Bilingual Education

By C. Mori

When I started my investigation about bilingual education I never thought the debate about it would be as controversial and passionate as it is. But considering the numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the U.S. public school, approximately 5.5 million, which represent about 11% of total number of students, and the percentage of drop outs, about 30% of ELLs, it is understandable that public opinion puts some pressure on the U.S. public school system to adopt the most efficient and adequate system for this growing minority group. The number of ELLs abandoning school has remained high for a long period of time generating serious doubts about the functionality and effectiveness of bilingual education and other programs. Two have been the main reasons attributed for this desertion from classes: the low socioeconomic level of ELLs and language differences. In this context, dual language, one modality of bilingual education, is showing to be able to make students excel in their academic performance and revert negative statistics

Currently, in the United States there are two major approaches about how to teach English to those children whose primary language is different from English.

The first approach is by immersing them in English only classes. This program was first implemented in California with proposition 227 in 1998 and continued to other states like Arizona and Massachusetts where bilingual education was considered ineffective. The argument is that the sooner the children are exposed or immerse into English the sooner they will grow in all academic subjects. Students with no English will be in immersion classes for no more than a year. Then, they will be taught all the subjects in English. This kind of program is not only considered subtractive (Ofelia Garcia) since it promotes the abandonment of the mother tongue, but it is also considered not academically effective in the long term. Numerous studies have proven that the development of the academic language or CALPS (decontextualized language skills and practices), Cummins (1979, 1982b, 2000), takes five to seven years. One year is not enough to develop the same academic language as their Native English speaking peers do in their native language. Also, it is very debatable the claim that ELLs in California have made a great academic progress after eliminating the Bilingual program. For Dr. Thomas and Dr. Collier this affirmation does not show the “contextual information” of the new introduced testing and the performance gap between ELLs and native English speakers had remained the same since both groups achieved the same degree of improvement.

The second major approach for ELLs in U.S. schools is bilingual education. In this kind of programs the ultimate goal is also to teach English. Academic subjects are taught in a combination of the students’ native language and ESL classes, in a way that they do not sacrifice the grade level cognitive progress to gain the new language. Bilingual education in its most common form, Transitional Bilingual Education, has also been highly criticized among other reasons for being more expensive than regular classes and not being able shorten the dropout margins. In addition, opponents of bilingual education argue that ELLs are segregated and delay too much in their process of assimilation. However, in my opinion many of the opponents’ criticisms are unfair. There are different kinds of Bilingual Programs and every school implements them in a different way. Many schools claim that they have a Bilingual program but in practice they have monolingual teachers or not truly bilingual teachers in charge of bilingual classrooms. Also, there are not enough qualified bilingual teachers to fulfill all the needs of the bilingual programs. Furthermore, the most effective form of Bilingual education, Dual Language, is not receiving enough attention as it should be. This program is proving that ELL students excel in their academic performance in the long term more than those students in regular classes. Like in all bilingual programs the student’s native language is used as an instrument to keep the cognitive progress while learning the second language. Academics like Kenji, Hakuta, Colin, Baker, and Jim Cummins, acknowledge the effectiveness of bilingual programs over English only instruction for ELLs. Therefore, keeping their native language is not just a cultural matter but a necessity in order to create a bridge that will transfer the knowledge acquired in one language to the other. The same happens with the literacy skills. When the students learn to read in one language, they can read in general.

