Bilingualism Essays (Examples)

Bilingualism's Effects On Children

In 1989, Howard Gardner first proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. His theory posits that every human being is equipped with several kinds of intelligence that are interdependent. He developed his theory as a way to improve and challenge current practices in many fields, including education, child development, and even neuroscience. One of the intelligences he proposes is that of linguistic intelligence. To be able to learn and master a language is a specific form of intelligence that is valuable and vital personally and professionally in the 21st century. Parents and other kinds of alternative families around the world are growing in their awareness in the challenges and benefits of raising children in a bilingual environment and even in multilingual environments. This paper will consider the affects of raising children as bilingual with specific attention to how bilingualism affects areas such as learning, language acquisition, identity,…

Bilingualism

The subject of bilgualism and its impact on cognitive development has always been an in interest of mine. When I first learned Spanish, I went to Mexico. I arrived in a small town, was dropped off by friends and started a six-week intensive course in Spanish and lived with a Mexican family. I did not even know how to say "Buenas Dias." The town I went to was San Miguel De Allende, and it has a large foreign English-speaking community. This was unfortunate since it meant I had many opportunities to revert to English rather than practicing my new language.

I will never forget my struggle to put together my first sentences in Spanish. Learning another language can be a humbling experience. So when I returned to the States, I had great sympathy for non-English speaking children who arrived at first grade and were instructed in English. In effect,…

This can be seen with regard to the issue of codeswitching in bilingual children. As Scheu (1999) states, the effects of culture and context are extremely important in bilingualism. This refers to language choice as well as observed linguistic phenomena such as codeswitching. Codeswitching refers to when "…bilinguals code-switch or mix their languages during communication" (Heredia and Brown). Scheu ( 1999) finds "…codeswitching as a significant feature of bilinguals' speech repertoire and it offers strong evidence of the interdependence of bilingualism and biculturalism" (Scheu 2000, p.131).

The importance of cultural contact in bilingualism is underscored in a study by Barbara Pearson ( 2007). The study explores key cultural factors that affect whether a child in a multilingual environment will become bilingual. The factors that were found to be influential in the choice of bilingualism were language status, access to literacy, family language use, and community support, including schooling ( Pearson,…

Bilingualism:

First and second language acquisition theorists

Experience as a bilingual person

The term bilingual is used for the individuals that are having a command over more than one communication system. The learning process for the second language is elaborated in the work below. The detailed definition of bilingualism and work of first and second language theorists is also presented in the relevant sections. Later, the influence of reading through the literature and my personal experience as bilingual person is also presented. Finally the conclusion provides an understanding of the future desire for learning bilingual process and education system is also presented in the conclusion.

Bilingualism:

According to Baker (2011) bilingualism is denoted as two systems or more than two systems as multilingualism. The usage of more than one communication system in terms of identity, personality, thinking, reading, education, and employment has roots wasted in bilingualism. There are various theorists…

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…

Bilingualism
The concept of bilingualism is common across the globe in the contemporary society for instance in Europe 56% are known to speak in a language other than their mother tongue. This trend is seen to both facilitate cross cultural communication and enhancing cognitive abilities of individuals. Those that are bilingual are known to be better in attention and task switching than those who are monolingual due to the capability to inhibit one language while using another. Children under the age of seven who are bilingual are also known to be better at coping with the environmental changes than the monolingual children.
Language is the essential tool that we use to understand the world around us and to communicate our feelings and thoughts. It is also the tool we use to connect cross-culturally. Though the US is widely known to be monolingual, one fifth of over five years population are…

(Linton)

One Turning Point One prominent turning point for the opposition of bilingualism occurred with Peal and Lambert's (1962) study, as after their study, "bilingualism became recognized as having a cognitive advantage. (Palij and Homel, 1987; cited by Takakuwa, 2000) Peal and Lambert (1962; cited by Takakuwa, 2000) studied ten-year-olds from French schools in Montreal, Canada, and found that on 15 out of 18 measures of intelligence, scores of their participating bilingual group totaled higher than the monolingual group. No differences were found between the two groups on the other measures in their study, however, on measures of both verbal and nonverbal intelligence. The bilingual group's scores totaled higher than the monolingual group. Recent research on bilingualism reveals an opposing view continues to challenge bilingualism's positive effect on children's cognitive development. (Bialystok 1988; Day and Shapson 1996; Palij and Home, 1987; cited byTakakuwa, 2000) Findings from Peal and Lambert (1962;…

Bilingual Policies

One of the most controversial issues facing today's policy makers in the United States is the issue of bilingualism. The United States currently has a significant minority population whose first language is Spanish and not English. Complicating this fact further, many of these people are Puerto Rican in origin or family ethnicity. As such, they are United States citizens, but the majority of those living in Puerto Rico speak little or no English, and a significant number of those who have moved to the mainland have Spanish as their first language.

Residents of Puerto Rico have been American citizens since 1917 (Rubenstein, 2001). As such, they have the advantages of American citizenship from birth. In spite of this status, some report that as a group, Puerto Ricans are slower to assimilate into the larger, English-dominant American society (Rubenstein, 2001), which some feel sets them apart from groups of…

Cruickshank, K. (2008). Arabic-English bilingualism in Australia. In J. Cummins and N.H. Hornberger (eds), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd Ed., Vol. 5: Bilingual Education, 281 -- 291. Springer Science & Business Media LLC.

