Posted on 07/08/2007 6:44:42 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN — Put young children who struggle with English in a classroom with English-speaking students and teach in two languages.
Soon, both groups of children will become bilingual and bi-literate with the youngsters helping each other develop two languages, say supporters of such dual-language immersion.
But others are balking at the experiment that Texas lawmakers approved this spring, contending it's turning children into guinea pigs.
With House Bill 2814, legislators created a six-year pilot program that will test a dual-language program in up to 10 Texas public school districts and 30 campuses.
English was not the first language of more than 731,000 children attending Texas public schools last school year. Those children, identified as "limited English proficient" students, spoke more than 100 foreign languages, although the most common by far was Spanish — spoken by 92 percent of the non-English speakers.
"We know that dual language works, but we have failed to articulate the benefits of placing native English speakers in dual-language programs," said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill. "They will learn Spanish or some other language, becoming bilingual and bi-literate. When they are little, you can do that."
How it works
• House Bill 2814 establishes a dual-language education pilot program to study the effectiveness of dual-language education by placing both native English-speaking and non-English-speaking students together in the same classroom.
• The commissioner of education will choose up to 10 school districts and 30 schools to participate in the project.
• The first year of the project is limited to hiring and training teachers and establishing parental and community support for the program.
• The Texas Education Agency must submit an interim report to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2011, and a final report by Jan. 1, 2013. The reports must show the effect of the project on grade-level completion rates and high school graduation rates.
Learning multiple languages should always be encouraged, said Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, although she opposes the pilot project approach.
"I think the purpose behind this is to help bring up to speed Spanish-speaking kids and turning other kids into guinea pigs," she said.
House Public Education Committee Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said, "The bottom line of life is that we don't all speak the same language." He acknowledged that national debate over immigration has triggered "deep-seated antagonism."
The dual-language method will benefit English-speaking children by giving them a second language, and children will have "built-in tutors sitting next to them," he said. "The kids will teach each other."
The Senate voted 28-2 for the dual-language immersion pilot project, and the House approved the measure 106-34. No Democrat opposed the bill. Among Bexar County lawmakers, only Rep. Frank Corte voted against the bill. He could not be reached for comment.
Riddle said she fears the project will dilute the need for students to master English, which is the international language of aviation and a requirement if children want to become lawyers or physicians.
"I think we are worshipping at the feet of diversity," Riddle said. "There's nothing wrong with diversity, but to minimize English as the primary language of this nation is a mistake, and I think it's a mistake for our kids. Kids need to master the English language, period.
"When you lose the language of a country, then you lose the culture and you lose everything. If we want to keep our country, we need to all be speaking the same language. That language is English."
The issue should not focus on immigration because the law requires Texas to educate all children living here, said Jesse Romero, a San Antonio-based legislative consultant for the Texas Association For Bilingual Education.
"If they are going to be educated, let's do it the right way," Romero said. "If we don't educate the children, we're not going to have a viable work force, and if we don't have a viable and educated work force, we're not going to be attractive to the economic development that our state leaders continue to say that Texas is all about."
Eissler said opponents of his bill believe "immigrants need to bend to us rather than us to them."
But he views the issue in terms of education.
"The more you know, the better off you are, is my theory of life. The more we can teach our kids, the better off we're going to be," Eissler said. "The younger you are, the more adept you are in learning another language, so why do we wait (until) high school to teach language?"
Studies have shown that it costs about 40 percent more to educate limited English students. Texas gives school districts an extra 10 percent of state funding for such students.
Only 8 percent of limited English proficient 10th-graders passed all parts of the state's assessment test in the 2005-06 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.
And the number of limited English children is increasing. While they made up about 16 percent of all public school children last year, they made up 27 percent of first-graders.
More than 40 percent of the first-grade children in the state's largest urban school districts — Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth — were limited English proficient.
"These school districts do represent a growing statewide trend, and it does pose a significant challenge to our educators," Van de Putte said. "The reality is that the numbers are increasing. We can wring our hands and say the federal government needs to take care of this. But that doesn't help us with outcomes."