In Texas, Bilingual Education began with the Bilingual Education and Training Act in 1973. But it was not until 1981 that the court (U.S vs. Texas) ordered the state to provide specialized instruction for ELLs and set specific actions for schools in order to comply with the Equal Education Opportunity Act. In 2003, there were 630,148 ELLs in Texas public schools. It represented 14.9% of the total population (Texas Education Agency). Over 90%of ELLs were native Spanish speakers. The state provides four bilingual education program models at the elementary level: (i) English as a second language (ESL), in which students are pulled out to receive instruction in English or in a classroom using different strategies to make English more comprehensible for ELLs. This model is considered to be “least effective, most costly, and one of the most implemented models” (Thomas and Collier, 1997). (ii) English immersion, instruction in all subjects is in English which may be detrimental for the academic progress of ELLs; (iii) Transitional bilingual, in which ELLs receive instruction in their native language and in English as a second language. ELLs are transitioned to all English classes in three or two years. About 49% of eligible Texas students were in this type of program. In public debates, bilingual education usually refers to transitional bilingual education. It is considered a segregated model and not as effective as other bilingual programs like late-exit transitional, dual language, or two way programs; and two way / dual language bilingual education, considered more effective than the other programs. According to Lindholm (1987) includes: instruction in two languages, use of one language during periods of instruction, and integrated participation of both ELLs and native English speakers in most content instruction. In these classrooms, students interact and help each other, “sharing their language differences across groups” (Ofelia Garcia). This program is based in the next theoretical principles: (a) cognitive academic language learning takes five to seven years (Collier, 1992; Cummins, 1991) (b) students can transfer knowledge from one language to another (Cummins, 1982b, 1991); and (c) the development of two languages enhances learners’ educational and cognitive development (Collier, 1992; Cummins, 1992).

Research about Dual Language in Houston Independent District, in Texas by Dr. Thomas and Dr. Colliers (2002), shows that Dual language can close the achievement gap between ELLs and native English speakers, while at the same time provides a superior education for Native English Speakers. Where other programs, including Transitional Bilingual, are not succeeding statistically, Dual Language is helping to reverse the negative trend for the ELLs progress. ELLs that are kept in the program until they are ready to take English only classes are able to perform better in standardized tests. Dual language is considered the “Cadillac” of the bilingual education. It is good but also it is the most expensive. However, the cost of a transitional bilingual class is very expensive as well and is calculated to be about 1.2 or 1.4 more than a regular class because these kinds of classes include more specialized personnel, books in both languages, testing in both languages, and also training for the teachers. Dual Language depending on the sizes of the classrooms is even more expensive than transitional bilingual classes. Another barrier to implement dual language programs is the lack of bilingual teachers. If transitional programs, which last less, are having problems to fill all the positions for bilingual teachers, it is going to be even harder to find enough bilingual teachers for a dual language that last longer.

Since all children deserve a quality education, bilingual education is considered a basic human right by most of the international community. Quality education implies an education that truly allows children from minority group to succeed in the future. UNESCO, in 1953, recommended “the use of the mother tongue be extended to as late a stage in education as possible.” Also, in the United Nations’ Convention on The Right of the Child of 1989, was stated that “education should cultivate a child’s respect for his or her own language and that ethnic, religious, or linguistic minority children should not be prohibited from speaking their native tongue.”Most Europeans countries use Bilingual education for immigrant children to acquire a second language and it is considered more effective than other programs. In the United States, bilingual education in its modern form began in 1968 with the Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Act which disposed of Federal funds to schools in order to bring quality education to English language learners. The also called the Bilingual Act was derived from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and permitted the implementation of Bilingual Education.

In my own experience as a Bilingual teacher I can attest the efficacy of a well implemented Bilingual Program. Up to date, I have been teaching second grade, three years in one school and two in the other. Both schools have Transitional Bilingual programs implemented. In my first school where the teachers were truly bilinguals in the lower grades and the language transition was respected, the academic level of these ELL was superior and the school has resulted being Exemplary for two consecutive years. However, in my second school, where the teachers in the lower grades were not truly bilinguals, the students had a lower academic performance, many gaps in their learning and it was hard to make the transference to English. When talking to one of the first grade bilingual teachers about her students, she told me that her goal –and the grade level goal - was to teach as much as they can in English. I have also been able to verify that those students that were good readers in Spanish were good readers in English. They were able to transfer literacy skills from one language to another.

