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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper discusses the heated controversy over bilingualism, and argues that the intensity of the debate derives from its connection to English as the language of the United States, and only secondarily to bilingual education. It also argues that bilingual education has been proven to be effective and should be continued. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVDebBil.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
discusses the debate over bilingualism and attempts to evaluate the arguments on both sides of the issue. Discussion Supporters of bilingual education suggests that children who can speak more than
one language will have an extremely useful skill for use in later life, while those who oppose it suggest that teaching classes in a language other than English only slows
the students assimilation into mainstream American culture. Says one observer, "If someone had only read news coverage of the Ron Unz initiative that passed resoundingly on June 2 of this
year ... one would think that bilingual education was an educationally unsound concept doomed to failure" (Yzaguirre, 1998). Instead, three reports issued at approximately the same time gave "a resounding
educationally based endorsement of bilingual education" (Yzaguirre, 1998). The National Research Council said "Schools have the responsibility to accommodate the linguistic needs of students with limited proficiency in English.
... These children should be taught how to read in their native language while acquiring proficiency in spoken English, and then subsequently taught to extend their skills to reading in
English" (Yzaguirre, 1998). A second study found that bilingualism, "far from impeding the childs overall cognitive or linguistic development, leads to positive growth in these areas" (Yzaguirre, 1998). And the
third report was a meta-analysis of the subject matter; done by a non-education professional it is assumed to be relatively free from bias, and found that "the research evidence was
overwhelmingly in favor of bilingual education as the best way to educate limited-English-proficient, or LEP, children" (Yzaguirre, 1998). If we accept these reports, which appear to be unbiased, as evidence
of the effectiveness of bilingual education, why is the debate still ongoing? Yzaguirre, who has been concerned about the issue for years, says that he believes the reason for the
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