Teresa Watanabe
Dual-Language Immersion Programs Growing in Popularity (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bilingual-20110508,0,3841220.story)
LA Times
May 8th, 2011
Summary: Nearly twenty years after California pushed dual-language learning out of the public school system, the method is quickly growing in popularity. The sudden change of face is based on a growing mass of research that indicates English-only learning may not work as well--despite Proposition 227s assertion. California's dual-language programs have grown in number from about 200 a few years ago to over 1,000 today.
Key Points: Dual-language students are out performing their English-only counterparts.
Relevance: I wish this article would have been around a few months ago when we read the chapter about dual-language education. The research overwhelmingly shows that dual-language is better. Will be interesting to see how Californians respond. They did, after all, mandate by law that classes should be taught in English. We should not confuse majority opinion with the truth.
Learning in a dual-language classroom is really benificial to the immigrant students. They could not only learn English, but also keep their own culture.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there was a research saying that whether being taught in English only or dual-language, the English proficiency of the ESL students were the same. Thus, ESL students could be taught in either way to learn English.
The only benifit that teaching in dual-language class is that students could keep their own cultue, which is very important to these immigrants.
I'm glad to see this, too. I think it is ovbious some students (not all) really benefit from dual language programs. I'm glad the mob rule mentality that initially took away these programs has had a chance to let the dust settle and see the real implications of trying to be "English only" all the time.
ReplyDelete