Analysis Of The Article 'Are Bilingual Programs Worth It?'

Damian Ipina Vanessa Ballmer ENGL 1302-7 12 April 2024 Are Bilingual Programs Worth It? (Rogerian Essay) As the number of immigrants, who move into the United States, continues to grow, diversity in languages also grows. According to an article, immigration is seen to be the ongoing source of language diversity in the US (Ruben G. Rumbaut and Douglas Steven Massey). There are immigrant children in the US who arrive, not knowing a single English word, who are known as English language learners or English learners. The article states that the “term English language learners (ELL), or English learners (EL), refers to students whose first language is not English but who are learning English” (“What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak English?”). Because of ELLs, some school districts have implemented bilingual education programs.

Because immigrants come bearing their native language, it increases the difficulty of being able to communicate with ELL students. The article states, “English language learners attending schools in the United States speak more than 400 languages [, and that] Spanish, Vietnamese, Hmong, Chinese, and Korean—account for ninety-five percent of the language variance” (“What do teachers need to know about students who are learning to speak English?”). The diversity of languages impacts the teachers ability to teach these ELL students. In addition, Quintero and Hansen have mentioned that, “In spite of the growing need for both specialists and generalists trained in EL instruction, training EL-ready teachers has not been a priority for many teacher preparation programs.” The lack of training during the teacher preparation programs adds to the lack of qualified teachers to teach ELLs. This has nothing to do with the teachers, more so, they are not well trained. In their article, Quintero and Hansen call the “state policies on teacher training.a mixed