...challenges for bilingual children in Elementary School, where basics in math and English are taught, where the alphabet and reading are expected to be assimilated, understood and applied at a rapid pace. Being raised bilingual can have its advantages and downsides. My mother read to me with English books that she would translate into French, and vice versa, and as I was looking at the words she was reading, I was confused. Reading was the part I struggled with the most. I could not put words together without intertwining them with French. It seemed so much harder for me to learn than for other children. I remember my mother’s eyes filling up with tears, as she was told by my first grade teacher that I had some learning...
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...In the essay, “Aria:Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood,” Richard Rodriguez exposes the readers to the nature of being bilingual and living in America. Richard Rodriguez not only emphasizes the sound of language but also the context behind it. Through his paragraphs, he goes into depth about the education system, the public, private, and intimacy language, and how much coming home has changed over the years for him. In his essay, “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, Rodriguez uses anecdotes, strong arguments, and his own voice to successfully argue that bilingual education is impractical, and a child using their native language as well as English in school and public life is not needed. In the first chapter, Rodriguez talks about the struggles of growing up in a Mexican home but when he leaves his house, he enters a whole new world. Using anecdotes Rodriguez states, “I was a bilingual child, a certain kind - socially disadvantaged - the son of working-class parents, both Mexican immigrants” (Rodriguez 322). Rodriguez uses many anecdotes like this throughout the essay to persuade his readers that being bilingual isn’t an advantage. As a child it can be very difficult going to a school where English is the primary language, and so Rodriguez felt that his native language was one that was private. His language was not socially acceptable by others and so he felt that he was obligated to learn the public language which was English. And until he learned English he didn’t feel welcomed...
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...purpose of this essay is to explore, research, and discuss bilingual language education throughout the United States and other countries. It is estimated that throughout the world approximately 6,000 different languages are spoken and that fewer than 25percent of our world’s approximate 200 countries recognize two or more official languages (Grimes, 1992 ). Grimes (1992) also goes on to surprise us with this unbelievable statistic, being that only a mere handful of these 200 countries recognizing more than two. Despite the above conservative figures, data has shown that there are many more bilingual or multilingual individuals around the world than there are monolingual (Tucker, 1999). It is estimated, that there are many more children...
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...This essay will confirm this theory by analysing bilingual’s cognitive affect in memory, task switching and attention and demonstrate how these aspects relate to having a better academic performance. Numerous studies were found measuring and comparing memory, task switching and attention of bilingual and monolingual children. Result have indicate that bilingual consist of many cognitive advantage that outperformed monolinguals in cognitive task, however bilingual experience more difficulty when approaching in verbal and vocabulary task. Overall Studies showed evidence of cognitive advantage in bilingual children that may result in a better academic performance. Bilingual Children and Academic Performance Education is a form of learning and acquiring the knowledge and skills that are transferred from one generation to the next. (Lee, 2009) Academic performance in a student educational journey is one of the most significant aspects in regards to a child’s academic outcome. In many cases it is often promoted that being bilingual is a contributing factor to enhancing a child’s academic performance. In Australia, statistics show that there are around 22 million Australians speaking in approximately 400 different languages or were either bilingual (Australian Bureau Statistics, 2009). As statistics highlight the fact that there is an increasing rate of people who communicate in more than one language, researches are shifting towards the need for support and understanding of bilingualism...
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...The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person Early studies on bilingualism have spread the idea that bilingualism was a disadvantage, that it might help developing anomalies (Pichon and Borel-Maisonny, 1937) or deteriorate children’s intelligence (Eichorn-Jones: 1952). From the 1970s onwards, more extensive and in-depth studies have discredited this idea that bilingualism was cognitively damaging and have shown the complexity and the specific characteristics of bilingual acquisition. Among these fundamental research, we can find Volterra & Taeschner (1978), Grosjean (1989), Romaine (1989), De Houwer (1995) and Genesee (1996), to name but a few. These research have highlighted the fact that Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) differs in many ways from the monolingual language acquisition that has been viewed as the ‘normal’ acquisition of language in the past. In this essay, the main focus will be on the bilingual-specific characteristics that children inevitably adopt when learning two or more languages simultaneously. We will see that to some extent, bilinguals can be compared to monolinguals. However, this essay will be centred on Grosjean’s quote ”the bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person”. The complex linguistic strategies supported by bilingual datas will reveal the singularity of bilingual language acquisition, which cannot simply be reduced to the idea of two monolinguals in one head. Studies focusing on whether bilinguals can be compared...
