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Bilingual Education Problems

Bilingual education was developed in the 1960s in schools where at least 20 children spoke the same foreign language and were found to be limited English proficient (LEP), and the program has become massive since then, costing in 1995 some $250 million and serving 350,000 LEP students nationwide. This cost and the high Hispanic dropout rate led many to question the effectiveness of bilingual education.

Bilingual education is a system utilized in many school systems whereby immigrant students are taught in both English and their own language on the theory that while they are learning English in one class, they can still be learning other subjects in their own language. The system has come under increasing fire because of the perception that it has failed to overcome the language differences, leaving children unable to speak English and also disenchanted with the whole learning experience. This has contributed to high dropout rates and the general failure of the educational system. The public has started turning against such programs, as can be seen in the recent vote for Proposition 227 in California to eliminate bilingual education in favor of an immersion program to teach English to immigrant students during the first year. Bilingual education created a number of problems which must be addressed now that the program is ending, and immersion may not be effective if the same problems persist, such as wrongly labeling foreign students as in need of special education.

According to James Lyon, executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) in Washington, D.C., such programs are necessary: "ÆWithout bilingual education,Æ says Lyon, æstudents are disproportionately sent to special education classes or held back because they cannot complete the academic requirementsÆ" (Salas-Rojas PG). Of course, a solution to this is to stop sending these students to special education c

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Bilingual Education Problems. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:02, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1712819.html