Running Head: THE ARUGMENT FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION
The Argument for Bilingual Education
David Doyle
University of Colorado at Denver
March 10, 2013
FDNS 5050
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THE ARGUMENT FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION
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Bilingual education is one of the most hotly contested movements in
education. It is also what’s makes the biggest difference in teaching English
Language Learners. No topic brings more controversy more than bilingual
education, for the movement stirs politics, accusations of xenophobia, civil rights,
and educational theory and practice. Educating English Language Learners have
two big opposing theories: native language instruction followed by a transitioning
process and English Immersion where students are taught in English and learn
more English through a pullout program.
For the purposes of this paper, comparisons are going to be drawn between
two schools in Colorado: Godsman Elementary School in Denver Public Schools and
Crawford Elementary School in Aurora Public Schools (APS). Many schools in
Denver Public Schools (DPS) follow the Transitional Native Language Instruction
(TNLI) model. Students are instructed in their native language for a total of three
years and then they are transitioned into English. The idea is to build academic
language in the student’s native language and students are instructed in their native
language to give students grade-level material in their native language so that the
students will make the connection between their grade-level material in their native
language and in English. Students receive direct instruction in English for learning
English. DPS had a court order placed upon it to protect the bilingual education for
English Language Learners. TNLI came to DPS after the civil rights movement of the
1960’s. (Aurora Public Schools. Division of Accountability and Research, 2010). TNLI
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was originally designed to be a civil right, but test scores show bilingual education is
working.
Crawford Elementary School in APS has a high proportion of Spanish
speaking English Language Learners (ELL’s), high percentage of free and reduced
lunch and a high rate of poverty (Aurora Public Schools. Division of Accountability
and Research, 2010). Crawford Elementary is an English immersion school (Aurora
Public Schools. Division of Accountability and Research, 2010). Godsman
Elementary School is a school in DPS with much the same demographics of
Crawford (Denver Public Schools: Department of Planning and Analysis, 2011). The
difference is Godsman Elementary is a bilingual education school that follows the
TNLI model (ELA Department: Denver Public Schools, 2012). On the 2012
Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) test, on average in reading,
students showed higher growth at Godsman Elementary (Colorado Department of
Education, 2012). Crawford Elementary is a low-growth low achievement school
whereas, Godsman Elementary School is a higher growth and lower achievement
school (Colorado Department of Education, 2012).
Support for bilingual education also comes from a cultural sensitivity
perspective. Advocates for English immersion education say that if students are
going to be in United States, they should be speaking the official language (Porter,
2011). Advocates for bilingual education say students who may or may not have
entered the country legally did not enter the country under their own free will, but
rather entered the country with their parents. Therefore, students should not be
penalized for the actions of their parents and have the right to an education as
THE ARGUMENT FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION
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someone living in the United States. In 1969, 150 students at Denver’s West High
School walked out of class because of a blatantly racist teacher infusing his Social
Studies lecture with racist rhetoric. The students had hit their limit and walked to
Sunken Gardens Park where they were confronted by police. The lesson is, bilingual
education is as much a civil rights issue as it is an educational issue (Kosena, 2009).
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, students need to feel safe in order
to learn and be productive (McLeod, 2012). If students are unable to use their
native language in academic and social settings, students are not going to feel safe in
school; students feel insecure and ostracized, and therefore will underperform in
their academics. Students who are learning English in a English immersion school
will also devote more time to learning English than learning the core subjects. If a
student comes to the United States from Mexico and is in an English-immersion
school, the student will not be learning anything but English for months or even
years. If the same student is being taught in his/her native language, the student
will be able to acquire English while receiving direct instruction in other content
areas. This approach is more time efficient and gives students more fair access to
content.
Academic language is the language of schools. Social language is the
language of the playground. According to Stephen Krashen, the goal of bilingual
education is to develop academic language in the student’s native language and in
English (Krashen, 2008). Immersion English only develops social language. Social
language is a very functional skill, but minority students deserve every opportunity
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for a bright future, college should be the expectation for minority students, and what
makes college a possibility is developing a student’s academic language.
English as a Second Language is an option for teaching students English as is
the practice in APS. In some cases, depending on the demographic of the
neighborhood, English as a Second Language (ESL) is effective when there’s not a
high proportion of English Language Learners or in a TNLI setting where students
speak a language other than Spanish (Vietnamese, Chinese). The problem with the
ESL approach is simply the sheer number of English Language Learners from Latin
American countries in high-poverty neighborhoods. If 80% of the student body
speaks Spanish, there would be too much of a burden on the ESL teacher. The result
is the ESL teacher not being able to meet the needs of his/her caseload. Hence a
TNLI model with a high proportion of students who speak Spanish receiving native
language support from a bilingual teacher is the best option for these students. The
best-case scenario for a school like this would be a TNLI model in conjunction with
an ESL teacher who can instruct the students who speak a language other than
Spanish.
