Quote:
Originally Posted by Senusret I
*standing ovation*
I know that this is slightly off topic, and maybe it needs to be a spin-off, but I firmly believe in bilingual education rather than ESL/ELL programs. Primarily because I've never met an ESL teacher who actually spoke Spanish fluently.
I mean.... yes, the kids are in America, but it's so much better for them if they learn to read and write in Spanish and English. One thing I encountered with several immigrant families when I was a teacher is that just because a school system translates documents into Spanish for families doesn't mean they're actually literate in Spanish. Ya dig? I think these students are poised to have a gift of fluency in both English and Spanish if we cultivate it.
I don't know.
And I don't know how Rhode Island exploded with Spanish speaking immigrants any more than DC did. I am a minority in what was once an all-black neighborhood.
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This makes sense if your basic population is made up of Spanish or English speakers, but depending on where you are, ELL/ESL could be supporting kids speaking a bunch of different languages.
And you're right that one of the big problems particularly with older kids is that they never really had high levels of literacy in their first language.
The downside of doing bilingual ed seems to be in the actual practice, as it frequently is implemented. (Or so I've heard/read) Instead of building skills in both, they seems to stay kind of weak and the program ends up being kind of a track to nowhere. (Not that it would have to be, and I'm sure it's not everywhere.)
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