Arguments Against Bilingual Education

Those that are staunch opponents for bilingual education state the reason as being, it helps in increasing the odds of student success. Those that oppose bilingual education believe just the opposite, it leads to student failure (Cazabon 1998). In my opinion, I think it can be a little confusing for some students only causing frustration. According to an article written by Eric Johnson (2005), Proposition 203 of Arizona passed in 2003 stated that basically English for children. The state of Arizona stated that bilingual education programs that were teaching students in their primary language first were not enabling minority students to learn the English language quick enough, thus hurting these students in both social and academic standards. Proposition 203 would require non-English speaking students to be only taught English instructions, touting this would prepare them for grade-level classes that are taught in English. According to an article written by Dr. Patricia Fioriello (n.d.), there are several methods that can be used for teaching non-English speaking students, Immersion, Transitional bilingual education, Development or maintenance bilingual education. With the Immersion method, teachers use expressions

I have seen in these younger students that they have a hard time grasping another language, they get frustrated and give up. I have had parents complain that schools are spending too much time on bilingual teaching when the time could be spent on learning a more useful subject matter. Parents have asked me, “why should their English-speaking student suffer because someone’s child can’t speak English”? In my opinion teaching a bilingual education can be done at a different time other than in class on a normal school day, it can be done on a tutoring basis where other students are not missing out on things they should be