What is Bilingual Education
Bilingual education involves disseminating academic content using two languages, in this case, English as the dominant language and Spanish as a second language for Latin@ and non-Latin learners. Bilingual education facilitates the improvement of the educational outcomes of the Latin@ people in the United States. Therefore Spanish is used in the United States in response to the high number of Latin@ people in the country to facilitate the understanding of the Academic content due to the learners’ limited ability to mastery of the English Language.
The educators teach the learners while utilizing English and Spanish and are outlined in the teaching models and lesson plans, making it a dual language immersion. Therefore, Bilingual education is a path to bilingualism, facilitating the cultural acceptance of foreign languages by providing a multidirectional view at the societal, school, family, disciplinary and individual levels for all residents in the United States (Musmar). This paper addresses the controversial bilingual education in the United States, which has been caused by the high Latin@ population in the country, as provided by the Bilingual Education Act of 1968.
Bilingual Immersions
Two-level bilingual immersions involve the provision of literacy and content instructions to all learners in Spanish and English. This is the type of bilingual education used in the United States; hereby, the educators are trained to understand both English and Spanish and disseminate this ability to the learners. The majority of the programs in the United States deliver academic content in Spanish and English, improving academic achievement and cultural awareness. Therefore the bilingual education is disseminated.
The educator instructs the learner in Spanish but can understand questions in English and Spanish but uses Spanish as the official language of communication in the class (Sung et al.). The learner continues to take language improvement and literacy in English, as they apply the skills taught in Spanish teaching in the form of language instructions and Spanish grammar. The educator can then disseminate other lessons with the use of the Spanish Language.
The use of two-level bilingual immersions with English and Spanish affords equal educational outcomes and the equity required in the various learning environment. However, one of the most common cases against the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 is the Americanization of Latin@ communication. Despite this, the act continues to make it easier for the learners to understand other languages, thus creating a multi-lingual society. Therefore, globalization facilitates globalization through cultural awareness and the cross-cultural interaction facilitated among the people who use different languages.
This is due to the facilitation of automatic adaption of the new language through the educational framework. This has been attributed to the brain section responsible for the encouragement of spatial growth and the learning of new ideas. Therefore bilingual education trains the brain early on, increasing their ability to multitask and facilitate new and exciting aspects of life. This facilitates the understanding of the world, as the learners are opened up to various cultures and people through cultural awareness facilitating global integration. Therefore, bilingual education has cognitive benefits to the learner.
It exposes them to the direct impact of education in everyday life as Spanish Language learning directly benefits their social interaction among people of different cultures. This is because bilingual education introduced internal conflict and facilitates the learner’s resolution, thus strengthening the cognitive muscles. In general, bilingual education promotes the individuals’ knowledge base and their thinking capacity with the awareness of the way of thinking of other people. Bilingualism enables the individual to boost the individual’s ability to analyze, learn, and reason, thus allowing them to be more effective critical thinkers. Therefore, multi-lingual education promotes receptivity to ideas.
Impact of Bilingualism
The ability to use two languages makes the various social norms and cultural, thus enabling understanding other people’s points of view. This is through the broadening of the prospective through respect and values, thus reducing the collaboration. Therefore, bilingual education facilitates the individual’s ability to appreciate other cultures, thus facilitating open-mindedness and awareness of the cultural differences in society. Bilingual education concerning the Latin@ population in the United States increases their respect and understanding of those cultures (Thayer).
It also facilitates creating a solid memory stretch in their capability with superior ability to accommodate a vast range of information. This is evident in the learners’ performance as the standardized tests portray analytical skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving ability, thus facilitating their ability to understand abstract concepts. Therefore bilingual education facilitated the creation of a competitive society. In addition to this, it encouraged the resistance to dementia as it improves the ability to achieve higher levels of brain dysfunction. Therefore, the promotion of cognitive skills has long-term health benefits to the individual and neurotic diseases like Parkinson’s disease.
The cultural level interconnectedness as the world changes rapidly due to the use of social media facilitating the creation of economic opportunities, primarily through e-commerce and other forms of internet use. In addition to this, the executive function of the individual’s brain function facilitates problem-solving, mentally demanding tasks, and planning. Therefore, the individual can apply relevant information encouraging critical thinking and effective problem solving, promoting academic performance.
Therefore, both Latin@ and non-Latin@ learners in the United States can learn the Spanish language facilitates their ability to communicate with more people. Thus teaching in Spanish in American schools facilitates the expansion of the overall cultural awareness in American schools, facilitating the comprehensive understanding and appreciation of English and Spanish languages and cultures.
In addition to this, the learners develop language skills promoting the facilitation of skills, as they are exposed to different sets of grammatical. Therefore the all learners have an academic advantage to the learners through cognitive improvement. This facilitates the expansion of employment opportunities and facilitates career expansion by improving the individual’s ability to understand various views of ideas in society.
