Introduction
The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 arose out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. For the first time, the federal government would be funding school districts that had linguistic minorities with Limited English Proficiency. Those students would have access to programs that would help them gain English-language proficiency. A little over a decade later, however, a backlash began. Critics claimed students would be better off in mainstream classes where they would learn English more quickly. Since then, states such as Arizona, California, and Massachusetts have passed propositions legislating English-only immersion programs. The Bilingual Education Act expired in 2002. In its place, we have the English Language Acquisition …show more content…
Spending time on your first language only takes away from the second language you are trying to master. They give examples such as Richard Rodriguez, whose biography, Hunger of Memory, tells of his arriving in kindergarten not speaking English. In spite of this, he went on to achieve a high level of English proficiency without any special program (Porter, 1996). Bilingual education programs are seen as a dead-end. Because students become stuck in such programs, they underachieve in both English skills and content mastery (Rossell, 2000). It is no wonder, they say, that there is such a high dropout rate among Limited English Proficiency …show more content…
Other metaphors took its place. Stew and salad were spoken of, where one could see a mixture of easily identifiable parts. “It opened up the nature of what it meant to be American and cast doubt on the important role that language played in bringing together the nation” (Porter, 1996, p. 159). Assimilation was no longer a positive term, but a derogatory one. Bilingual education had a bicultural agenda attached to it. The English-only initiatives are seen as an important corrective to a high-cost policy gone awry that opinion polls show the public does not
The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 arose out of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. For the first time, the federal government would be funding school districts that had linguistic minorities with Limited English Proficiency. Those students would have access to programs that would help them gain English-language proficiency. A little over a decade later, however, a backlash began. Critics claimed students would be better off in mainstream classes where they would learn English more quickly. Since then, states such as Arizona, California, and Massachusetts have passed propositions legislating English-only immersion programs. The Bilingual Education Act expired in 2002. In its place, we have the English Language Acquisition …show more content…
Spending time on your first language only takes away from the second language you are trying to master. They give examples such as Richard Rodriguez, whose biography, Hunger of Memory, tells of his arriving in kindergarten not speaking English. In spite of this, he went on to achieve a high level of English proficiency without any special program (Porter, 1996). Bilingual education programs are seen as a dead-end. Because students become stuck in such programs, they underachieve in both English skills and content mastery (Rossell, 2000). It is no wonder, they say, that there is such a high dropout rate among Limited English Proficiency …show more content…
Other metaphors took its place. Stew and salad were spoken of, where one could see a mixture of easily identifiable parts. “It opened up the nature of what it meant to be American and cast doubt on the important role that language played in bringing together the nation” (Porter, 1996, p. 159). Assimilation was no longer a positive term, but a derogatory one. Bilingual education had a bicultural agenda attached to it. The English-only initiatives are seen as an important corrective to a high-cost policy gone awry that opinion polls show the public does not