The Official Language Movement

{text:bookmark-start} The Official Language Movement {text:bookmark-end} The Pros of Bilingual Education This article compares the educational benefits of “English only” education with bilingual education and argues that bilingual education is far superior. According to Macceri, English immersion education cannot provide immigrant children with a meaningful education. If “English only” is required, then Immigrant children will be compelled to take all of their other subjects in English as well. Since it is impossible to learn math, science, history, etc.. in a language (English) that a child does not understand, English immersion cannot work. The English immersion children will fall behind and never recover. States such as California that have required English immersion have seriously disrupted the education of their immigrant children. They will be permanently educationally lost. Bilingual education operates by teaching the children English as a separate subject and allowing them to simultaneously learn math, science, history, etc. in their native language. After an unspecified number of years, the children will be transitioned to English for math, science, history, etc.. It is at the point of this transition that the children, having obtained the required knowledge of math, science, history, etc., will now be prepared to deal with these and other subjects in the English language. Research shows that bilingual education is superior to English immersion. Nonetheless, bilingual education is not a miracle cure for all of the socio economic problems which plague immigrant children and their families. Thirty Years After its Introduction, Bilingual Education Still Generating Controversy. This article examines both sides of the debate between bilingual education and English immersion, describing the benefits and detriments of each. A significant part of the case for English immersion is the history of immigration in this country in the early part of the 20th...