Should Bilingual Education Programs Be Abandoned?

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews bilingual education programs, including transitional bilingual education, English as a Second Language (ESL), structured immersion, submersion, and two-way or dual immersion. The author states that the National Council of Teachers of English found no research evidence to support the idea that non-English-speaking children will read, write, and do academic work in English better if first they learn to read write and do academic work in their home language. The paper concludes that bilingual education blocks the assimilation and advancement of minority students; therefore, to avoid such situations, students should be placed in English-only classes.

From the Paper:

"However, not all communities are able to provide their language minority students with such programs. As a result, a significant number of English -language learners are unable to accomplish well academically. Additionally, schools need sufficient funding from the government for recourses, programs and textbooks that will help minority students succeed academically. The costs of bilingual programs for minority students are estimated to be $5.5 billion, and for ESL $1.9 billion in. On the contrary, intensive English programs do not require so much funding. Besides, research shows that these programs are much more successful then bilingual programs in providing competency for non-native language learners."

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