Bilingual Education: Benefit in Today’s World

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Table of Contents

Introduction
U.S. Residents Have the Legal Right to Learn and Speak Any
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Richard Rodriguez wrote an article under the title of “Bilingual Education: Outdated and Unrealistic” in which he criticizes bilingual education. He considers bilingual education a form of separation in the society. He also sees it as a negative result of “the civil rights movement of the 1960s”. In his opinion, all U.S. residents must learn and speak one language only which is English. And that’s because (in his opinion) it is the language of the United States.

The author claims that English is the only language that can ensure better chances in life and also better jobs. He totally disagrees with any form of “Bilingualism” in life (Rodriguez 457-60). Those opinions don’t fit with the laws and the values of the United States of America. Also, bilingual education can be useful in many fields in life. Studies have proved that bilingual education enhances mental abilities and improves the skills of students in schools.

U.S. Residents Have the Legal Right to Learn and Speak Any

Language They Want

“The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has guaranteed freedom of religion and required that Congress shall pass no law abridging the freedom of speech” (Reyhner). Fighting bilingual education is a serious violation to the freedom of speech. In most cases, the language is a part of any culture in the world, and preventing bilingual education can have a negative effect on many cultures in the United States.

Thus, the United States will become a country with only one language and one culture. In the federal Constitution, there is no specific official language, and that makes it legal for everyone to learn and speak any language he/she wants. European colonists who arrived to America never focused on deciding an official language. Forcing American citizens to use one language is a new way of slavery. The reasons that made English the mainstream language in the United States were the “forces of the marketplace and mass communication” (Reyhner).

The Language Diversity Inside One Country Is Beneficial

Many “multi-national corporations” inside the United States demand employees who have the ability to speak more than one language. And this means that Bilingual education is a priority for getting better chances in employment (Reyhner).

Interestingly, there are some countries in the world that have multiple major languages, but they have no problems about that. Switzerland is an example. Switzerland’s major languages are German, French and Italian (Reyhner).

Bilingual Education Enhances Mental Abilities and Improves Students’ Skills

According to many researches, it was found that people who study with bilingual education programs show better mental abilities than people who study with “monolingual” education programs. The results can be noticed with children and older people. Bilingual education enhances mental abilities in many ways. Some of those ways are:

“Bilingualism Enhances Attention”: A research done by Dr. Ellen Bialystok from York University in Canada proved that fact. The participants in this research were a group of older people. Some of them were bilingual students and some others were monolingual students. The research team assigned some mental tasks to the participants. The participants performed these tasks during the “Simon Task”. The Simon Task is “an experimental procedure that deliberately distracts the test takers. The Simon Task measures reaction time and cognitive processing that decline with age” (Desaulniers). It was found that bilingual participants were more able to focus on tasks and ignore distractions than monolingual participants (Desaulniers).
“Bilingualism Builds Cognitive Reserve”: With aging, 2 mental abilities become weaker, attention and memory. Bilingual education protects the human brain through aging. Bilingual education creates something called “cognitive reserve”. Cognitive reserve is “the ability of the brain to be more flexible than normal because the demands made on it at an early age (through bilingualism) have enhanced its ability to rewire and compensate for aging and dysfunctional neurons” (Desaulniers). If any organ in the human body (including brain) gets used to perform more unusual tasks, its abilities will be improved. And this means that bilingual education programs are more beneficial for the human brain than monolingual education programs because they give the brain more mental tasks to perform (Desaulniers).

Foreign-speaking students who are registered in bilingual education programs do better in school than their counterparts who are registered in monolingual education programs. In 2000, there was a study that examined the performance of 952 students in various schools in Date County, Florida. Some of those students were registered in bilingual education programs and some others were registered in monolingual education programs. It was found that students in bilingual education got higher marks in “English literacy”. The difference started to appear by 2^nd grade, but it became notable by the 5^th grade (National Association for Bilingual Education).

Conclusion

Richard Rodriguez’s opinions about bilingual education clash with the American values that ensure the diversity in society. Bilingual education is a right, not just a demand. Bilingual education offers better chances for people in life. It maintains the mental abilities through all age levels. Bilingual education improves the performance of students in schools and that can bring more positive results in the future.

Works Cited

Desaulniers, Mary. “Why Bilingualism Slows Aging: Delays Dementia, Enhances Attention, Builds Cognitive Reserve.” Suite. 2009. Web.

National Association for Bilingual Education. “Does Bilingual Education Really Work?” National Association for Bilingual Education. 2004. Web.

Reyhner, Jon. “Linguicism in America.” Teaching Indigenous Languages. 2007. Northern Arizona University. Web.

Rodriguez, Richard. “Bilingual Education: Outdated and Unrealistic.” Connections: A Multicultural Reader for Writers. 2nd ed. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Mountain View: Mayfield Publishing, 1993. 457-60.

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