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...THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE CODESWITCHING IN INCREASING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN YOUTH by MELISSA MAIER BISHOP Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2006 Copyright © by Melissa Maier Bishop 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A wise professor told me before starting my PhD work to not forget my distractions. Therefore, this work is dedicated to my three favorite distractions—my husband Jeff and my two sons, Abel and Peyton. Thank you, Jeff, for all of your encouragement, your support, and your shoulder to lean on and your ear to listen during the past five years as we’ve come together on this journey. Thank you, Abel and Peyton, for sharing me with my studies and for often keeping me company while I studied for my exams and wrote my papers. Thank you also to my wonderful committee who were all so encouraging and patient with me, especially my Chair, Dr. Mark Peterson. Your excitement for my ideas inspired me as well as your belief in me. You have an unselfish and self-sacrificing nature that shines through you, and you are a gift to all of your students. Many thanks also to Dr. Roger Dickinson, who was a great support to me over the past five years and a big reason I decided to join the program in the first place. Thanks to my parents and to Jeff’s parents...
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...English Should be the Only Language Immigration, legal or not, has been a problem for the United States for a long time. In the U.S., promoters of bilingualism have supported the use of other languages for public services, including government documents, hospitals services, voting ballots, and bilingual education. In their essays “A Nation Divided by One Language” and “Viva Bilingualism”, James Crawford and James Fallows claim that it is not necessary to declare English the official language of the U.S. On the other hand, in their essays “English Should Be the Only Language” and “Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language”, S. I. Hayakawa and Mauro E. Mujica argue that English should be made the official language. They contend that multilingualism puts a large financial burden on the country. One specific service in which the cost outweighs the benefits is bilingual education. It is teaching non-English speaking students all school subjects in their native language. However, it lowers the standards for public schools and tends to create a segregated environment for the students. They also point out that the U.S. is a leading nation and English is the most used language in the world. Not forcing immigrants to learn English will actually impede upon their assimilation into America. Without correcting this problem, America will suffer from disunity and divergence. Multilingual government is very expensive. More than 120 multiple languages are spoken throughout the states. To support...
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...Bilingual Essay-Emily Mello Salut comment allez-vous! That is French for hello, how are you? Many school districts are making student learn foreign languages in middle schools instead of high school. Middle schools should start teaching foreign languages to their students. All students should have the advantage of learning to be bilingual in middle school. Bilingual students tend to have a fresher brain than monolingual students. Scientist have proven that students who are fluent with two languages or more have a better functioning brain. According to Benefits of Bilingualism, "The finding gives new insight into how our senses help shape our brains." They tend to have better attention span then other students. They can pick up things quicker...
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...I agree with the plan aimed at making all Puerto Rican children bilingual by 2022 because it could potentailly increase the student's chances at landing jobs and, Puerto Ricans can communucate more with english speaking people . As you read the my essay I will further explain how it is better to make children bilingual. First is that it could potentailly increase the student's chances at landing jobs because stated from the text " ...being bilingual could potentially increase students' chances of landing good jobs when they enter the marketplace. " Though some teachers may know the grammar the spoken language is still not their strong point. Puerto Rican are running behind many Europeans in second-language skills because " According to one...
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...Understanding Language Policy Carmen DeLeon TSOL 500 Foundations of Bilingual Education Nova Southeastern University September 9, 2012 In an article entitled Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education, James Crawford discusses ten common misbeliefs held by many in regard to bilingual education in the United States. Despite the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) who live in the United States, there is still a great lack of interest and concern regarding the education that they receive. Crawford has done an excellent job outlining some of the more common misunderstandings that surround the education of ELLs. The first fallacy that Crawford addresses is the misbelief that the English language is slowly being overtaken by other languages. While it is true that other languages have proliferated the culture in the United States, English has remained strong. Crawford cites several examples throughout history where English has appeared to be compromised by other languages. By 1900, there were at least 600,000 elementary school students, about 4% of the US total, receiving part or all of their instruction in German (Kloss, 1998 as cited in Crawford, 1997). He also points out in his article Legislating Language, Mandating Inequality, that "in 1890, the proportion of non-English speakers was 4.5 times as great as in 1990”. (Crawford, 1996). So, this is not a new issue. Speakers of other languages have been migrating to and settling in the US for the duration of...