Bilingualism, a sociolinguistic phenomenon growing out of language contact situations, is an object of fruitful study. Arabic-English bilingualism in New South Wales (NSW) was examined by Cruickshank (2008), focusing mostly on the issues related to the teaching of Arabic in community, Primary, and Secondary schools and language attitudes. Cruickshank ends with a prediction of further shifts from Arabic to English with through the impact of several factors on language attitudes toward Arabic as an immigrant language, such as segmentation of socioeconomic status "and the ethnic/language backgrounds of students," technological advances and the effect of international migration, and organizations and facilities being established "as the Arabic-speaking communities become more established" (288-290).

Beginning with a historical overview of…

Childhood Second Language Learning and Subtractive ilingualism

During the past five decades, the phenomenon of understanding how language is acquired has intrigued historians, theorists and scholars alike. Although language learning can occur at many different stages in one's lifetime, the vast bulk of the research has focused on children who grow up learning one language in the home (L1), while simultaneously learning the second language (L2), usually as a result of schooling. One of the main issues addressed most frequently is whether bilingual children are able to differentiate and keep the linguistic systems of their two languages apart from each other in the context of simultaneous acquisition (olonyai, 1998). Additional research has pointed out that young bilingual children may not maintain their languages balanced and intact because the bilingual development does not occur in a socially stable environment. This perspective theorizes that bilingual acquisition may result in various types and…

Using Additive Bilingualism to Address Subtractive Educational Challenge among Hispanic-American LearnersIntroductionLatin Americans largest color population will account for about half of student growth over the next decade. Latin Americans are also the least educated of any ethnic group (Nuez, amalho & Cuero, 2010). Promoting the success of Latino Americans and other colored students is a major concern of educational systems that serve more diverse student organizations and become increasingly accountable to external institutions. Conversely, the population of teachers does not reflect this demography, as the majority of teachers/lecturers in American learning institutions are white. This divergence means that most teachers are unaware of their students daily experiences such as cultural background, dialect, family, home, and community. Because teachers tend to draw educational examples from their own experiences, these connections are not made for students.Moreover, Hispanics in the United States have historically suffered from ridicule and abuse from mainstream cultures due…

Inuktitut in Modern Inuit Communities in Northern Canada

The role of language in identity construction of the Inuit in Nunavik (Quebec, Canada), which nourishes the evolution of their ethno-territorial movement in the eastern Canadian Arctic, had been around since the 1970s. This paper is an analysis of the legal-political context of the Quebec State then enables the detachment of the cornerstones of its policy speech in general, and finally those with respect to the indigenous population, in particular to the Inuit language.

There are eight major Inuit communities: those of the LABADO, the UNGAVA, and the BAFFIN, of Iglulik, the CAIBOU, of Netsilik and Copper as well as the Inuit of the Western Arctic (which replaced MACKENZIE INUIT). There are five main dialects Inuit in Canada Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut and inuttut grouped under a single language, Inuktitut or Inuktitut. (McGrath 2007) At the last census, 70% of Inuit said they…

Official Language Movement: Hispanic Cultural Interest

The focus of this work is the official language movement and bilingualism in education politics in the United States, which is an important Hispanic-American cultural interest.

One of the fastest growing groups in the United States is the group of Hispanics and it was reported in the 1990 U.S. census that there were 22.4 million Hispanics or Latinos in the United States, which was up from 14.5 million in 1980. (Garcia, 2011, paraphrased) Hispanics are reported to be concentrated in the states of California, New York, Florida, Texas and Illinois, all of these states that when taken together "comprise over half of the electoral vote majority needed for election to the presidency." (Garcia, 2011)

Age a Key Factor that Limits Political Participation

There are several factors that are reported to hinder the political participation of Hispanics as well as hindering their development "into a…

Edit

Advantage of Bilingual Children in Cognition

Psychology 317, Fall 2012

Knowing several languages heightens one's status in society and can widen opportunities in professional and personal arenas. There have been a number of studies showing bilingualism is also beneficial to the brain's activity, and the interaction of synapses and passages in the brain (Harris 1992). The changes in the brain would be much stronger in bilingual children, who are the main focus this research. A review of the literature on children who are bilingual compares them with children who are not (Bialystok 2011).

Advantages to bilingualism

As has been discussed, there are advantages to being bilingual beyond knowing another language. In children, bilingualism results in flexible cognition overall. Because a child knows more word for an object, he or she gains a more complex understanding of the world around them (Kovacs 2009). The bilingual child is able to be…

Minority Rights Revolution

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s brought about several concordant social changes in the United States. What began as primarily an attempt to liberate African-Americans from continued systematic oppression in the form of school segregation Jim Crow laws turned out to be as much of a boon to American women and minority groups other than blacks, especially Latinos. Among the issues shared in common by all oppressed groups include voting rights, equal access to education, and equal employment opportunities. Creating social programs and institutions to provide especially for the needs of all minority groups was a logical extension of the Civil Rights movement, which appealed to women and Latinos as well as to African-Americans. The design of blanket-institutions and legislation was definitely a step in the right direction, as oppressed groups do suffer from similar forms and consequences of discrimination. However as John D. Skrentny points…

In Chapter 4 of the work the authors suggest that teachers act as catalysts, engaging students and enabling them to achieve the best use for their multiple language skills. Ovando also describes how students actively create their own cultural identity (92). They are not simply passive learners. They do this by comparing information they are receiving in the classroom with their own experiences and forming their opinions and self-image based on their cultural background and experiences as well as the experiences they reap from the environment exposed to every day. This environment a product of classroom learning and experiences.

