Multilingualism

When it comes to the topic of foreign language being taught at an early age to children beginning at the first school year of their elementary experience, most of us would readily agree that it shouldn’t be taught at an early age because, it prevents children from achieving more in their academic life. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what are the benefits of teaching children a foreign language. Whereas some are convinced that a children’s brain can absorb a…

Hannah Kariuki moved to the United States at the age of five and was enrolled in the Bilingual program. Hannah was fluent in Swahili, with a year and a half of the program, it provided her the English skills she needed. Unfortunately, today Hannah cannot read, write nor speak fluent Swahili. The Bilingual program is a program designed for immigrant students who are learning English. There are two main types of bilingual programs; Bilingual Education and English Immersion. Bilingual Education is…

Although some parents have a limited awareness of the scope of their children’s bilingual education program (Lee, 1999; Sheffer, 2003), parents whose children are enrolled in two-way dual language programs tend to have high levels of involvement (Cloud et al., 2000). In my school district, parents play a critical role in program planning and sustainability. Based on parent meeting attendance held in the month of September in my school, parents of students in the dual language programs were…

other language structures such as phonology, syntax, semantics or pragmatics cannot be predicted at all. The third hypothesis expressed by Krashen is the ‘monitor hypothesis’, and it implies that consciously learned language could be used to monitor the natural output of speech when the following three conditions are met: the learner has enough time, the learner must focus on the form and not just on meaning, and the learner knows the speech rules (Krashen, 1981). Krashen (1981) explains that…

Dong, Yu Ren. “The Need to Understand ESL Students’ Native Language Writing Experiences.” TETYC. (1999): 277-285. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. Dong investigates ESL students’ native literacy-learning experiences through written learning autobiographies of 26 first year college students from eight different countries. He proposes that teachers need to understand each student’s unique needs and experiences in relation to writing. Because students that are native speakers of languages other than…

Revision of mid-term essay How do Tan and Baldwin make the point for the acceptance of the multilingual society? What is multilingual? Well, multilingual is having more than one voice or languages. Multilingual was main acceptance in both Baldwin and Tan piece because the society we are residing in today, people are coming from many different culture and language throughout the world to live together. In order to take control over our circumstances through society today one must put aside their…

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…

Why is it that people associate ideas such as class, personality, and overall likeability simply with someone’s name? How can a few letters create such a vivid association of memories, emotions, and more? The natural function of the human brain causes people to associate things with a certain name, leading to the name carrying a lot of meaning. F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes this natural function of the brain in order to add meaning to his writing. When someone changes their name in a book, the…

YES on Prop 58! “To have another language is to possess a second soul” (Charlemagne). There are plenty of reasons for someone to learn second language that will benefit his or her personal and professional life. As a state consist of diverse population with many languages spoken, California and every aspect of its multicolored life is profoundly influenced by that richness. But sometimes in this multicolored state, depending on many things including the political climate, social interactions,…

Language plays a big part of our lives, having a lasting fact about us. When speaking a certain language, it can shape our identity. Having an accent will give people the perception that you’re not around from that area, city-state country. Language can have many effects on our personalities. Our language speaks volumes about our identity. Both Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez “Memoir of a Bilingual Child” are great examples of how the language you speak shape our identity. Amy…