Bilingual Education Essays (1072 words) - Bilingualism,

Bilingual Education ADVOCASY PAPER BILINGUAL EDUCATION IS BENEFICIAL TO STUDENTS ABILITIES TO ASSIMILATE IN THE MAINSTREAM CULTURE English only--sink or swim? Yeah right! Instead of English Only Advocates worrying about bilingual education cost in our school system, why not take advantage of the skills our ethnic minorities possess to move our economy forward? They are obviously not thinking clearly, because the benefit of bilinguals, significantly outweigh the bad. To deny our youth the opportunity for upward mobility and skill to become more marketable in a worldwide capacity is inhumane. They believe bilinguals threaten to sap our sense of national identity and divide us along ethnic lines. They also fear that any government recognition of minority languages ?sends the wrong message? to immigrants, encouraging them to believe they can live in the U.S.A. without learning English or conforming to ?The American? way. That is an overt, racist, and paranoid view, don?t you think? The most significant issues that support bilingual education for students ability to assimilate in the mainstream culture are, the devel opment of students linguistic resources and preserve their cultural heritage, contributions to the American economy, and diversity. The development of a students language and preservation of their culture is essential for the upward mobility of today?s youth. There always have been some immigrants who viewed themselves explicitly as the preserver and savior of their languages and heritages. Since the late 1800s, ethnic minorities in America have been consistently characterized as culturally inferior. Their language right has consistently been the subject of political review. Politicians do not have (PCC(SW) Taylor/16603/Mr. Jones/Small Group 2/23 Feb 00 the right to force people to master their language and values just because they are the dominant society. They should encourage and support students to the attainment of bilingual or multilingual skills. They should also consider that students coming from homes where two or more languages are used will face difficulty in applying while in the school environment. The fact that so few Americans command any other language than English is largely a result of educational failure and cultural inadequacies. The American economy will benefit from bilingual education because historically multilingual personnel are smarter, academic skills are sharper, and their contributions to society are immeasurable. English is the one language that offers the biggest market, the largest pool of talent, and the greatest probability of being able to communicate with anyone on the planet. Bilingual education is a tool for better education that children whose primary language is not English learn more easily. Industry and Information Technology dance to English lyrics. Students will have no future in the Information Technology field if they cannot command English as an effective medium of communication. ?Furthermore, good bilingual programs are about more than learning a language. They should be based on a respect for diversity and multiculturalism, and parents and community must be essential partners.? (Rethinking schools Vol 1. 13, #2.). Over 80% of today?s Internet WEB pages, databases and other enhanc ing computer programs are in English. It is in the best interest of all countries to ensure their children are bilingual and computer literate. Diversity in today?s society is essential to the success of this nation. The lack of bilingual personnel has most recently created major problems for U.S. security agencies. Specifically, ?Of the more than 500,000 American troops deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, the Department of Defense was able to identify just 45 U.S. military personnel with any Iraqi language backgrounds, and only 5 of these were trained in intelligence operations? (James Crawford?s homepage). The statement above is a perfect example of why it is important to possess the ability to read, write and speak in foreign languages. Those who oppose such diversity really must take timeout to reevaluate their philosophy. Their views are closed minded, stupid, and most importantly serve to cripple this nation?s ability to remain a super power. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that multilingual personnel are generally smarter than those who only speak one language. They possess the inte lligence to mix in a wide variety of cultures and share their experience with America. So I say again, why not support bilingual education? Bilingual education gives jobs and local power to