APS uses an English immersion model in conjunction with ESL (Venning,
2013). Teachers also take professional development classes until they have enough
credit hours for a Linguistically Diverse Education (LDE) endorsement (Aurora
Public Schools, 2011). Teachers shelter instruction, which means that the students
are instructed in English; the instruction is delivered slowly with a lot of visual aids
and simplified language. Through sheltering the language, the instruction is
scaffolded to meet the needs of the students. In theory, through differentiated
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instruction, the teacher can meet the needs of English Language Learners. In
practice however, it is unrealistic that students could receive rigorous instruction if
the teacher has to over-simplify every lesson. For native English speakers, this is
very unfair because native English speakers need to have rigorous instruction to
achieve their potential. In a TNLI setting, students will already be getting support in
their native language; therefore students will be exposed to more rigorous
instruction.
The opposition to bilingual education says that Spanish Native Language
instruction inhibits students’ transition to English. This idea is false because
students will be receiving English as direct instruction at an earlier age. These
students will be receiving content instruction in their native language. The 2012
TCAP data shows English Language Learners in bilingual education classes are
performing better than students in English immersion classes.
Students who come into the United States do not always have formal
schooling where they came from (Krashen, 2008). Some students who come in from
some Latin American countries may have never been in a traditional classroom,
therefore the only educational background these students have is from oral
language. In an English immersion classroom, the student will have no familiarity at
all. The language of the classroom is one the student doesn’t know and the student
would not be able to read anything in the classroom. In a bilingual classroom, the
student would have the familiarity of his/her native language and would be able to
function in the classroom. Eventually growing to be just like everyone else in
his/her classroom.
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A lot of the debate over bilingual education stems from the ongoing
discussion surrounding immigration (Cromwell, 1998). Offering students
instruction in their native language is seen as losing the American national identity.
These people fear that English could no longer be the dominant language in the
United States. In Europe, most children are taught more than one language so that
business can be conducted from across borders. If this practice works in Europe,
there’s no reason why it can’t work in the United States. People in France are not
afraid of French not being the dominant language if their children learn English
along with French. The understanding is multi-lingualism is an asset. Take the
same paradigm in the United States and multi-lingualism can be asset as well
(Lotbinière, 2011). If the French have not lost their national identity because of
multi-lingual education, it is very unlikely that the America would lose it’s national
identity due to multilingual education.
In conclusion, the solution to teaching immigrant students from Latin
America is simple, bilingual education. Not only is it the most logical choice, but it’s
the right way let children keep their cultural identity. Before someone is
assimilated into a culture, the first thing that’s lost is one’s language. To allow a
student to keep his/her language helps students keep part of their cultural identity.
Data proves that bilingual education is better for English Language learners too. It
really seems that the opposition to bilingual education comes from a political
standpoint. With this in mind, a lot of civil rights issues began as political issues
until people realized that the best decisions shouldn’t always be motivated by
politics.
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Works Cited
Aurora Public Schools. (2011, 5 2). Department of English Language Acquisition.
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Aurora Public Schools. Division of Accountability and Research. (2010, 10). Division
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by School: http://assessment.aurorak12.org/files/2008/09/6.-2010_FRL-bySchool.pdf
Colorado Department of Education. (2012). SchoolView. Retrieved 3 10, 2013, from
The Colorado Growth Model:
https://edx.cde.state.co.us/growth_model/public/index.htm#/year-2012/district0180/schools
Cromwell, S. (1998, 1 26). The Bilingual Education Debate. Retrieved from Education
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Denver Public Schools: Department of Planning and Analysis. (2011, 10). Free and
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ELA Department: Denver Public Schools. (2012, 8 9). DPS ELA Program Schools.
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http://ela.dpsk12.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/1213ElementaryELASchoolDesignations062212.pdf
Kosena, J. (2009, 03 22). West High, 1969. Retrieved 03 10, 2013, from Denver Post:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11968641
Krashen, S. (2008). Foundations of English Language Acquisition. Retrieved 03 10,
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Lotbinière, M. d. (2011, 2 8). France wants to 'reinvent' English language teaching
from age three. Retrieved 3 10, 2013, from Guardian Weekly:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/08/tefl-france
McLeod, S. (2012). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs . Retrieved 3 10, 2013, from
SimplyPschology: http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
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Porter, D. R. (2011, 6 13). Total Immersion: Assessing English-Only Education In
Massachusetts. Retrieved 3 10, 2013, from Pro English:
http://www.proenglish.org/news/mainstream-media/450-total-immersionassessing-english-only-education-in-massachusetts.html
Venning, M. (2013, 3). ESL Teacher-Denver Public Schools. (D. Doyle, Interviewer)
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