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...Ashraf Shaikh English 711 Essay Assignment #3 Elizabeth Spencer 22nd April 2015 Bilingual Education or Not? The debate on whether United States should adopt the bilingual academic program whereby children speaking other languages are taught in two languages, in English and in a second, native language (Hayakawa, 1991). There have been studies and researches indicating the benefits of the bilingual academic program, particularly to the students – such as high academic scores, mental flexibility, improved personal identity etc. At the same time, there is evidence showing a number of downsides to the programs – such as double expense to the government, politicized aspects etc. The aim of this paper is to examine different aspects of the argument on the subject of bilingual programs in schools, and whether United States should make English as its official language. It also demonstrates the argumentative ability regarding the controversial issue of bilingual academic program in the United States. Honestly, I feel that the need to make English the official language of the country is preposterous. Only, because it practically is the main language of the country just unofficially. From a general point of view, the definition of bilingualism is whereby a person possesses the ability of easily and naturally speaking in two languages, without experiencing any problem whatsoever. However, from the context of United States of America, bilingualism has a controversial definition (Fallows...
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...can impede because it is deemed as too much for a child's brain (Lee et al., 2015). This essay will discuss the acquisition of learning a language in infants, an infant’s capabilities in learning more than one language, the cognitive benefits of being bilingual, and metalinguistic awareness. The development of children in speech is distinguished by certain sounds that are mimicked and learned across time. Language is learned primarily within the first three years of life (Ramirez et al., 2017). Research has recently indicated that infants learn rapidly from exposure to language, combining detections...
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...Cahnmann, M., & Varghese, M. M. (2005). Critical advocacy and bilingual education in the United States. Linguistics and Education, 16(1), 59-73. doi:10.1016/j.linged.2005.10.002 This research paper presents the benefits of bilingual education from the socioeconomic perspective based on collecting data from two ethnographic studies of bilingual teachers and their students in the United States. The researchers present that bilingual schooling in which English language teaching is applied prepares learners to be able to keep abreast of economic globalization and international job markets in a global society. Furthermore, they present that bilingual learners are assumed as having a deep understanding of different cultural...
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...Memory, Theories on Language Student ID: 21923613 July 12, 2015 Essay Assignment Exam number: 250391 Language learning from what I’ve read starts when you are about a year old. Learning theory approach to language development suggest that “Language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning.” They give one example in our textbook on page 232 about a mother praising her baby for saying “mama” which means the baby is more likely to continue saying it. Once the baby gets older the learning theory approach to acquisition no longer applies, because it has an issue with grammar. A child that might say “Why he walks away?” could be understood by the listeners around so it makes the theory harder to explain. So we might as well jump to our next topic in language acquisition, which is an innate process by nativist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believed that people shared something called universal grammar. He also suggested the language acquisition device, it’s a neural system of the brain to help the understanding of language. There is also clear evidence from scientist who have helped this innate process they have researched. They have discovered that there are specific places in the brain that contribute to learning languages, and there are certain areas in the mouth and throat that help with new speech. There is also some research on how some languages need a different tone in speech such as pitch to make a words mean different things such as Chinese. In...
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...Lourdes Perez Professor Falknor English 1301 “Latin Women Pray” Judith Ortiz Cofer is a Puerto Rican author whose work includes a range of literary categories such as poetry, short stories, autobiography, essays and young-adult fiction. She was born on February 24, 1952, moved to Paterson, New Jersey with her family in 1956. There she attended Butler High School. Cofer then attended Augusta College where she received a B.A. in English and later an M.A. in English from Florida, Atlantic University. In the poem, “Latin Women Pray” the author, Judith Ortiz Cofer makes it seem that the women’s prayers are pointless. The women realize that prayer could be pointless, but keeping hope alive (being bilingual) they can find a reason to keep their faith. It signifies the faithfulness and devotion of Latin women in church. In line three, Cofer mentions “They pray in Spanish to an Anglo God with a Jewish heritage.” Meaning that these women have to pray to a God that is not like them. She characterizes the women’s God as a “Great White Father” and not as a Spanish one. It may be a representation of the American culture. They don’t speak the same language, they don’t share the same culture, indicating that the women are worshipping a being unlike themselves. They pray to a God that doesn’t understand what they are saying. Despite those differences the women keep praying to him with hope that someday they might understand each other. “Imperturbable in his marble pedestal looks down...
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