be our goal, to help the student to progress from where they are when they enter the classroom or the school toward academic mastery of both languages. Of course here in America the English language academic skills are measured and are what the student needs to ultimately succeed in this society. The reality is that improvement in both languages fosters success. Success is not an isolated thing and involves many elements including academics, cultural value reinforcement, adaptation to the main stream culture and the growth of self-esteem. So, success is helping the whole student to improve grow and develop. We must use the primary language and culture as a foundation for development of the second language and adaptation to the American culture. Real success is growth, and selective acculturation. ( Brisk (2010) page 12).

The impact that the program or school has on its students is the true measurement of success (Brisk (2010) page 10). Academic programs or schools are mandated to reach goals mandated by laws and politics. Successful academic programs will also help each student to grow and compete on standardized exams, but they must also help the bilingual students to grow in the primary language to achieve those goals. The primary language is the foundation that the students can use to foster success in the second language. To help them to grow in the primary language is to accept them and validate their culture thereby instilling self-esteem and fostering an environment of inclusion. Every student deserves a quality education and it is the moral responsibility of the schools and educators to prove that for every student.
When we look at the forms of Bilingual Education programs and how they are developed three models emerge. The models are the Linguistic model, the Cultural Model and the Social model. Regardless of the model exterior motives influence and determine the true goals of the model ranging from social incorporation to language development. The reality is that these models are abstract entities that are far removed from the realities of the classroom and actual school environment.(Garcia, 2009), chap6, p113-114). They can have an additive or a subtractive mission and that determines if bilingualism and minority cultures are cultivated or eradicated.

The theoretical framework for types of Bilingual Educational programs includes the Subtractive, the Additive, the Recursive and the Dynamic. The linguistic goals and ideology are controlled by the political policies of the government and determine its implementation. America started as a nation of inclusion, especially for the European immigrants. It has evolved and morphed numerous times though out its history in regards to its approach to bilingualism. America's language policies have not been kind to the non-voluntary and conquered people's native languages. For example (or what Oghby (1998) calls" involuntary minorities," in contrast to "voluntary minorities," such as German immigrants), Spanish has a much more difficult time gaining acceptance than German did. (Garcia (2009), chap 8, p163). The African slaves' languages were never recognized and subtracted from the equation, while the Native American's languages were repressed and in some instances became extinct. (Garcia (2009), chap 8, p162).

In the 1950's we saw a wave of tolerance and even government funding to develop second language skills during the cold war and beyond. Private entices such as the Ford Foundation provided funding which led to the resurgence of successful bilingual programs across the nation. The Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968 and in 1974 the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of bilingual education in Lau v. Nichols. (Garcia (2009), chap 8, p169-170). But, by 1981 xenophobia had reared its ugly head again and we saw a backlash against Bilingual Education programs. By 1998 California had passed Proposition 227 which virtually eliminated Bilingual Education programs in its public schools. Other states followed suite and by 2007, twenty seven states had passed English Only Laws. (Garcia (2009), chap 8, p173). In Arizona they stated that they believed that they could eliminate the need for Bilingual Education in less than three years. Of course there is no evidence to support their assertion and all of the studies listed in the text indicate that Bilingual Education Programs work. (Garcia 2009 chap 8, p187-189)

In California we have the largest number of bilingual and emerging bilingual students in the nation with over 2,879,695 school children. Of those 76% speak Spanish and 16% speak An Asian or Pacific Islander language. (Garcia 2009 chap 8, p187-177) Our state has been hit the hardest with xenophobia and because of this fear we have stagnated in improving the conditions and success for our bilingual learners in our California schools. In the past sixty years we have gone from innovators and leaders in Bilingual Education to falling to bottom of the educational success matrixes when compared to the other 49 states. With the largest concentration of emerging bilingual students in the nation we face some devastating consequences. When we look at the research by Thomas and Collier (2002) it reinforces the fact that using the home language benefits the minority language student. (Garcia (2009) chap 8, p187) The results of the research also demonstrated that Bilingual Educational programs were successful in improving students NCLB standardized test results. (Garcia (2009) chap 8, p187-188) The research by Thomas and Collier (2002) which is supported by Wilig, (1985), Ramirez (1992) clearly identifies the success that Bilingual Programs deliver.

When we look at Bilingual Education and the number of bilingual students in America the author Garcia (2009) stated it best "... our bilingual capacity as a nation is extremely poor." (Garcia 2009 chap 8, p191) We need to stop falling prey to the racist, stereotypical, fear based politics of the past and prepare to compete in the 21st century. We need to embrace and be empowered by our diversity, it is our strength and we need to use it. The research is clear Bilingual Education works, history also demonstrates that the bilingualism works. We need to look at the past as we prepare for the future. Understanding that English is the international language of business, but business is done in a multilingual world. The goals of NCLB are lofty but attainable, if we start teaching our students using the foundations they have as emerging bilingual students.

References

1. Garcia, O., (2009) Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Malden, Ma: Wiley-Blackwell
2. Brisk, M.E., (2010) Bilingual Education: From Compensatory to Quality Schooling (2nd Edition) New York, NY: Routledge

Excerpt from "A Teacher's View. Education in America" available on Amazon.