Bilingual Education
Nowadays, the word "Bilingual Education" is not strange to people. Some people such as
parents want their children to study in the "Bilingual Education" environment, but some
parents don't. The debate is still happenning until now, and people are divided into two
groups: people who go for "Bilingual Education" and people who are against the
"Bilingual Education". They all have their own reasons why to choose a good
environment for their children. Three reasons that people choose can be cutural reasons,
educational reasons, and economic reasons.
First of all, ease of use, money, and wait time are the reasons for the economic
arguments. Some ideas say that "Bilingual education" is hard to (?) find qualified
teachers and waste time and lost opportunity if the children stay with their mother tongue
up to 7 years. According to the critics, the time period that it takes for native language
speakers to move to classes ^ which the mode in instruction is English is about 3 - 4
years, in reality it takes about seven years(1). On the other hand, "Bilingual Education"
can help students ^ find a job easier (VT) because if they know two languages, they will
have more chances to explore the career in translation and interpretation. According to
the article "Bilingual Education", students who study in the "Bilingual Education" will be
more flexible in their thinking processes, more creative, and think out-of-the-box
"because of the freedom of expression they experience due to knowing two languages".
Despite the fact that "Bilingual Education" makes more chances for students to find a job,
the truth is "Bilingual Education" has the cost setting up is higher (?) and has to be
enough students who speak the same language to fill up. The schools have to have well
trained teacher, a low ratio of teachers to students, etc.(2)
Second of all, cultural reasons are the complicated reasons. The bad impact that is easy to
see is "Bilingual Education" can be harmful to our society because in a society that have
(SV) many different kinds of speakers, the discriminant can be seen. "Bilingual
Education" can seperate non-native speakers from native speakers(3). Furthermore, the
proponents believe that students in "ESL Education" will learn English culture (such as ^
Canada) more quickly and become comfortable with peers(4).[You have a one positive
reason here, but you were talking about the harmful reasons. Being comfortable with
peers is a good thing, in my opinion!] Some opposite ideas say hearing their first
language keeps them secure emotionally, helps them to keep their culture, and is easy to
learn and to read in the language that the students can understand. Moreover, the ideas
say that "it's more important students to develop their own culture and be secure in their
backgrounds and nationalities" but the truth is the students can still keep their native
language by talking to their family members in their native language and nothing can be
changed if students love their culture and believe in it. Moreover, students who study in
"Bilingual Education" just have only one culture in a classroom but "ESL Education" has
many cultures in a classroom so it will be better if the students go to the ESL class
because they can study more cultures from their friends(5).
Third of all, educational arguments are the most important reason. If students study in
"Bilingual Education", they will feel hard to build up their speaking and their vocabulary.
Besides, studying two languages at the same time requires a lot of time and work, and
also takes time to be fluent in both two languages. In the proponents' opinions for
"Bilingual Education", they think it's easy (PV) to help people who don't know the
second language and it will be more easy (VT) to do homework. Despite being easy to do
homework and helping people, some students still can not finish their homework, and
they are stressed because they have to do a lot of stuffs for both two languages'
homework. According to the statistics, more students drop out when they are enclosed in
^ native language only classroom(6) and "most people feel that a drop out rate of 35%
doesn't justify the costs involved in providing bilingual education(7)."
"Bilingual Education" has its own pros and cons. People still argue about this topic and
they argue about: culture, education and economy. The cultural argument talks about the
unfavourable reason is students can not study new culture in "Bilingual Education" and
the opposite side is keeping culture and secure students' emotions if they study in
"Bilingual Education". Educational arguments shows the disadvantage when students
have to study two languages at the same time, and the advantage is students can helping
(PV) others in community. The last argument is economy which debates about how much
time students have to study and wait, how many good chances they can get after studying
in "Bilingual Education". To be honest(?), "Bilingual Education" shouldn't be apply
because the advantages are less than the disadvantages and furthermore, "Bilingual
Education" makes students stay at their place without open (VT) their minds to study a
new culture, and a new world when they come to another country.