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Bilingual Education Imagine being brought up in a family speaking only one
language for your entire life and then you had to move to a foreign land where
the language is different. If you had a choice of progressively learning this
new language over the course of six to nine years or being put into a classroom
and have to virtually teach yourself the language by listening to others around
you, which would you choose? Late exit bilingual education is a more effective
form of bilingual education compared to the English immersion form of bilingual
education in the fact that there are more benefits and less adverse effects.
There are many reasons why late exit bilingual education should be the choice of
public schools everywhere with high minority populations. One of the effects of
late exit bilingual education is that the students would be able to maintain
their cultural background instead of having to give up one or the other.
Language is a big part of a personfs culture.
Late exit bilingual education
gives the non-English speaking students more time to master the English
language, which is not an easy language to learn in three years as the English
immersion strategy teaches. The findings of the Ramirez team in 1991 evaluating
the effectiveness of English immersion, early exit bilingual education, and late
exit bilingual education further prove why late exit bilingual education is the
one that needs to be used. To look at why keeping onefs culture is important
one just needs to look at how and why this country was founded. The first
Americans from England came here so they wouldnft have to conform to everything
the rulers of England wanted. Immigrants founded this country. One of the
greatest things about the United States is that there are so many different
types of cultures everywhere you look. It is true that one needs to learn the
English language to be successful, but forcing one to give up his or her
cultural background is going against everything this country stands for. English
immersion does just that by forcing the student to give up his or her cultural
background and language (Faltis 191).
Late exit bilingual education allows the
child to progress effectively through the educational system with the
instruction given in English to the extent to make this possible (Schneider,
1976, p. 128.). To throw a student into a classroom that speaks a language that
is not familiar to them and forcing them to adjust in three years like English
immersion does is not fair to the student. A sink or swim technique is not very
beneficial and can cause more harms than good. The English language takes longer
than that to gain mastery in even for people who have a firm English base to
start from. The expected time to master the English language is anywhere from
four to nine years for the average person (Collier, 1992). Time is needed for
development, which is just not offered with English immersion. I was in a class
with three Hispanic immigrants while I was in high school. They knew no English
and were forced to adapt to the all-English environment through English
immersion. As expected by the observers of these students, the immigrant
students passed the class with D-es only because the teacher felt it was the
best thing for them. We need to realize that these non-English speaking students
and other like them who go through the English immersion program will graduate
from high school by the mercy of teachers and will not be prepared to be
successful in the so-called ereal worldf. This leads me to statistics that
further the notion that late exit bilingual education is more effective than
English immersion. These results were published in the Ramirez report. The
Ramirez report contains some very important evidence that suggests late exit
bilingual education is the more beneficial program to use. By looking at the
report it is clear that even teachers of the English immersion strategy believe
that many of the students in their classes would be better off if they remained
in the program for more than the three years that it takes now. The report has
evidence that suggests the students should be provided with instruction in their
primary language until they are able to profit from the English only
instruction. Another important detail that came out of the Ramirez study was
that the home language of the student should be used for instruction and as a
way for parents to assist their children in their learning. Parental involvement
appears to be the greatest in the late exit program.
The study suggests that
schools should explore how they might use the studentsf home language to get
the parents involved in the schooling of their children. Whether itfs from the
Ramirez report, my personal experiences, or the fact that it takes more than
three years to even get close to mastering the English language it is clear to
see that the English immersion program is not the way to go, but rather late
exit bilingual education. If public schools want to prepare the minority student
for the world after high school they need to use late exit bilingual education
and give them the best chance to succeed while at the same time allowing them to
keep there cultural and native language. It is clear that there are more
benefits to late exit bilingual education compared to English immersion.
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