Essay - Bilingual Education the Sociology of Bilingual Education—an Integrative Solution One...

Bilingual Education

The Sociology of Bilingual Education—an integrative solution

One of the most politically controversial issues in America today is bilingual education. The political debate ***** often framed in terms of the question as to whe*****r America should be a mosaic of other cultures and languages, or if immigrants ***** be quickly forced to join the melting pot of American identity. Two different, polarized approaches are usually used in the bilingual education of children. The first is a gr*****dual introduction, for example, having half the day devoted ***** English-intensive instruction in subjects such ***** reading and social studies, but educating students in more difficult, less linguistically based ***** such as math and science during the other half of the day, and only integrating students with native speakers when they achieve a certain minimal level ***** fluency. The other approach is that of total immersion. Unfortunately, the relative merits ***** both approaches are often lost in the heat of ***** debate, and both have their detriments, ***** the first approach can be isolating and the second approach does not provide enough academic support for students struggling with ***** burdens ***** learning academic subjects in a foreign language.

From a sociological perspective, there is a strong argument for an immersion *****. "Research indicates that racially and ethnically mixed settings can have a positive influence on cross-cultural relationships, language attitudes....Bilingual program graduates indicated ***** the lack of interaction with members ***** the Anglo culture prior to exiting into a gr*****de-level classroom was a m*****jor barrier to becoming full members in the st*****ard curriculum classroom (de Jong, 2006:1). However, concerns about estranging stu*****nts from ***** home cultures have motivated educators create an integrated approach to bilingual education called "TWI" or two-way ***** (de Jong, 2006:1). This shows that "***** education ***** be enrichment education for all students" and ***** "bilingual programs do ***** always ***** to ***** segregationist, as its opponents allege" (de *****, 2006:2). In one such program, students were grouped by ********** own ********** "(the monolingual or the transitional ***** classroom) for morning activities, social *****, and ESL but were integrated ***** reading and language arts, math, and science. Flexible grouping practices were important to ***** success of the program: ***** had access to Spanish-*****, English-only, or bilingual instruction throughout the school day depending on their individual linguistic ***** academic needs" (de Jong, 2006:3).

This ensured grade-level content ***** in most ***** subjects, but still allowed for ESL instruction, and social studies ***** that reinforced ***** home cultures. Also, bilingual teachers were paired with grade-level st*****ard ***** teachers to discuss the individual student's different rates of progression and to create an effective, evolving curriculum that *****ed ***** ***** and traditional academic instruction. It also gave students support from students experiencing similar struggles as themselves ***** learning English in a supportive environment comb*****ed with exposure to fluent ***** English speakers later in the day. Non-native speaking children were also paired with same-age learners in class who could give them aid ***** needed (de