Elena Izquierdo, president of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education, is optimistic about the pilot project.
"I think if done the way it should be, if it's well developed with training and well implemented, supervised and monitored, I think they will have some of the top scores in two languages, not just one," said Izquierdo, an associate professor of bilingual education at the University of Texas at El Paso. "It's way overdue that we do this."
Research shows children who learn two languages at an early age outscore students in traditional monolingual classrooms, she said.
"When you are young, you develop a proficiency in sounding like a native speaker of that language, which is why it's a win-win situation for your English-speaking child."
Most Texans probably are not aware of the challenges facing educators with large numbers of limited English proficient students, she said.
Under the program, half of each class where possible would consist of English-speaking children.
Riddle said children should study foreign languages in a separate course and that schools should not force them to learn academic subjects in two languages.
She also believes Spanish-speaking children should learn English by being immersed in English. Some believe that English immersion is the most effective approach.
Izquierdo disagreed. "English immersion is not as positive. It's saying you are broken, and we have to fix you. Teachers are not trained. I call them submersion programs."
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gscharrer@express-news.net
Ahhhhh!...one can dream!!
WHAT? Bilingual education (normal in most of the world) is seen as making better students... and there is plenty of evidence that children educated in two languages maintain intellectual capacity well into adulthood. There was an interesting study of elderly nuns a few years ago (nuns make ideal subjects for the study of aging... having a similar “lifestyle” and diet). Those who spoke two languages had much lower rates of alzheimers and other debilitating mental conditions as they aged.
That may be...if the languages are that of first-world countries...
Excuse me, but lots of the illegal Mexican immigrants in Texas speak rather bad Spanish.
And I'll repeat...it may someday (also hope not) dominate the service sector...but not Wall Street...wouldn't you rather your kids have a better chance there than at a job where standard attire is a paper hat? ("you want fries with that?")
America is becoming toast and our enemies are taking shorthand at our stupidity.
In Texas I am sick and tired of hearing Spanish spoken at the grocery stores and them walking out of retail stores if the young clerks can’t help them in Spanish!
On a very sad note, we have so many in government now that are not good in English and when my husband and I were at a local new park for a nice relaxing run, he stopped and read one of those signs where —’s— was used incorrectly in all 6 or 7 instances.
Bilingual education is not “normal”, but common. The best way to get non-English speaking students up to grade level is to put them into an intensive English program for 1-2 years. Unfortunately, schools refuse to do this for social/political reasons. Students who take intensive English courses do much better than students taught in their own language or in bilingual classes. However, the intensive English students have social integration problems because they are usually older than others at the same grade level, and they have been isolated for those 1-2 years in a “special” class, inviting baiting by mainstream students. If you’re looking for results, though, intensive English is the way to go.
LOL!
Got that right on both counts! No bi-lingual education or anything else for that matter! This is America! Speak English!
That bi-lingual education stuff didn’t work here in California. They sure don’t pander to the Asians or any other group like this. It is unfair to our kids and the all the other kids as well! End Spanish in America!
I have to agree with that...mainly because it seems logical.
I live in So Cal...and there are areas with HUGE Asian populations...wonder why the choice at my bank ATM isn't "press one for English...2 for Spanish...3 for Mandarin...4 for..."...pandering is the word that comes to mind for me too...
Spanish is a Language that I don’t need to learn, Mexican is a different Language all together, it is like listening to Rap... (in other words Speaking Mexican is to Spanish what Rap is to English)
Now if you want to work at the UN... French would be a better choice.
TT
Not part and parcel of my argument.
Beat my head against a wall to explain once … my fault. Beat my head against a wall to explain a second time, still my fault, but I learn from the second head butt.
So long and adieus! As it were.
Exactly my point...:o)
The school allows none of the students to speak in Spanish during class.
Well at least we agree on Fred Thompson in ‘08!
LOL!
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