Cultural Conflict Students Face In Schools

Bilingual and bicultural students often face much cultural conflict and unique learning challenges when in school. In fact these very challenges and conflicts influence student cognitive acquisition and language acquisition because they inhibit students from achieving their highest potential. It is important that educators acknowledge…

Cultural Case Study: Maria

This cultural case study examines the language competencies, social and human capital assets of a Spanish immigrant to the U.S. named Maria. She is 16 and lives in a community where the Hispanic population is considerable. Her family is supportive and engaged in her life and she receives substantial assistance from them. She is motivated and does well in her studies. She is able to practice her L1 and her L2 all the time thanks to a school that is good at helping ELLs and a community that shares in her ethnic background where her L1 is still commonly used among the inhabitants. This paper also provides some simple suggestions for what the school could do to continue to help Maria to achieve her objectives.

Introduction

Maria is an ELL who has a strong personal and cultural identity. She is Hispanic -- an immigrant from Spain…

Meng and Meurs (2009) examine the effects of intermarriage, language, and economic advantage. They find that immigrants who have some skill in the dominant language of the country to which they immigrate tend to intermarry and earn more income (Meng and Meurs). Marrying outside of one's culture may influence language acquisition due to social and economic needs to advance within the adopted culture.

Moua and Lamborn (2010) note that ethnic socialization practices by parents of immigrant adolescents strengthen the ethnic heritage connection between adolescent, parent, and ethnic community. These include native language use, marriage ties, taking part in cultural events, sharing history, and preparing traditional foods (Moua and Lamborn). As noted previously, immigrant parents tend to congregate in ethnic communities, where they are essentially immersed in the ethnic culture. The native language is often the most utilized if not the exclusive language in the home. However, children are acculturated into…

The most proficient language users, namely bilinguals, favor inter- and intrasentential CS which "require most knowledge of both languages" (Poplack 1980:606) whereas tag-switched sentences are preferred by less proficient and non-bilingual speakers who, in comparison to their first language, are less competent in their second language.

3. Grammar of Intrasentential Code Switching

As already mentioned in chapter 2.2.1 the switching of languages within a single sentence is no random occurrence. As many researchers observed that "bilinguals tend to switch intra-sententially at certain (morpho) syntactic boundaries and not at others" (Poplack 2004:1). According to Poplack (2004:1) the government of grammatical constraints on CS has become a largely accepted fact. "Though, there is little consensus on what they are or how they should be represented" (Poplack 2004:1). The question arises in which way two separate grammars merge to one grammatically correct sentence and which grammar governs the switching. The following chapter gives…

Also, student's vocabulary and formality of speech can and will differ in different social contexts, from school to home to the playground, as indeed does all human speech, as even teachers adopt a greater degree of formality speaking to the principal, to students, and also in their own homes.

hy teach standard speech at all? hat to do when certain patterns of speech, such as Black English, have different grammatical variations than standard written English? One approach is to stress contextual aspects of speech in education. (Chaika, 1994, p.299) It cannot be denied that job applicants and people are validated and valued differently, depending on how their speech coheres to Standard ritten English. Even dialect speakers are evaluated on a valuation gradient, as speakers with certain desirable accents, like a British accent for example, might be esteemed more than speakers with a traditionally Black or Spanish accent, unfairly. (Chaika, 1994,…

teach students who first language is not English continues to be one of the most contested and misunderstood issues facing educators in the U.S. today. wo main educational philosophies and lines of research prevail. Proponents of dual language education assert that the long-term education of students benefits from a bilingual approach primarily because it facilitates cognitive development and is, thereby, a better method to address an achievement gap (Jost, 2009). he opposing educational camp argues that students whose first language is not English should be given support in their first language through bilingual education, but only for a short time (Jost, 2009). he watershed for these two approaches appears to be a long-term focus vs. A short-term focus (Jost, 2009).

he policy problem associated with English as second a language academic programs is fundamentally two-fold: o address the need for acceleration of the development of English language skills and linguistic…

Spanglish

Is the use of Spanglish seen as a term of "disparagement," as linguistics Professor Ricardo Otheguy asserts? Or is the mixing of English into Spanish "helpful" and "…as normal as breathing and as natural as life itself" to the ethnic mix of Latinos and Anglos in Southern California and elsewhere, as journalist Kimberly Ortiz insists? This paper presents both sides of the issue; some say that using Spanglish as a hybrid language is a bastardized version of English and Spanish; others believe Spanglish, besides being here to stay, is perfectly legitimate as an alternative kind of language.

