Bilingual Education

According to the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), non-English speaking students should not be isolated in foreign-language classes if they are ever to learn the English language. They believe that bilingual education is closely associated with the civil-rights movement. Bilingual supporters believe that bilingual education will not threaten the English language. They also believe multilingual skills enhance national security and allow us to prosper in a global economy.

In April of 2007 in an Associated Press article, Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich compared bilingual education with “the language of living in a ghetto.” Gingrich argues that the United States should not have to print documents in any other language than English. He further stated that “citizenship requires passing a test on American history in English. If that’s true, then we do not have to create ballots in any language except English.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, California businessman Ron Unz funded an education initiative program called “sheltered English immersion.” This initiative forces children to learn English by placing non-English speaking students in an intensive one-year sheltered English program to teach them the English language as quickly as possible.

The Linguistic Society of America believes that it is easier for a child to learn two languages than an adult. They say that adults that migrate to the United States later in life may never really become fluent in English. They say it is not because they do not want to learn English but that it is much more difficult for them to learn it well so late in life. Their children, however, will be able to