Billingual Education

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Bilingual Education
Bilingual education can be defined as a teaching program designed for learners who have limited English proficiency in levels like elementary or secondary school institutions. There has been a conflict between advocates of English-only and individuals supporting bilingual education as they battle over children’s English acquisition (Kim et al. 237). According to articles, there are claims that bilingual language does not work and children do not learn English. In other instances, there are different views from individuals like scholars who support bilingual education as a child development program.
Dylan Conger, the author of a journal, Does Bilingual Education Interfere with English-Language Acquisition, inform that a community pressed charges mandating bilingual education be provided to all students. Public schools were required to offer training in two languages if they had at least fifteen students belonging to same language group. In responding to the question on whether the bilingual education interferes with English acquisition, the journal looks at some of the effects induced when teaching students two languages. The research has findings that developing native language can helps construct another the second language. When young people get much exposure to bilingual education at an early stage, they gain a unique academic advantage. For instance, Spanish speaking individuals can learn proficient English when taught in their native language.

Bilingual education is sufficient if the programs become well designed with adequate resources like instructors or textbooks written in both native and English literature. The goals of bilingual education are to enhance a proper cognitive and affective development, linguistic growth or cultural enrichment.
Dylan Conger’s journal also compares the effects of Spanish speaking student enrollment in bilingual education from other languages and find that the advantages are not the same. Some groups, for instance, Chinese natives, receive a different dosage of native language instruction than others like Spanish speakers (Conger 1117). Therefore, there are substantial adverse effects of bilingual education to Chinese speakers than to Spanish individuals. The gap could result from the fact that some bilingual education student may emerge from homes where their parents have a shallow level of English ability. Hence, this affects the choice of school by the parents. The advocates of English-only use this variation in opposing bilingual education, claiming that certain attributes like students’ background could facilitate interreference with English acquisition. The author informs that, there are vast linguistic distances, for instance, there is much gap between Chinese and English than that of Spanish and English. The argument seeks to support the claims that not everyone will receive a benefit of acquiring the English language efficiently. Some individuals will struggle due to interferences from their native languages. Spanish speakers are advantaged because, like English, their language use Roman alphabets, while Chinese do not and it interferes more with English acquisition.
In conclusion the article use data to determine effects of bilingual education on English learners and find that native language instructions only have some advantages to specific groups. The amount of native-language instruction received by a student who enrolls in bilingual education programs determines his or her proficiency in the English language. Spanish speakers are more privileged than any other language group (Conger 1118). In my opinion, bilingualism has general significance such as improving learning skills, reducing language barriers and enhancing a collaborative learning experience. Dylan Conger’s article does not explicitly settle the argument on whether bilingual education harm English language acquisition. However, looking at the positive side, federal or states should invest much in the program to help the student overcome the barriers in the process of acquiring proficient English.
Works Cited
Conger, Dylan. “Does Bilingual Education Interfere with English-Language Acquisition?.” Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), vol. 91, no. 4, Dec. 2010, pp. 1103-1122. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00751. x.
Kim, Yoon Kyong, et al. “Bilingual Education in the United States: An Historical Overview and Examination of Two-Way Immersion.” Educational Review, vol. 67, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 236-252. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/00131911.2013.865593.