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Understanding Language Policy

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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 its existence.
With the increasing emergence of other languages in the United States, what if English did become "less strong"? Many see this as an infringement on life in general in the US. They fear what would happen should other languages, and thus other cultures, become prominent in America. Politician Newt Gengrich theorizes that without English as a common language, "we're not going to

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