The Positives Relating to Spanglish

PBS NewsHour host Ray Suarez interviewed author Ilan Stavans about Stavans' book, Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language. Stavans is the president of Latin America and Latino culture at Amherst College and he steadfastly defends Spanglish as a "…way of communication where one starts in…

McKeon (2007) debunk the myths regarding literacy and offer the actualities relative to them. One of the realities is that of teaching English language learners (ELLS) not only English literacy, but also content area knowledge. I am in agreement with this perspective as ELLS make up the fastest increasing populace in schools within the United States. Therefore, it makes sense that a lack of doing so will only hamper their academic development. In the contemporary, teachers are constantly facing an educational context that is largely challenging. For this reason, ESL and bilingual teachers as well as supervisors are often tentative whether they are applying a program that satisfies all necessary standards. A good instance is the myth that ELLS necessitate a firm grasp in L1 in order for them to be advanced to L2. However, as pointed out by Samway and McKeon (2007), this is not always the case as…

According to Malfaro, just a single year of English is not essentially sufficient to effectively make the initiative to reading and writing. (Tozzi, 1998)

Supporters give an instance of a study undertaken in the year 1991 approved by the National Academy of Sciences mentioning that the children who have are able to speak a foreign language are able to comprehend English more quickly and perform better educational development on the whole after receiving many years of teaching in their regional language. (Leon, 2001) Jay Greene belonging to the Manhattan Institute employed more accurate statistical instruments compared to those employed in the earlier researches and discovered that bilingual education possess encouraging effects. He inferred that attempts to eradicate the use of local language in teaching does damage to the children by refuting them access to beneficial methods. Almost every researcher who has made an assessment of the scientific research has inferred…

344).

In his seminal work, Second-Language Acquisition in Childhood, McLaughlin (1985) reports that early research into language acquisition by preschool children suggested that interference between languages is not as inevitable or universal as was once believed. "Contrastive analysis, in its traditional form, was not able to account for the vast majority of errors that second-language learners made; in fact, learners from quite different language backgrounds appeared to make the same types of mistakes in the target language," he adds (McLaughlin, 1985, p. 14).

Since these early studies into language acquisition, other studies have shown that transfer from the first language does take place in the speech of children from certain first-language backgrounds and at certain times during the learning process. Therefore, McLaughlin cautions that, "It is an exaggeration to say that transfer from the first language is minimal and unimportant. The acquisition of phonological, syntactic, and morphological structures in a…

De Jong makes a convincing argument for the employment of diverse discourse by comprehensively scrutinizing and going over the development of multilingualism and linguistic multiplicity. In this chapter, the author discusses both monolingual and bilingual viewpoints. However, the author places emphasis on bilingualism as an international model and the profits of mounting and nurturing bilingualism. The argument made for monolingualism is for having effective communication. This is based on the perspective that if citizens living in a certain expanse are not able to communicate and speak to each other with the same language, then conflict and fragmentation is bound to come about. However, this is never the case as was perceived in colonial America where different parties speaking different native languages had to come up with effective ways of communication. In fact, I agree with the author that monolingualism does result in coercion and repression (De Jong, 2011).

Multilingualism has…

Introduction
Owing to contemporary trends such as globalization, refugee and migrant influx, increased social and geographical mobility, and global education dissemination, progressively more multilingual and multicultural settings have been emerging worldwide (Trisnawati, 2017). Such settings have led to the growth of bilingualism (and multilingualism) in population groups. Consequently, this research will address the subject of how bilingual persons (those who speak their native tongue, as well as the language, is spoken in the place they have migrated to) maintain their identity within multilingual/ multicultural contexts. Familiarity with their native tongue accords them a sense of pride and internal strength about their heritage.
Problem and its context
The chief topic of discussion in this research will be how multilingual or bilingual persons retain their ethnic/cultural identity within multilingual/multicultural contexts. Evidence to support the research will be collected from several related multilingual/multicultural contexts. But the specific context for the research is multicultural…

, notes at that there has been a "paucity of studies" on the effectiveness of video in teaching culture through foreign-language programs. Herron investigated whether students retain more ("little c") cultural "practices" or ("big C") cultural "products" by watching video in a second-language program (Herron, 1999, p. 522). Thirty-eight students were given a pretest before watching the 10 videos that were part of the French-language curriculum. Immediately afterward they were given a post-test. Interestingly, in terms of their evolving understanding of French culture, in 8 of the 10 total post-video quizzes, the students gave higher scores to their "little c" (understanding cultural practices) than to "big C" (cultural products). And 84.2% of the 38 students believed that the 10 videos showed "a lot or a vast amount" of little c (cultural practices in France) presented and 42.1% believed that "a lot or a vast amount" of big C (cultural products…

How Are Dual Immersion Programs Implemented?

Christian, Howard & Loeb (2000) describe how dual immersion programs are implemented and the effect that they have on students. The goal for these dual immersion programs is to develop a high level of proficiency in both the first and the second language, as well as grade level academic achievement and cross-cultural skills. Dual immersion programs are implemented according to the student population. The features and variations of the program depend on many factors, including local policy, the grade levels that are served, languages that are needed for instruction, and the time spent on each one.

Most dual immersion programs serve elementary level students, also, which is very limiting to the entrance of monolingual students after the third grade. That is due to the difficulty of students who need to catch up with bilingual competence after that grade. Students benefit from dual immersion programs,…

But in any case, a shortage of qualified bilingual teachers usually makes it impossible. For example, public schools in California enrolled recently arrived immigrants from 136 different countries in 1994, but bilingual teachers were certified in only 17 languages - 96% of them in Spanish. To the extent that LEP [ESL] children received help in other tongues, they received it almost entirely from teacher aides" (Crawford, 1997, "Babel' in the Schools"). A combined blend of immersion and resource support, or a transitional approach is often necessary from an administrative and logistical as well as an ideological point-of-view -- there are simply not enough teachers.

hat approach is best?

