Two Languages Are Better Than One Essay

Because of this lack of English education, we fail to assimilate the students to be functioning members of the United States. The way we are able to assimilate students is to create better programs for students who are learning English; that way, when it is time to enter the workforce, they will be able to understand what it takes to move ahead in this country. The article states that “Good bilingual immersion programs provide such an environment by giving English speakers and English learners ample opportunities to interact in and out of the classroom.” Assimilation relies on the need to acquire the social and psychological features of a group. Most Latino students in schools today hold a very small grasp on our language and our social system, which is partly due to the rampant segregation. Because of their little interactions with other social, ethical, and economical groups, they deny themselves to the ability to learn from people of success. As a result, it becomes more difficult for these students to adapt to the world as much as students would if they come from a more privileged school systems. The increase in bilingual programs in schools would also allow the stigma of being a potential Latino immigrant to be alleviated. By assimilating into our culture, immigrant culture will become more accepted throughout America. However, it would be a disrespect to the student

The author, Barbara Mujica, uses her niece’s school experience in Florida as an example of what not to do with bilingual education. Mujica’s niece called her feeling very upset about the decisions she had to make with her athletic scholarship, because her comprehension and writing skills in English were deficient. Although her niece had lived in Miami most of her life the environment was equipped to service people in foreign languages. During Mujica’s visit she observed this first hand; businesses, not just teaching, were conducted in Spanish. People and business think they are helping those who do not speak English, but in actuality it may be doing them a disservice. I personally agree with the author. Spanish has become a second language

Richard Rodriguez, author of “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” grew up speaking Spanish at home for the beginning of his life, and having the great connection with family that most hope for during their lifetime. This all suddenly changed when he entered school. Starting at a young age, Richard was surrounded by all English-speaking people that he could not communicate well with. The only instances where English would be would have been during public outings, and interaction with others. At home, his parents also struggled to speak English making the situation even harder on Richard. Fortunately, Richard had encouraging teachers jumpstarted his English learning curriculum so he would be better equip to interact within his community. As he started becoming more and more fluent in English, his native Spanish language started to drift. Richard began to realize that the connection at home slowly dwindled away as he was increasing his English speaking at school. Richard began to sense a lack of safety in his own home. His involvement in public conversation; using his newly learned language, effected his life so much to the point where he had to choose between

In the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” (1981), Richard Rodriguez, an experienced writer, expressed that “…it is not possible to for a child – any child – ever to use his family’s language in school” and began expressing his past experiences with bilingualism (510). Rodriguez recollects his feelings toward the accents he has listened to throughout his childhood, his “disabling confusion” from gaining fluency in English and Spanish, and the intimacy passing between sounds and words (519). By implementing his personal experiences, he entices his reader into reading actively in order to express how confusing, yet beneficial bilingualism can be. Rodriguez’s audience is focused to those who can relate when using more than one language

The film “Speaking in Tongues” (2010) obtained the students, parents, and communities perspective towards bilingual education. The students interviewed were all mainly towards learning how to speak a second language. The students felt they could benefit in learning a second language or in expanding their home language. In the film, Kelly Wong stated she loved speaking Chinese to her grandmother. Kelly could practice, learn, and get corrected by her grandmother while speaking Chinese. The parent’s perspective towards bilingual education was like the student’s opinions because both individuals felt immersion classrooms benefit the students and the parents. The father of Jason was proud his son was the first in his family to read, write, and speak in English. Jason’s father knew his son would have many career opportunities by learning English at school. Learning the English academic language was not the only proud language Jason’s father encouraged for Jason to learn but also the Spanish language as well. Jason’s father only speaks Spanish so if his son was to lose his home language, a language barrier would form between father and son. To prevent the language barrier Jason’s father encouraged a bilingual immersion