Some parents deny bilingual education service because they are not well informed of the virtues of the different programs. Their fears that their children in a bilingual program will not be taught enough English to succeed in the future make them choose alternative programs. Once I had the chance to be the translator in meeting of a Second grade ESL teacher and the student’s mother regarding the low academic performance of a student. The mother did not speak Spanish and since the child was since kinder in ESL classes and his siblings talked in English, she was loosing communication with her son. He was only listening and doing what she asked for but he as not talking back to her in Spanish. I could see mom’s frustration not being able to help her son. Indeed, ELLs should maintain their language for academic reasons but to keep the family union when the parents don’t speak the second language.

A salient advantage of the bilingual education in my district is the constant training that teachers get and the ways schools collaborate in order to improve and standardized what is being effective. The educational program used in the district is the transitional, though there are four schools that are already using Dual Language. There is a serious conviction that children need their native language to succeed academically. Last summer training for teachers included classes completely in Spanish. The goal was obviously to increase the Spanish proficiency in teachers. And it seems to be that the district is orienting toward the implementation of dual language for all schools since research is proving its efficacy. The biggest challenge is to create a solid base in Elementary schools that allow all students succeed in higher level education. As teachers that look for the best interest of our students we have to keep defending the bilingualism in ELLs and to inform parents about research and studies about bilingual education.

Recent research and investigations are indicating bilingual education needs also a reform. Transitional Bilingual education is revealing inconstant results in its performance due mainly to the different ways it is being implemented. On the other side, Dual language is demonstrating to be a more effective in the long term, and its accomplishment should be the target for all schools with an ELL population. Schools will share an ambitious vision statement as it is for Ysleta Independent School District, in El Paso: “all of its students will graduate from high school fluent in two or more languages prepared and inspired to continue their education in a four-year college, university, or institution of higher education.”

References

1. Multilingualmania. (2010) ”The History of Bilingual Education as a Civil Right in the United States – Part Three.” Multilinguamania. Retrieved from: http://multilingualmania.com/the-history-of-bilingual-education-as-a-civil-right-in-the-united-states-part-three/

2. Lara-Alecio, Rafael. Galloway, Martha. Mahadevan, Lakshm. Mason, Ben. Irvy, Beverly. Brown, Genevieve. (January, 2005). “Texas Dual Language Program Cost Analysis.” Retrieved from: http://ldn.tamu.edu/Archives/CBAReport.pdf

3. Thomas, Wayne. Collier, Virginia. (October 2003). “The Multiple Benefits of Dual Language.” Educational Leadership, vol.61. Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el200310_thomas.pdf

4. Garcia, Ofelia. (2010). “Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective.” Malden, MA: Wiley – Blackwell.

5. Hart, Patricia. (2008). “Dual Language Solves Bilingual Education Failures.” In The Gale Group (Ed), Bilingual Education, pp. 75 - 81. Farmington Hills, MI: Christine Nasso.

6. Collier, Virginia. Thomas, Wayne. (2004) “The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All.” NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2:1. Retrieved from: http://njrp.tamu.edu/2004/PDFs/Collier.pdf

7. William, Margaret. (September 2009). “Teach ESL Students in Native Language or Through English Immersion.” Suite101.com. Retrieved from: http://www.suite101.com/content/us-bilingual-education-controversy-continues-a148086

8. Rossel, Cristine. (Sepetember, 2009). “It is Time to Replace Texas’ Bilingual Education Policy.” Houston Chronicle. Retrieved from: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6601746.html

9. Hamilton. Kendra. (April 2007). “Bilingual or Immersion.” Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, vol. 23 (5), pp. 1-5.

10. Sauto-Manning, Mariana. (2008). “English Should Not Replace a Child’s Native Language.” In The Gale Group (Ed), Bilingual Education, pp. 35 - 41. Farmington Hills, MI: Christine Nasso.