Beyond the rhetorical fury of those who are 'English Only' advocates, devout multiculturalists, or concerned parents, it is often hard to find unbiased, quality research about the outcomes of current programs and strategies. The most sophisticated evaluation study of different approaches was…

Aria

Rodriguez, Richard. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," an excerpt from. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: an Autobiography. Boston, Mass: D.R. Godine, 1982. Print.

Bilingual education is one of the issues that have been hotly debated in the last few decades. Though proposed by Hispanic-Americans in the 1970s and '80s, many second- and third-generation immigrants from the south of the United States now have mixed feelings about bilingualism. Some support it as a policy that would help Spanish-speaking and other ethnic American children maintain their cultural heritage and individualism, while others criticize it as something that may block their assimilation and integration into the American mainstream. Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, is among the latter group, arguing that children of Spanish-speaking and ethnic immigrants must opt for education in English only; for that is the best way of becoming…

Language and Communication

The Power of Language in Communication

The ability of humans to speak and utter sounds that creates meaning for understanding of human society is an important skill and capacity that distinguishes us from other living species here on earth. Possessing the power of language, we as humans are able to express our ideas and thought through it, and in the process, conducts communication and interaction with other people as well.

That is why I feel fortunate to be able to speak two languages: English and Taiwanese. Possessing the skill and knowledge to speak two languages allows me to interact with people who belong to cultures that similarly, speak Taiwanese and English. By being bilingual, I am able to converse easily with people, making initial encounters and daily interactions easier and manageable for me. Furthermore, bilingualism provides me with a lot of opportunities to conduct business communications and…

sign language in public settings for people who are deaf.

Writing notes as a way to communicate with people who are deaf is convenient, for people with normal hearing, and recommended, by people with normal hearing. In the world of hearing people, recommendations for using note writing as a way to communicate with people who are deaf is common.

Communication at work. Employers are advised to supplement their communication with employees who are deaf by writing notes. For example, Equal Access Communication, an advocacy organization suggests that supervisors may wish to keep a white board or a chalk board by the work area of an employee who is deaf. The supervisor is reminded to keep the writing simple and concise, first establishing the subject to be discussed and then providing an explanation. Further, the supervisor is reminded that the person who is deaf may experience difficulties understanding idioms or double…

Language, One People?

Arguments for and Against Proclaiming English the Sole Official Language

Few issues are as emotionally charged as the current debate over immigration in America. It is a question that has been fired with a new sense of urgency in light of the tragic events of September 11th.

Acts of terror, and the fear of further acts of terror, has created a climate in which foreigners are suspect. Native-born Americans find themselves looking over their shoulders, eyeing with suspicion those who look different or speak with a strange accent. However, there is also another side to this argument. All Americans are descended from people who were once immigrants. Even the ancient inhabitants of this land once crossed over from Asia, and in recent centuries, millions have come here from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and all parts of the world. e are a nation of immigrants and each of…

Down These Mean Streets believe that every child is born a poet, and every poet is a child. Poetry to me was always a very sacred form of expression. (qtd. In Fisher 2003)

Introduction / Background History

Born Juan Pedro Tomas, of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City's Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas began his struggle for survival, identity, and recognition at an early age. The vicious street environment of poverty, racism, and street crime took its toll and he served seven years of nightmarish incarceration at hard labor. But, with the knowledge that he had not been born a criminal, he rose above his violent background of drugs and gang warfare, and he vowed to use his street and prison know-how to reach hard-core youth and turn them away from a life of crime.

Thirty years ago Piri Thomas made literary history with this lacerating,…

McKeon (2007) demystify myths regarding programming. One of the key myths pointed out by the authors is the traditional assumption that research is unequivocal regarding the most effective program for L2 students. However, this is not the case as the reality is that there is no single or specific program that is befitting for all students. One of the distinctive points is that the categorizations and designs of programs can be largely dissimilar to the extent that a bilingual program in one state might not satisfy the requirements necessitated in another state, and therefore, categorized differently. One other prevailing programming myth is the notion that researchers are not able to come to an agreement, regarding what the most effective program is for ELL students. However, this is untrue as there is substantial agreement. There are indicators that generate agreement, such as instructional leadership, great anticipations for English language learners and…

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is also referred to as the City of Chicago School District Number 299, for the purposes of funding provisions. In particular, this is the 4th biggest school district in the United States (Chicago Public Schools, 2016). Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a massive system that consists of primary schools, secondary schools and disability schools restricted to the boundaries of Chicago City. Moreover, this enormous system is the second biggest employer in Chicago. Majority of the schools within the Chicago district, irrespective of what school level it is, have attendance borders confining student admission to within a certain area. A school may possibly choose to enroll students beyond its attendance borders, if there is space in its classrooms or if it has a magnet cluster program (Chicago Public Schools, 2016). In the past school year, Chicago Public Schools' report indicated that its administration included a total of…

New scholarship suggests that Byzantine Empire was as successful as was ome in shaping modern Europe (Angelov, 2001).

Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age (also called the Caliphate of Islam or the Islamic enaissance) was a center of government and political, cultural and religious traditions that arose in the early 6th century AD from the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed and reached its height between the 8th to 13th centuries (Kraemer, 1992). The Golden Age was centered around the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Its first capital was Media; at its greatest extent, the Caliphate controlled all of the present day Middle East, northern Africa and parts of Spain, and extending to the Indus Valley. It was thus one of the few empires that rules over three continents (Kennedy, 2001).