“Empirical studies also show that some immigrant parents sometimes fail to implement effective bilingual education because they firstly, are unable to keep speaking continuously at home out of habits when living in a foreign country; secondly, they fail to push hard enough for education; and thirdly, they try to help but do not know how” (Fan-Wei 115). Often times when children start going to a new school and make new friends, they get used to talking in the language spoken at school (their non-native language). Therefore, when a student starts learning a new language, they tend to practice it as much as possible and start talking to everyone they know in the new language. This causes the child to not speak enough of their mother tongue and eventually forget how to read and write it. On the other hand, parents may fail to make the effort to teach the child their native language because they are so focused on having their child and themselves excel at the new language. This causes a lack of connection or familiarity between the child and language that their parents

His narrative shows this support and how having instruction in Spanish and English allows him to have higher academics. In less than ten years, one third of students attending public schools will not know English when starting Kindergarten. Are schools and teachers ready for this and will push for bilingual instruction? Is America ready for this? As for now, there is mixed perspectives. Having a second language in your background is so impactful on one’s life, providing them with more skills. This is the 21st century and having this skill helps an individual be

In the essay, "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood", Richard Rodriguez explains his opinion on bilingual education based on his own childhood experience. He provides reasons why it would be retrogressive to permit the non-English speaking children use their family language as the language in school. In defending his positions, he provides three ideas to support his position:

The United States is a place of freedom. We are a mixing pot that unifies as one. Many religions, cultures, and languages make their home in the Unites States. Many foreigners see the U.S. as an opportunity to seek better lives and education, but when it comes to foreigners and native-born non-English speakers that do not yet know English, it becomes a little more difficult to go about an average day let alone make a better future. Children in school often become English Language Learners, or ELL, to assimilate to the American standards. It is a hard journey for both the students, families, and the teachers. But, their journey is not taken alone since there are about 5 million English language learners in the United State.

Social interaction, myelination, brain maturation, and scaffolding are evidence that early childhood is a sensitive time for learning language. In addition, children in early childhood are considered “language sponges” because they absorb every bit of language they hear or read.

The Spanish and English were relatively successful in the New World in that the trade economy grew, travel allowed for expansion, and new ideas were spread throughout the globe. However, along with the spread of new ideas came the spread of diseases, expansion resulted in the destruction of numerous cultures and the growth of the trade economy was disastrous for natives.

With nations becoming increasingly connected through mediums like the internet, the world has changed substantially within the last decade. It’s a time where Spanish songs such as Luis Fonsi’s Despacito can top the American music charts, where traveling to the other side of the world takes a few hours instead of weeks, and more importantly, where states like California and Utah are continuing to promote and provide for a growing demand for bilingual education through dual-immersion programs. Although the states have great strides in the right direction, bilingual education should not be encouraged but rather be required for K-12 students. Because bilingual education integrates languages into the student’s lifestyle through instruction, it enriches the lives of children, the adults they will become, and the community to which they will contribute to.

Not only are the parents of the bilingual children, but also some educators worried and concerned about when a child starts to speak different languages in a sentence. Are these children really confused and not able to distinguish the languages that are being used? The confusion may come from the fact that many people are confused between code switching and language interference, therefore mixing up languages is thought to be part of linguistic deficits and bilingualism is the reason to blame. Especially to the monolinguals, mixing two or more languages in a conversation is a sign of language deficit and it shows disrespect to the culture, as well as the language. As a matter of fact, language interference is linguistic interference that comes from the native language and affects phonology, grammar, lexis and orthography in second language output, while code switching simply means that when a speaker uses or mixes two or more languages in a sentence or conversation to another bilingual person (Skiba,

A bilingual child has a specific cultural and social background. As Ellen Bialystok says, the neighbourhood and the educational arrangement must be taken in consideration when speaking about his language abilities. (Ellen Bialystok, p. 1) The factors that lead to his or her bilingualism “influence the nature of children’s cognitive development.” (Ellen Bialystok, p1). Bilingualism is experienced by any human being, no matter the age. Even “at the lowest levels of knowledge (…) exposure to fragments of other languages is unavoidable”. Pure monolingualism is hardly a reality, especially nowadays when books and movies in foreign languages are available and easy to reach by any individual. Ellen Bialystok is right about how children experience “different kinds of interactions

Main point: student should learn foreign language because it helps us to enhance our communication skills.