Furthermore, the overall improvement indirectly benefits the individual while pursuing a creative endeavor (Thayer). Therefore the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 effectively achieves the aim of improving the learner’s proficiency in the English language while providing them with expertise and comfort.
Bilingual Education Benefits
Despite the benefits, there are difficulties in the learners’ development attributed to bilingual education. This is because teaching Spanish in American schools makes it difficult for the Latin@ immigrants to assimilate into the American culture. The Latin@ immigrant’s adaption to the American culture would require them to sacrifice and substitute their dominant language for the English language.
Therefore, Spanish teaching in American schools creates a cultural difference rather than bridging it, as it makes it difficult for the Spanish learners while studying other subjects like Math and other Sciences (Sung et al.). Therefore, the earners solve their problems in the Spanish language as the dominant language, reducing their ability to understand the English language. Therefore Bilingual education is an ineffective way of enhancing cultural integration in society.
Read Also: Language Learning and Multilingualism
Negative Consequence of Bilingual Education
Time Consumption
Another negative consequence of teaching English and Spanish Language is that it reduces their ability to focus on their careers. The learners tend to spend a significant amount of their time on the second language, thus reducing the ability to spend strengthening their weaknesses in other subjects. Therefore, Bilingual education inhibits specialization in various skills relevant to their future career prospects, inhibiting them from achieving ambitious career prospects.
This increases the schools’ dropout rates as the learners get less enthusiastic than education, which would be less likely to happen in a monolingual educational system (Fiala-Butora). In addition to this, learning another language other than the mother tongue may be frustrating and causing a negative attitude towards education in general, which negatively impacts educational outcomes.
Shortage of Teachers
Furthermore, teaching the Spanish language in American schools induces a shortage of teachers who have proficiency in both languages. Bilingual education has adverse impacts on the labor force in the education system that is not readily available (Maximova et al.). This reduces the learners’ capabilities as the Spanish teachers are not readily available. Finally, the attempt to support bilingual education is more expensive to sustain than the use of a single language. This is because it increases the demand for both the teachers and infrastructure, which has not mitigated technological advancement.
Identity Loss
Another adverse effect of bilingual education is that it leads to the loss of identity as it makes cultural integration difficult. This occurs through the perception and mental flexibility for the Latin@ immigrants and thus retraction (Maximova et al.). This is the insinuation of the commitment to the adaption of the various forms of education. Cultural integration and immigrations are difficult conversations in society, something that Bilingual education has failed to fix.
Inconsistency
Bilingual education programs have been inconsistent over time in the United States. Therefore bilingual education affects the individual’s academic career across their lifetime. Additionally, bilingual education through target-language content, for example, when the educator instructs the learners in Spanish while teaching mathematic concepts. The learner also loses the ability to partake in sports activities and other co-curricular activities and consequently their overall development. Bilingual education is ineffective for Grade K-3 learners.
Learning Environment’s Stress
Bilingual education is challenging because it is hard to begin as the learners require time to adjust from one language system to introducing a two-language system. Furthermore, the learners also require time to require concepts due to reduced communication bandwidth due to the language barrier (Musmar). This may lead to difficulty in understanding various concepts, something that adversely affects the educational outcomes. Consequently, the learning environment’s stress levels thus learn to both the learner and educator getting burnout.
Bilingual Education Essay Conclusion
In conclusion, the benefits of bilingual education in the United States outweigh the costs. This is because it helps the learners develop language skills and facilitate their learning of other languages. The learners are also able to support diversity and cultural inclusion. On the other hand, it slows down the education system. Furthermore, there is a shortage of teachers who have proficiency in both English and the Spanish language. Additionally, it increases the learners’ workload, decreasing their ability in other academic and social effects.
Work cited
- Fiala-Butora, János. “The Controversy Over Ukraine’s New Law on Education: Conflict Prevention and Minority Rights Protection as Divergent Objectives?.” EUROPEAN YEARBOOK OF MINORITY ISSUES 17.1 (2019).
- Maximova, Olga, Vladimir Belyaev, and Olga Laukart-Gorbacheva. “Transformation of the system of bilingual education in the Republic of Tatarstan: Crossover ethnolinguistic controversies.” Journal of Social Studies Education Research 8.2 (2017): 15-38.
- Musmar, Ramia Dirar. “Bilingual Education between Policy and Implementation in the United Arab Emirates.” Faculty of Education (2018): 345.
- Sung, Kenzo K., and Ayana Allen-Handy. “Contradictory Origins and Racializing Legacy of the 1968 Bilingual Education Act: Urban Schooling, Anti-Blackness, and Oakland’s 1996 Black English Language Education Resolution.” U. Md. LJ Race, Religion, Gender & Class 19 (2019): 44.
- Thayer, Lauren. “The Effects of Bilingual Education on Dual Language Learners‘ Academic Outcomes.” (2021).
