Blingual+Education

=Bilingual Education=

Background:
Bilingual education has existed in various forms throughout the history of the U.S. as the nation has sought to educate non-English speaking immigrants and their children. Recognizing the linguistic diversity in public schools, Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, which initially funded language programs for non-English speaking students. With a heightened awareness of diversity and America's expanding immigrant population, bilingual education became increasingly concerned with maintaining cultural identity and teaching in the students' native language [|(4).] Bilingual education was formally adopted by many school districts in America in 1960's to 70's [|(1).] Ohio, 1839, was the first state to adopt a bilingual education law, allowing German-English instruction at the parents request. Louisina passed a law in 1847 similar to that of Ohio's law. America was clearly making many strides to increse bilingual education, however, in 1864 congress prohibited Native Americans from being taught the their own language. Since the adoption of Bilingual Eduaction in America, the debate of whether Immigrant children should be instructed in English or should they be taught acedemic subjects in their native tounge while learning English [|(3)] Since 1968, when the Bilingual Education Act was passed, enormous advances have been made in understanding how languages are acquired, how language learning intersects with academic achievement, and how these lessons can be applied effectively in the classroom. These research findings – both practical and theoretical – have laid a solid foundation for the development of bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) education [|(2).]

What did we believe before the shift?
Before the shift, we believe that immigrants should learn English as a second language on there own. However as an increased number of immagrants came to the "melting pot" of America there were requests that public schools offer bilingual education

What do we believe after the shift?
After the shift, it is now believed that all high school graduates who are entering college should have atleast two years of a language.

How do we still act that we believe the old belief?
We still act as though we believe that English is the dominant language in America. However, it is believed that within the next 50 years spanish speakers will no longer be the minority.

Resources:
(1 School, Story of American Public Education http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/bilingual.html (2) National Association of Bilingual Education http://www.nabe.org/research.html (3) American history timeline [|http://www.speakout.com/activism/issue_briefs/1182b-1.html|http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/roots_in_history/bilingual_timeline1.html] (4) Should Bilingual Education Continue? http://www.speakout.com/activism/issue_briefs/1182b-1.html__