Bilingual Education

In immersion programs children are allowed at most one year of English study before being placed in main-stream English-only classes. Proponents of this sink-or-swim approach often site the success of their forbearers who learned English without schools trying to accommodate them with native-language classes. Immersion proponents also cite the fact that the bilingual approach creates a cultural segregation of students. The English language is a tool of national unity, they point out. There are pros as well as cons of bilingual education that you should discuss in a research paper. Supporters of immersion also question the success of students in bilingual education programs. They argue that students never really learn English and instead fall into using the native language all through school. They also site studies that show test scores higher in schools with immersion programs than in school that favor a bilingual approach. The approach of bilingual education is to allow students to study and learn in their native language while they master their understanding of the English language over three to six years.

The argument is that it makes sense that a teacher would want to teach a child in a language they understand until they have fully mastered their second language Opponents to English immersion cite the massive increase of high school dropouts since California passed statewide initiative for all public schools to adopt immersion only programs. Bilingual supporters also note that most students are mainstreamed after just three years of bilingual education while immersion students are often held in immersion programs two to three years longer than the one year term. Unfortunately, politics makes this debate that much messier. In the current political climate of "if you're not American, then you're not important," has all but derailed the preservation of immigrant language and culture in an attempt to make everyone just like us or be forced to the bottom of society. We may also include study findings in a custom essay that show that the vast majority of students are ready for mainstream English courses whether they took a bilingual approach or an immersion approach. The real question is how much stress and hardship does society want to force on children?