English Should Remain The Primary Language

The introduction of English immersions programs are claimed to raise performance and result in higher test scores. For example, Ken Noonan, a superintendent of schools in Oceanside, California, and founder of the California Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE), which for years actively campaigned for bilingual education, he states “After one year of implementing English immersion, the district achieved amazing results in English-administered state tests. Specifically, Spanish-speaking students achieved dramatic academic gains in reading and writing, where the district had reduced class size to twenty and implemented phonics reading instruction. Limited-English second graders, taught only in English, scored at the thirty-second percentile …show more content…
In accordance to John Hewko, an attorney and recently a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, English should remain the primary language of the United States; furthermore, assimilation is an important topic emphasized in his article. Boundaries relating to speaking a native language at home and English being entirely spoken at school are stated by Hewko (Hewko,“English Should Remain the Primary Language of the United States”). His reference is logical to the topic of immigrants assimilating to American society. Immigrants can still uphold their culture by expressing their language in places such as home and church(Hewko,“English Should Remain the Primary Language of the United States”). However, pertaining to the educational atmosphere, the main use of the English language can help immigrants assimilate effectively to American culture, maintaining the ability to communicate in English , while not downcasting native …show more content…
First, the priority of this program must be taken into consideration. It can be argued that investing money into this particular program is tilted more towards immigrants than U.S. citizens on a fairness scale (Jones, “Illegal Immigrants Are Often Treated More Fairly than U.S. Citizens”). For instance, Arlene Jones, a resident of Chicago and a featured columnist for the Austin Weekly News, the top weekly newspaper serving the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, evaluates the so called “chopping block” that unemployed americans face in the occupation field (Jones, “Illegal Immigrants Are Often Treated More Fairly than U.S. Citizens”). High spending that is funded towards programs that aid immigrants, overall increases the unemployment rate of the United States. Jones analyzes the unfairness that has taken place in a local chicago public school. Jones explains, “When the time came to go to school, the Hispanic parents were allowed to choose a bilingual education program, even if the child is functional in English. Wait a second. If the Hispanic children are getting bilingual education, shouldn't the black kids be getting the same opportunity to become bilingual by learning Spanish at the same time the Hispanic children are learning English? Where is the fairness”(Jones, “Illegal Immigrants Are Often Treated More Fairly than U.S. Citizens”)? As stated previously, immigrants feel as