Abstract/What I Have Learned

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to explore role of bilingual education in the lives of immigrant students and the children of immigrants in the American education system. Data were collected from numerous secondary sources, census data and an interview with the supervisor of a bilingual education program at an urban New Jersey school with a large Hispanic population. Researched revealed a deeper understanding history of bilingual education in the United States; the problems faced by bilingual education programs in the era of No Child Left Behind where a straight transition to English is preferred; and the specific problems that urban schools encountered. In conclusion, I have attempted to detail why, despite its expense and the difficulty to initiate it, Two-Way Bilingual Education would be the best method to ensure an equitable and effective education for all students in a changing America.


What I Have Learned From the Project

Without a doubt, the most important thing I have learned from working on the community inquiry project is the expansive nature of bilingual education programs. It never occurred to me that there could be quite so many different models. Yet this makes a lot of sense. Quite simply, different communities, with students of differing cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, require a different type of program.

The problems faced by LEP students in an urban area also proved eye-opening. One is given the impression that, once an immigrant masters the English language they can achieve anything in America. Yet here we see the poverty of their surroundings holding them back. During the interview I gave at Perth Amboy High, I heard of several exceptional students who had completed the bilingual education program who could not afford college, or whose legal status meant that they were not eligible for any kind of funding. Surely, I thought, by preventing these kids such an opportunity we are removing future doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs from ever gaining the skills they need to make the country a better place; all because their parents, not them, came to America the only way they could afford to, to give those very children such opportunities.

Something else that struck me was the opposition to bilingual education in the United States. I can appreciate that there is a need to save money – bilingual education in its maintenance forms being more expensive than transitional and ESL education – but the opposition at the state level over the past twenty years was surprising. Even the most liberal of states have passed laws either making English the only form of instruction, or allowing schools to opt out of bilingual education, even if they have a large number of immigrant students to accommodate. While it never made it into my final project for both length and thematic reasons, the vehemence of many towards immigrant English learners is shocking. More to the point, the anger at the fact that schools have to provide an education for illegal immigrants was shocking. Yes, it is expensive, but should these children be denied an education because of what was no doubt a very difficult decision made by their parents?

Perhaps my conclusion – that Two-Way Bilingual Education, in which all students are taught in two languages to guarantee proficiency in both groups and to foster a sense of togetherness within the school – is unrealistic and expensive. However, the aim of the project was to pose a solution to the problem of creating an equitable education for all students and there can be no doubt that this would be the best way to achieve this kind of equality of opportunity.