Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lanl.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!jlg From: jlg@lanl.ARPA Newsgroups: net.politics,net.nlang Subject: Re: Official Language Of USA Message-ID: <21313@lanl.ARPA> Date: Sat, 9-Feb-85 00:25:44 EST Article-I.D.: lanl.21313 Posted: Sat Feb 9 00:25:44 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Feb-85 05:12:49 EST References: <168@nybcb.UUCP> <924@ut-sally.UUCP> Sender: newsreader@lanl.ARPA Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lines: 48 Xref: watmath net.politics:7530 net.nlang:2569 > [...] You may find it > surprising, but I don't, that if you take a bunch of kids from non-English- > speaking backgrounds (and most likely the children of poorly educated > parents to boot) and put them in an English-speaking classroom, they're not > going to do very well at first. The idea behind bilingual education is that > if you let them get used to the fundamentals -- like reading, writing, > arithmetic, and the discipline and habits of going to school -- in their > native tongues and then introduce them to English gradually, they'll have > far more success at it. A method that is experimentally MUCH better than this is to give those of a non-English background a crash course in English (it's the only thing taught in their first year, for example) and then let them join the all- English curriculum on an equal basis. This works better, is cheaper (you don't have the expense of training teachers above first year in the problems of bilingual education), and it's less controversial. > Personally, I'm enough of a pluralist at heart that I'd love to see *truly* > bilingual education in the parts of the country where it is appropriate. In > parts of the Rio Grande Valley, for instance, most people of all ethnic > backgrounds speak both English and Spanish, and I think it would be great if > the school system encouraged them to be literate in both languages. I've never lived further than 30 miles from the Rio Grande and I don't know very many people of any local ethnic group that supports this idea. Even many of those adults whose own English skills are slight would prefer that their children be taught English ASAP. One problem is that until the overall literacy rates in at least ONE language is seen to go up, it seems unproductive to strive for two. The other problem is that a complete bilingual curriculum will allow non- English speaking students to go clear through without picking up fluent English skills. Even good students may be lazy in their efforts to learn English. This, of course, limits their employment and college opportunities to places where their native tongue is spoken (doesn't really make them equal citizens, does it?). The final point is that children of ages 4-7 learn languages with MUCH less effort and with MUCH greater fluency than if they wait until later. Bilingual education is a great idea if you have LOTS of money to spend on your school system. But many minority schools barely have operating costs as it is. I would prefer that any children I have receive a multi-lingual education (because, despite my residence in New Mexico, I find a need to read German or French in my work much more pressing than Spanish). But the primary issue here is to use the most cost effective way of getting education to everybody. J. Giles