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... for the Children" program was a case of political opportunism and demagoguery. Proponents of bilingual education affirm that elimination of bilingual education serves for other social, political and economic goals; not for improving the level of knowledge of language minority students in public schools. Proponents are sure that English Immersion reflects the political ambitions of a few individuals who are members of the electorate. They can manipulate public opinion because the electorate is predominantly White (or of English native speakers). Thats why a lot of minority communities do not trust programs created by those people.
It was pointed that a mechanism for legal safe-guards of the most vulnerable populations who work at the public schools was not created. It was proved that the majority of supporters who voted for English immersion had no clear idea of bilingual education objectively and reasonably. Thus, those who are most directly interested in this law had no opportunity to participate equally in the electoral process. It is said that English immersion system was established as the result of the fears of the majority that demographic changes will lead to their loss of power and control over the definition of what it means to be American. But the costs of this hegemony may be very high. In 2000, the English Only movement is taking place in California, Arizona and other states.
They try to eliminate bilingual education; but the struggle for restricting bilingual education is a matter of fundamental principals of a constitutional democracy. The right of language minorities to equal access to public school instruction through the use of the mother tongue is an issue of fundamental fairness. The landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared that "where a state has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. " The critics of Proposition 227 are sure that it is an unjust and unwise law.
It causes harm to millions of California public school students. It sets up a system that denies language minority parents and their children equal access to a meaningful and effective education in public schools. The law about English immersion creates obstacles to implementation of pedagogically sound and effective programs for students who are classified as LEP. These obstacles do not exist for the parents of children who speak English. English immersion program can be regarded as discriminatory toward language minority because it takes into account an English-only ideology. Every just society wants to educate all of its children, but English immersion gives different opportunities for the USA children.
As any new tendency, English immersion needs time to show its results. But it seems that parents and local educators are the ones who are really anxious about the results of educational programs. But nowadays, we can examine the long-range impact of English immersion. The University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute (LMRI) emphasized in its report that that .".. at least so far, top-down policy such as that prescribed by Proposition 227 has proven to be an extremely flawed instrument for constructing new policy. " It proves that the new law was more coercive than collaborative for minority students. Its impact on educational outcomes for English language learners is still uncertain.
Most of all, the new law is a violation of Constitution. Several years ago, Professor Rachel Moran from the University of California made an analysis of the constitutional basis for bilingual education. He wrote that the right to bilingual education should be the basis of any educational policy because it helps to limit the ability of school officials to foist on curricular choices. The curricular should be responsive to linguistic minority students' needs. Only in this case it can protect students from biased treatment. Any anti-bilingual education law is a violation of the state and local educators' right to make their own decision as to a curriculum.
A lot of immigrants live in communities. They are completely bilingual and bi cultural. There is a great need in bilingual education in such communities because it is a natural extension of the cultural characteristics of the community. Schools are supported by these communities through their fair share of the taxes.
Thats why bilingual education is a manifestation of parental choice and civil rights. It is necessary to follow the right and give bilingual / bi cultural communities an opportunity to decide how to educate their children. It should be pointed that bilingual teachers are confused with the law about English immersion. The law had a coercive nature and brought a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety among bilingual teachers. Most of all, the teachers can face an additional obstacle - discrimination in their teaching assignments. According to Proposition 227, all ELLs should be in a structured immersion classroom during the first 30 days of each school year; though if parents do not want their child to attend English immersion classes instructions will be given in their native language.
So, it means that during 30 -days that immersion requires bilingual teachers do not know what program to follow: a bilingual or a structured immersion. It becomes clear that the teachers will not be able to work out their curriculum in advance. Uncertainty is the main reason that makes bilingual teachers change their working place and search for more stable environment where they will have an opportunity to teach as bilingual specialists. Monolingual teachers (English-only) are in much more favorable conditions comparing with bilingual ones. In conclusion it should be said that any change in public policy has its price. Public policy demands special attention while speaking about its influence on the opportunities and participation of disadvantaged minority populations.
Before providing some policy, a government should examine all possible after-effects of the policy. Speaking about English immersion, several points should be regarded. The most important one is about its positive role in advancing the interests of the minority group and improving social injustices against them. The next point is about its negative role as increasing discrimination against the minority groups. Such policy can lead to exclusionary practices. It can restrict or diminish students opportunities.
It goes without saying, that there is no the only right decision of the problems that have appeared. It would be better to provide more flexible and multiple approaches to the complex educational problems. Great numbers of specialists are sure that immersion is a rigid and one sided model of education. It does not satisfy the growing population of other- languages speakers.
Having examined all pros and corns of English immersion educational system, it should be said that there are more negative effects of the system then positive. Bilingual system is more valuable and support for students from lingual minority. It was not reasonable to destroy the system which had good results. The other negative influence was on teachers' ability to work cooperatively with administrators and colleagues. They are imposed to teach their students according to high levels of academic achievement.
So, long years of hard work to improve bilingual students knowledge were spent in vain. Studying in structured immersion classes, bilingual students feel a lack of possibilities to master knowledge. By the way, there is a lack of well-qualified specialists who can teach in these classes because it is a difficult task: the level of students knowledge and their ability to perceive material differ greatly. There is another social problem: parents of bilingual students cannot help their children and are excluded from participation in their children's schooling.
Most of all, communities have lost their autonomy. They have lost the right to solve problems themselves, concerning the best way of education and integration of their ethnic populations. Teaching in English immersion classes makes difficult to estimate the level of students knowledge. It is for sure that only several students, representatives of linguistic minorities, will be able to graduate schools with good level of knowledge. The majority of graduates will be English-speaking students. Thats why academic success leading to high school graduation and higher education is uncertain.
The policy of English immersion was called exclusive and coercive. Having estimated negative sides of English immersion policy, we can come to the conclusion: there should be at least two main approaches to the problem: methods and a technique used in the process of teaching bilingual students (taking into account psychological and social aspects); and political after-effects of the process (concerning an equal right to get good education). Evidently, that it is difficult to find the right way out of the situation because there a lot of defects in providing English immersion policy. There is only one hope that its impact on schools, children, their families and their communities will be revised.
The analyses should be depoliticized. The countrys public policy as to education should be changed into the one more wise and effective. If some measures for protection the rights of ethnic-linguistic minorities and diminishing interference of the political process are not taken at once the country will face times of deep conflict and social strife in the nation. Bibliography: Donahue, T. S.
American language policy and compensatory opinion. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Ed Source. Election Brief: Proposition 227 "English for the Children. ", 1998. web Garcia, E. The best of times and the worst of times: Proposition 227 aftermath in California. 10 th Annual Bilingual Education Institute.
Arizona State University West, Sept. 28 - 29, 2000. Gonzalez, A. Beyond bilingualism: multilingualism and multilingual education (Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. 1998. Jill Kerper, Mora.
Sheltered immersion: contrasts and controversy. San Diego State University, 2002. web Jill Kerper, Mora. Comparison of Philosophical Assumptions of English-only L 2: Instruction Versus Bilingual Education.
San Diego State University, 2004. web Johanna J. , Haver. Structured English Immersion. Corwin Press, 2002.
Moran, R. F. Bilingual education as a status conflict. New York, NY: Garland Publishing. 1995. Portrait of the USA. A diverse educational system: Structure, standards, and challenges.
United States Information Agency, ch. 6, 1997. web
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Research essay sample on University Of California English Immersion
