Bilingualism One of the Inevitable

¶ … Bilingualism

One of the inevitable consequences of living in a multicultural society is the plurality of languages spoken by different members of the community. The coexistence of communities speaking different languages in the United States has generated controversy in the realm of public education. One school of thought supports the provision of lessons and learning materials in multiple languages to ensure that all children and young learners have comparable access to educational resources and equal educational opportunities. Another school of thought refutes the benefits of bilingual education. According to that view, providing educational instruction and resources in multiple languages only perpetuates resistance to learning the dominant language and, therefore, is more of a disservice than a benefit to the community in general. In principle, proponents of both positions probably believe that bilingualism is a good thing to the extent that bilingualism means learning the dominant language as a supplement to a foreign language that is native to the family. However, they disagree about the value of bilingual education toward that goal.

There is no conceivable objective justification to oppose bilingualism to the extent bilingualism means learning to speak multiple languages. American-born children of parents whose native language is not English should (obviously) learn English because English is the primary language in the country and English illiteracy or inability to communicate in English only has disadvantages socially, culturally, and professionally and there is absolutely no conceivable advantage to refusing to teach English to anybody who lives in the U.S. Nor is there any conceivable advantage to limiting children to learning only English to the exclusion of other languages, especially the native languages of their parents' heritage. Language is one of the most fundamental elements of all human cultures and being able to converse in the native language of one's ethnic heritage is beneficial to the individual, to the family, to the local community, and ultimately, to any multicultural human society. Children of parents whose native language is not English should begin learning both languages as early as possible, ideally, simultaneously when they first begin to acquire spoken language so that they will develop the fullest and most fluent bilingualism possible.

The main argument against bilingualism does not refute the value of speaking multiple languages; instead, it reflects the concern that when children are taught only their parents' native language, they should not receive academic instruction in any language other than English only because doing so delays and inhibits their absorption of English language skills. There may be some merit to that position but the solution is not simply to refuse to provide any language accommodations for English as second language (ESL). Specifically, if academic lessons are provided in foreign languages in ways that do not effectively encourage learning English, the likely consequences would be to perpetuate their inability to assimilate optimally into American society.