Thread: English Only Fails Immigrant Children

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion ... 954060.htm

English Only Fails Immigrant Children



By Domenico Maceri
“English immersion is a superior approach,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesperson for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Fehrnstrom was trying to justify dismal state tests, which showed that after a three-years ban of bilingual education, only 6 percent of immigrant kids had learned English well enough to be placed in regular classes with their American counterparts.

When Massachusetts abolished bilingual education, kids were given one year to learn English. After that, the theory went, kids would know English well enough since they learn languages fast.

That’s a myth. Kids learn languages slowly while adults learn them faster.

To be sure, children do have some advantages over adults in learning a language. When they start the study of a language before puberty, they usually manage to acquire a native accent. Adults will almost always keep some kind of foreign accent.

But leaving aside the question of accent, children’s limited experiences with life affects considerably the speed with which they learn languages. The younger the child, the fewer the experiences. And life experiences means also linguistic experiences in at least one language on which one can build to learn another. The most difficult language to learn is the first one. The second one is easier than the first; the third easier than the second, etc.

Thus, adults need to learn just the words of the new language, that is, the symbols, but not the content. They can make use of their education, their knowledge of their own language (s) and culture to learn a second or third language.

Five-year-old immigrant children who are beginning their study of English do not simply have to learn the names of the colors in the new language. They also need to learn the meaning of the names. That’s a lot to learn.

Who learns the colors faster, the immigrant kindergartner or her father in his English as a Second Language class? Who will learn faster to do simple math in English, the immigrant father or his elementary school son? Without a doubt, it will be the father who learns first.

Language learning also requires a grasp of grammar. Children will learn grammar rules through the power of observation. After hearing lots of examples and eventually noticing that the addition of “ed“ to a verb makes it the past tense, they will internalize the generalization. This intuitive method takes a long time.

Adults can learn those rules a lot faster because they can use logic to understand them.

Assuming the same time of exposure to the language, who will know more English at the end of a year, the father or one of his kids? The father may speak with an accent and his spelling may not be perfect, but his ability to express what he wants to say will be far greater.

Who will know more English six years later? In some ways the father in so far as language reflects a sophistication of concepts and life’s experiences. However, in the long run, the children will quite likely surpass their father assuming they stay in school and become at least as educated (hopefully more so) than their father.

California, Arizona, and Massachusetts voters virtually did away with bilingual education because of anti-Spanish feelings but also on the wrong assumption that children learn languages fast and effortlessly provided that we dump them in an ocean of English language.

Bilingual education, though not perfect, is fortunately still alive and well in many states and tries to give immigrant children the necessary time to become educated. Bilingual education’s goal is to educate the entire child, not just teach her English.

The elimination of bilingual education means treating immigrant children like adults. And children, regardless of which side of the river they were born, need time to be children even when they are acquiring a language, because they are not just picking up words, they are learning about life.

Domenico Maceri, Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif.


dmaceri@gmail.com

08-20-2006 17:14

The elimination of bilingual education means treating immigrant children like adults. And children, regardless of which side of the river they were born, need time to be children even when they are acquiring a language, because they are not just picking up words, they are learning about life.

I have a question.....if these children are here with their parents, why aren't they speaking English at home after birth? If their parents are legally here, they usually can speak some English and should be practicing at home and teaching it to their children rather than Spanish. Our education system has enough challenges without paying for this burden also. I hate to sound so cold, but if the child speaks little or no English, it is likely that the parents are illegal aliens and should NOT even be here. Just another burden on taxpayers.

Whoa, Domenico

"California, Arizona, and Massachusetts voters virtually did away with bilingual education because of anti-Spanish feelings but also on the wrong assumption that children learn languages fast and effortlessly provided that we dump them in an ocean of English language."

Not only do most linguists believe children can pick up a second language easier than adults, but what degree do you have that gives you the ability to read people's minds as to why they vote?

The reason these children aren't learning English is because there are so many students who speak Spanish that the second the teacher's back is turned, they speak Spanish to each other. And obviously English is not spoken in the home. And the parents can't even be bothered to tune in tv programs in English. If one Spanish-speaking child were put into a classroom full of English speakers, s/he would learn English pronto.