Subject: bilingualism

i ' m not sure why , but i was reluctant to post on the issue of us bilingualism . in any case , i feel obliged to say this as an educational linguist who has worked in esl and tangentially in bilingual ed teacher education . first of all , the entire notion that bilingual ed was , is , or could be ( designed as ) a method for introducing national plurilingualism is a nonstarter . therefore any debates about it using plurilingualism as argument get nowhere . in fact , with out a wish to flame anyone ( because i do n't think it was intentional ) the entire argument that we should stop bilingual ed because of its anti - english or anti-standard english agenda is of a kind very familiar to us in educational circles . it 's little different than what we hear from those who argue that proponents of progressive educational idea x ( e . g . whole langauge reading instruction , process writing , outcomes-based ed . ) are trying to bring down standards , undermine society , do something unamerican , and so on . it is essentially a rhetorical manipulation of the worst kind , based on false suppositions , and intended to push hot buttons . by saying this i am not defending bilingual ed or any other movement . however , i think these need to be debated on their educational merits . why is the argument a nonstarter ? admittedly , there are those in education who propose that students have the right to their own dialect language or what-have - you , and that they should n't have to learn standard english in school . however , they are largely involved in an academic exercise that takes place in the pages of journals of various sorts . they do not shape policy . the avowed purpose of the vast majority of bilingual ed programs is usually to ease a limited english proficient child into the mainstream . the idea is that if they take content area courses in their first language they will not fall behind while learning english . the programs contain esl components that supposedly will allow the kids to mainstream later . some programs do encourage native language literacy and continue classes native language classes throughout a child 's school career . some take very young english speaking kids and put them into these classes on an immersion basis . since usually older english speaking kids in other schools are trying , in theory , to learn the same language the immigrant kids are already fluent in , i fail to see what is controversial about that . it seems to be designed , in theory again , to encourage personal , not societal , bilingualism . the failings of bilingual ed , in places where it has failed , have more to do with poor educational practice than with policy . if kids are arriving at college after say five years in bilingual ed , and are entering esl programs , something did n't work right . to anyone remotely familiar with urban schools , that should hardly be a surprise . now , on a national level i think we should look at us bilingualism and forget about catalonia or the basque country for a moment . bilingualism in the us has endured over many generations in several situations : ( i ) tight - knit religious communities : hasidic jews who speak yiddish , old order amish , brethren , and mennonites , who speak their german dialects . ( ii ) groups who were overtaken , to put it nicely , by english speakers : the navajo and other indigenious peoples ; french creole speakers in louisiana , spanish in the southwest . ( iii ) isolated communities : gullah in south carolina and georgia . immigrants , it would seem , tend to assimilate linguistically over a few , typically very few generations . in spite of the myth that spanish - speakers are somehow different on this score , i think , it would be instructive to look at the case of new york , which is full of people young hispanics who cannot speak more than a few words of spanish - this in spite of continuing immigration from spanish - speaking countries . as a non - yiddish or hebrew speaking ashkanazi jew , i entirely understand this phenomenon although as a learner of spanish as a foreign language , i lament the lost opportunity . finally , i think it would be more instructive to look at which americans feel threatened by the non-existent threat of the demise of something that has never existed ( the us as a monolingual nation ) and try to figure out why people feel that way . why , for example , is it an issue in the west and not in new york ? why is it associated with right and not the left ? why has it come up now again ? is it it really just good old american nativism , ' 90s style , or is there something different going on ? also , why have n't we in linguistics and education done more to communicate with mainstream americans that the whole thing is a lot of nonsense ? michael newman dept . of educational theory & practice the ohio state university mnewman @ magnus . acs . ohio-state . edu
