Bilingual Education

When a student is enrolled in bilingual education, many people view this as a great opportunity to enrich one’s knowledge and cultural diversity, while others may view bilingual education as a useless investment by the government. The difference in opinions on bilingual education depends upon each individual’s perspective on the subject. In reference to the importance of language, Donald Omark and Joan Erickson state, “Language is one of our most manifest capabilities as species.” Being that language is so important, humans should share the natural desire to learn more than one. In a society where communication is key, our lack of appreciation for cultural diversity and bilingualism is preventing the Hispanic population and the Anglo-American population from forming a unity between the two different cultures. The rapid immigration of the Spanish-speaking population in the United States is continually affecting the increasing needs for bilingual education in a student’s curriculum. Requiring bilingual education within the school system would undoubtedly reflect in the performance of the United States as a unified nation, as well as its foreign relations with many Spanish-speaking nations. Bilingual education would provide an overall growth of all students enrolled in the program as well as providing many generations to come with exposure to cultural diversity. How bad could it be if everyone in the U.S. was fluent in two languages?

A person who is bilingual is simply defined as one who speaks two different languages fluently. James Williams and Grace Snipper state that, “Language is commonly considered to encompass four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When we talk about proficiency in one language we refer to people’s ability to process language in each of the four skills.” If a student is proficient in the four types of skills listed, then he/she will undoubtedly be more advanced than an individual who is only proficient in only one language. Another advantage of being bilingual can be viewed as having more job opportunities, which tend to be greater for bilingual speakers due to the increasing need for Spanish-speakers in the work force. An impressive quote regarding the Latino labor force is stated by Rebecca Morales and Frank Bonilla: “Latinos were only 2.5% of the labor force in 1960; by 1990, they were almost 8%, and this growth is expected to continue into the next century.” This striking data only proves the impact that bilingual education has had and will continue to have in the next century. In future generations, this will gain significance and will be much more essential. Bilingual education is an important aspect of Hispanic-American culture and should also be important to non-Spanish speakers, because it is apparent that they are affected by the growth of Spanish-speakers.

The educational needs of the vast Hispanic population are not being fulfilled. As the Spanish-speaking population continues to multiply, their needs also keep increasing. Bilingual Education first started spreading in the United States because of a decision in the Lau V. Nichols Supreme Court case in 1974, in which a Chinese family felt their child was not receiving equal educational opportunity because he was not fluent in English, therefore the parents felt their child could not benefit from the material being taught, since it was provided in English (Cummins 8). The Supreme Court decided in favor of the Chinese family. It was clear that during the late 1960s, the education of minority language students was highly controversial. Jim Cummins addresses this issue, “With the passing of the 1968 Bilingual Education Act, the U.S. Government first endorsed bilingual education as a means of assisting minority language children attain equality of educational opportunity.” The Act was not prepared for the upcoming expansion of Hispanic immigration to the United States, however.

Hispanics are cited as the fastest growing minority in the United States (Cafferty and McCready 7). Because of this rapid growth, bilingual education is becoming more of a necessity rather than a commodity in a student’s curriculum. Most immigrants that come to the U.S. from various geographic regions of Latin America primarily speak Spanish and know very little or no English (Cafferty and McCready 123). The migration of these Spanish speakers affecting the bilingual needs in not only education, but also in the nation’s economical standings, foreign relations, and many other factors that play roles in the nation’s overall growth. With more bilingual speakers migrating to the U.S., it is becoming essential to the average citizen to be able to communicate to Spanish speakers. Due to this rapid growth in Spanish-speaking immigrants, Latinos are becoming catalysts in changing the U.S. economy. They make up a large portion of the labor force and they especially hold the minimum-wage positions. Since most of the positions that are held in the U.S. are low-income, it is obvious that Latinos are the majority group that directly communicates with the rest of the population. In discussing Latinos in a changing U.S. economy, Morales and Bonilla state, “Because Latinos are so crucial to the low-wage expansion of at least part of U.S. manufacturing and of the expansion of low-wage services of U.S. economic growth after 1973, it is logical that Latino labor would have been overwhelmingly incorporated into such jobs.” Many factory and low-income workers solely speak Spanish, therefore making it difficult for non-Spanish speakers to comprehend them. If bilingual education was implemented and strongly enforced into the school system, children would learn English and Spanish and therefore be able to communicate with a larger percentage of people surrounding them.

Mexican-Americans make up the majority of the Hispanic population in the United States. Due to the competition for jobs, Mexicans have had to accommodate themselves to the jobs that were available to them when they first immigrated to the U.S. In response to the hardships endured by many Mexicans, Peter J. Duignan and L.H. Gann state, “For the majority of Mexican townsmen, life was a struggle. Mexicans moved into the hardest and dirtiest jobs, often those vacated by earlier immigrant groups.” Mexicans had to quickly assimilate to the American way. Since they migrated to the United States, it would only be natural for them to adopt English as their second language. But for many Hispanics, Mexican people included, fighting for bilingual education became a civil rights issue. The English-speaking public generally insisted that English should remain the