After the end of the classical empires of the Middle East (such as Egypt and Assyria) the region was politically and…

English for academic purposes approach focuses on the reader, too, not as a specific individual but as the representative of a discourse community, for example, a specific discipline or academia in general. The reader is an initiated expert who represents a faculty audience. This reader, particularly omniscient and all-powerful, is likely to be an abstract representation, a generalized construct, one reified from an examination of academic assignments and texts (aimes, 1991).

Partnership Teaching is not just an extension of co-operative teaching. Co-operative teaching consists of a language support teacher and class teacher jointly planning a curriculum and teaching strategies which will take into account the learning needs of all pupils. The point is to adjust the learning situation in order to fit the pupils. Partnership Teaching is more than that. It builds on the notion of co-operative teaching by linking the work of two teachers with plans for curriculum improvement…

That is a function of the complex cognitive mechanisms involved in human language processing and speech, which Kormos explicitly acknowledges as possibly the most complex of all human cognitive processes (Levelt, 1995 in Kormos, 2003 p88). Given that characterization, the use of a word span test -- in which performance could quite conceivably measure other variables besides raw working memory, such as parallel recognition and various other associative or pneumonic devices -- instead of a non-word span test likely undermined the validity of the Mota study (2003) results.

Furthermore, the Kormos and Safar study (2008) employed standard objective academic tests of foreign language proficiency, whereas the Mota study (2003) employed a novel matrix of variables (fluency, accuracy, and complexity) to measure foreign language proficiency (Mota, 2003 p69). The former type of diagnostic test would appear to be an appropriately accurate and narrowly targeted measure of memory-based performance and learning in…

(Harvey, 2003) the suspicion of the United States of the "Soviet Expansionist tendencies" had increased by the 1970s and Harvey states as well that "The pervasive mentality of Washington officials during these years was dominated by the communist domino theory which led many Washington politicians to believe that the Soviet Union sought to take over the entire world." (2003) the United States had always received a safeguard provided by the shah for their Middle East interest of oil and it was this that resulted in the United States perceiving the Soviet-Afghanistan relations as a "considerable threat...before 1979." (Harvey, 2003)

Harvey reports that while Department of State records from the early 1970s report that the United States was indifferent to the relationship that was developing between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan that the truth is that "...Recently declassified ntelligence reports also reveal that the "official history record is false."

[26] Contrary…

Individuals who never come into contact with other societies may live their entire lives without the slightest idea that other societies exist, much less that other social norms and practices besides the ones to which they are accustomed as their reality are possible.

This element of human reality is also responsible for some of the worst recorded human behavior. On one hand, certain parts of human moral thinking is inherent as a natural part of us (Kluger 2007). On the other hand, so much of human morality is determined by subjective social constructs, that practically anything is acceptable to us, even to those of us who are inherently inclined to be good people.

History has shown many times that if the social construct within a given society presents cannibalism, or slavery, or the sacrifice of virgins to volcanoes, or even the systematic mechanized mass-murder of millions as acceptable, few individuals…

For many first generation immigrants, Spanglish is a necessary evil that corrupts their native language but allows them to assimilate into the diverse community in which they live. To second generation immigrants tend to think of Spanglish as a way in which they can communicate in the language of the home, to some degree but still do so in an manner that translates into the diverse community. To first and second generation immigrants Spanglish is a tool. Third generation immigrants on the other hand are increasingly seeing Spanglish as a way to express their transnational heritage. This is despite the fact that they are at least to some degree fully capable of being truly bilingual, speaking and writing in both English and Spanish, if Spanish is spoken in the home or monolingual in English, owing to their birth and education being primarily English.

Spanglish' Speakers Mix Home" A01) Though this…

The opposing side, which sports a more eclectic set of disciplinary backgrounds and prides itself on a more sophisticated and inclusive perspective, divides human abilities into broad classes -- logical, spatial, interpersonal, verbal, etc. -- and labels each class an "intelligence." The two sides then proceed to talk past each other. (Casse, 1998, p. 33)

The resulting controversy then falls back to the idea of socio-cultural differences, and race/gender/culture/environment. (Skidmore & Aagaard, 2004, p. 304) Casse claims that by differing on core definitions of intelligence scientists are not good at comparing anything but data or defining concepts,

Scientists make bad dictionary writers and worse philosophers. Their main skills are in constructing experiments and generating explanations for what they observe. Neither of these endeavors requires agreement on what the words involved "mean" in any deep or absolute sense, only on ways of converting the elements of the theory at issue into…

Now, teachers are complaining that they feel abused and harassed with the young students.

The students tend to become abusive. They do not respect the teachers. They swear and shout at the teachers. They throw things at the teachers and in some instances, the students physically assault the teachers.

This is the reason why most teachers feel threatened and would want to resign from their works.

Thus, without the corporal punishment, the students do not learn the real value of discipline and they do not maintain proper conduct. The students who did not receive any corporal punishment when they were still on their younger years tend to have deviant behaviors as they grow older.

Meanwhile, there are also studies which have proven that corporal punishment offers nothing but negative effects to both the psychological and emotional aspects of a child. Some of the proven negative impacts of corporal punishment are:…

I liked the study as previously mentioned because of its focus and the participants involved. Deaf persons are a small percentage of society but they still require effective study. To consider those without hearing and their potential for success being hinged on literary as the authors suggested has a direct impact upon human potential. Illiteracy of this group also can influence employability this can in turn affects the quality of day-to-day life. It also signals the commonality of all persons irrespective of their particular impediment. The deaf face similar literacy challenges as other populations and this workforcefully brought home the humanity of all peoples.

