Ecuador's bilingual education policy

Ecuador's bilingual education policy encourages intercultural exchange, and should be used as a model for teaching Spanish-speaking immigrants in the United States. In America, the focus of bilingual education is acculturization into mainstream society by forcing the student to become a monolingual English speaker. In contrast, Ecuador's educational system aims at social integration by "extending higher status to the culturally second language" (Minaya-Rowe, 1980, p. 18). The American system is inherently exclusionary, and results in a significant portion of the population believing themselves linguistically disadvantaged. Ecuador's system is inclusionary, and maintains two national languages.

Ecuador is a country of racial and ethnic diversity. Its 1982 census recorded a population of roughly 8 million residents. Approximately four million people inhabited the coastal region, another four million live in the highlands, over 300,000 inhabit the oriental region, and approximately 6,000 reside in the Galapagos Islands. The largest ethnic category is the mestizo groups consisting of those of Spanish and Indian descent. Indians are 25 percent of the population, whites 20 percent, and blacks 4 percent (Swett and Toral, 1988, p. 239).

The Ecuadorian mestizo groups comprise 51 percent of the population (Swett and Toral, 1988, p. 239). The socio-ethnic category "mestizo" implies that a person is a social product of "espanoles" and "nativos." Therefore, a mestizo does n

Related Essays

Protocol Between Peru & Ecuador The purpose of this research is t .... The result, as Erickson, et al., state, has been a persistent feeling in Ecuador of unfair treatment in the international community: "[S]ince 1952, the border .... (5379 22 )

Spanish & English Grammar SPANI .... There are Academias Correspondientes in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Chile .... In English, plurals are marked with the addition of an s; fi boy .... (2944 12 )

Rescued document .... 21, 2002, the seventh Summit of the Americas will occur in Quito, Ecuador. .... Congressional Testimony, Mar 31, 1998, 1-7. Handleman, S. Summit of the Americas .... (713 3 )

Protecting the American Crocodile .... population living in South American countries like Belize, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and .... The Indians placed bait in an "S"-shaped bend at the far end of .... (1564 6 )

Patient Profiles .... pneumoniae - pneumonia Treatment: Cefazolin, vancomycin or erythromycin Remarks: S. Pneumoniae is spread from .... Illness began 1 day after returning from Ecuador. .... (3231 13 )

arts of the country, the Spanish and Quechua languages are being consolidated, rules of written syntax are being established, and new literary styles are developing (Yanez Cossio, 1991, p. 64). Critics warn that the success of the "Macac" model would require a social revolution and unprecedented cooperation from the dominant, Spanish-speaking society. Supporters of the "Macac" model insist that such a social revolution is necessary "to meet the aspirations of the indigenous peoples, and to permit the integrated development of the country as a whole" (p. 61). The success of the "Macac" program in Ecuador is critical because a significant portion of that country's rural population is excluded from education. Therefore, the educational component of the "Macac" program focuses on youths between the ages of 10 and 15 years. Education is not universal in Ecuador. The most recent data indicates that 25 percent of children aged 6-12 do not attend school. The proportion is higher in rural areas (40 percent) and lower in urban areas (10 percent). Grades 1-6 experience a dropout rate of 57 percent, with the rural rate (75 percent) much higher than the urban rate (33 percent). The government began making concerted efforts to stren

Category: Foreign - E