Even though I appreciated or liked the study the procedures were somewhat unclear as there was no clear indication of what aspects of the intervention happened at what stage. The consideration of a theoretical framework was somewhat misleading since it is usually a harbinger of quantitative…

Human relations are vital. Teachers must trust each other, there must be norms that support productive criticism, and there must be techniques in place for combining and resolving disputes. Arrangements need to be in place that generates discussion for problem identification and decision making. These arrangements could be things such as normal team meetings amid teachers at the same grade level or department meetings within high schools and middle schools. Frequently useful are school connections to inside and outside sources of knowledge and scrutiny coupled to a readiness to learn from such sources. Also, schools must work to secure the power to proceed with actions that might go against existing policies and practices. By doing this they master the micro-politics of their districts and their communities.

In schools where circumstances to maintain collaborative problem solving are not in place, leaders must expertly manage two plans at the same time. They…

13166 require that public entities receiving federal funds must have all vital documents available in every language that their clients speak" (Schultz, 2011). Of course, it is worth noting that state laws and federal laws approach the idea of an official language differently. There are state laws that have made English the official language in just over half of the states in the United States. This may be appropriate because states are more likely to have homogenous groups than the nation as a whole. However it is critical to realize that Title VI applies even to those states that have declared English as an official language. In other words, states cannot overrule the federal government's protection for non-English speakers.

If the majority of the United States speaks English, one may wonder why anyone would worry about protecting the right to speak a different language. Having a single language would certainly…

Essentially, what the governor has done is strengthen the hand of tribes without federal recognition to exercise rights in a way that is similar to those with federal recognition. For this reason, it is prudent to investigate possible funding from these other sources.

The General Situation

The language situation of Native American Indians in North America in general and California in particular is not good at the present time. Native American language groups are dying out. The goal of bilingual programs is binary in nature. Besides promoting the proficiency of English for those who do not speak it as a native language, there is an ancillary responsibility to preserve the Native languages themselves (Pewewardy, and Hammer, 1). According to the data listed in Census 2000, 4.3 million people, or 1.5% of the total U.S. population, reported that they were American Indian and Alaska Native ("U.S. Census Bureau"). The total population…

5). Surprisingly, however, in a corpus of 50,000 spoken words compiled from "group discussions between representatives of the EU government and national agencies of higher education" (pp. 6-7), Breiteneder (2009) did not find a large incidence of 3rd person singular - O. In only about 21% of the cases where 3rd personal singular was used was the -s left off. Perhaps, reasons Breiteneder, this is because all the speakers in the study had received formal schooling in a SE, but if so, then why was the -s used in some cases and not in others? Breiteneder posits that in some instances the interlocutors may have been purposely leaving off the -s for social reasons (2009, p. 262).

Certain verbs and expletive phrases seem to divide along dialectal lines with regard to use of modal past. Jacobsson (1975) writes that the sentences I suggested he took it with him, and I…

Autobiographical

As one of ten children, my family structure reflects my unique cultural background. All ten of us were raised by my mother alone; we struggled financially but rarely emotionally because of the immense love and support given to us by my mother. Having a strong maternal influence in my life might also reflect the Hispanic and Christian culture in which I was raised. Both Christianity and Puerto Rican culture impacted my world growing up. For instance, my mother imparted her religious beliefs to her kids, beliefs that were strongly rooted in the Christian tradition. In addition to my mother, I had various role models who helped forge my identity and behaviors. Christianity also serves to link our otherwise oppressed minority community with the dominant culture in America. Although I grew up in an environment that supported bilingualism and respected Hispanic culture, I occasionally met with biases and prejudices in…

S. Department of Education presented a five-year grant to University esearch Co's - UC Center for Human Services to work in collaboration with McDaniel College. The project is intended to act as a source to McDaniel to expand and execute a high quality bilingual education/ESL teacher-training program. By this project, CHS/McDaniel will offer various professional development openings to public school teachers and administrators, including workshops, graduate courses in bilingual education, field experiences, and a rigorous summer training institute. (Bilingual Education: Training for All Teachers)

The language immersion programs that are now provided in the United States came from Canada. They wanted their English-speaking population to learn French. Canadians realized English-speaking students were not getting adequate French to get minimum grades in school and to get jobs in French speaking areas of Canada. In 1975, Canada's first French immersion program began and by 1980 this program was launched in the United…

Majority and Minority Governments

Is a Majority Government Better or Worse than a Minority Government for Canada?

The minorities of Canada function in a very different way than the minority governments of Europe and other countries (Cowdy 2008). The purpose of writing this paper is to find out if majority government is better or worse than a minority government of Canada. Before going in detail, it is important to know that in Canadian Parliamentary system, the party with the majority of the seats forms the majority government. However, when none of the party has majority seats than a minority government is formed by the party that wins half or less than half seats.

The majority government formed is obviously powerful and has ability to bring big changes. Contrary to this, a minority government works hard to maintain the confidence of the legislative assembly in order to stay in power and…

Meech Lake Accords

In order to properly examine the Meech Lake Accords and their significance, we must look first at why the Accords were necessary and what led up to them. Until 1982, Canada had been governed by the ritish North America Act, passed by the ritish Parliament in 1867. This act provided for the unification of the Canadian provinces into the Dominion of Canada, and set out the powers of the provincial legislatures. All powers not designated to the provinces were given to the Dominion. Later interpretations by the ritish Privy Council extended property rights in the provinces and developed the doctrine of emergency powers to aid the Dominion in time of war.

Ever since the Statute of Westminster 1931, the ritish government had been willing to give up control of Canada, but Canadian federal and provincial governments were unable to agree on a new formula to allow amendments.…

V. Government System RARPA

The government introduced the RARPA Program which is abbreviated for the:: "Recording and Recognition of Progress and Achievement Summary of the Evaluation Report" in relation to the Pilot Projects April 2003 to March 2004 Learning and Skills Development Agency National Institute of Adult Continuing Education 2004 August. Since 2002 the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has focused its efforts on establishing an appropriate method of recognizing and recording the progress and achievement of learners that is non-accredited in nature. Development of a model called the 'Staged Process." The RARPA consists of the application "of an explicit and common staged process to the recognition and recording of progress and achievement, together with the validation of this process through a range of judgments about its consistent and effective application." The background of the project is stated to be that LSDA and NIACE were involved in preparation of work…

colostate.edu/guides/research/casestudy/pop2a.cfm.

3. Hispanic, White Communities Forge Ties in Alabama (2003) a UA Center for Public Television and Radi9o Production. Online available at:

4. McDade, Sharon a. (2002) Definition of a Case Study. Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning - North Carolina State. Online available at http://www.ncsu.Edu/fctl/Programs/Instructional- Development/Teaching _Materials / CaseStudies/Materials / Case studyDefintion.pdf# search =%22 CASE%20STUDY % 3A%20DEFINIT ION%20OF %22.

5. UAB Wins $389,000 in Grants to Help Teachers Educate Non-English Speaking Children (200) UAB Media Relations. 27 Nov 200. Online available at http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=46333.

6. English Language Development and Multicultural Education (2005) University of Alabama. Berkeley University Online available at http://crede.berkeley.edu/tools/directory2-/PDF/esl.pdf#search=%22Alabama%3A%20Elementary%20ESL%20SERVICES%22.

7. English as a Second Language (ESL) (2004) Baldwin County Public Schools; Bay Minette, Alabama. Online available at http://www.bcbe.org/Default.asp?DivisionID='824'&DepartmentID='958'.

8. UAB Wins $389,000 in Grants to Help Teachers Educate Non-English Speaking Children (200) UAB Media Relations. 27 Nov 200. Online available at http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=46333.

9. Alabama (2006) KYTESOL Newsletter Vol.…

Why do Most ESL students struggle with reading and literacy and what can be done to improve this? Strategies teachers can use?

It is indeed the case that many ESL students have difficulty with reading and literacy but there are things that can be done to deal with this issue. According to an article found in the Journal of College eading and Learning, it common knowledge that the second language reading process, like the first language process, must be recognized as a "top-down/bottom-up" relationship amid the graphic display located with in the text, several echelons of linguistic knowledge and processes, and several cognitive activities (Weber; Upton). In addition

-up processing -- the recognition of letters and words, the accurate representation of temporal and order information, and the efficient coding of verbal information in short-term memory -- ensures that readers will be sensitive to information that is novel or that does…

The Russian influence first made itself felt in the 1930s. The Eskimo language was quickly infiltrated by unadapted Russian loanwords, bilingualism developed and the transition to Russian began. The influx of loanwords has stopped the operation of the flexible derivational system of Eskimo. The schooling, working and living environment is prevalently Russian now. In the 1960s there was a growing number of mixed marriages between Russians and the Eskimo, so the contact with the Russian language has acquired a direct and personal character. Now, in order to save the Eskimo language from complete extinction close and personal contacts with this language are necessary.

hen it comes to their development, no matter where they live, the Eskimo are now much involved in the modern world. Not only have they wholeheartedly adopted much of its technology, but they also use imported food, clothing, and house forms; similarly, their educational, recreational, economic, religious,…

Ethnic Conflicts in Kosovo and Afghanistan: Why a "One-Size-Fits-All" Analytical Approach Will Not Work

Today, Kosovo is recovering from decades of ethnic violence, and the same came be said of Afghanistan to some extent as well as the American military presence continues to draw down. Although both countries have experienced their fair share of such ethnic-based violence over the years, there is no "one-size-fits-all" analytical approach to examining the multifaceted problems that are being experienced by these countries because of the fundamental differences that exist between them and these issues are discussed further below.

As can be seen from the breakdown of Kosovo and Afghanistan language, population and ethnic groups, Kosovo is populated mostly by Serbians (92%) with two official languages (Albanian and Serbian) and one main religion (Islam) while Afghanistan is comprised of several primary ethnic groups and dozens of others, all with their own languages. Furthermore, the populations…

Age and Learning a New Language

hat is the ideal age for a person to be able to learn a new language? hat are the dynamics (besides age) that contribute to SLA? This paper delves into those subjects using scholarly articles as resources.

The Literature on Learning a New Language and Age

"…Early beginners, through their longer exposure to L2, reach the necessary competence levels in their two languages sooner to allow transfer in both directions…" (Djigunovic, 2010).

hy are very young students especially gifted to pick up new languages quickly? The scholarship shows that younger learners "…have no awkwardness or inhibitions with the new language" and don't get too upset when they make mistakes (Cenoz, 2003, p. 77). As to whether or not younger learners "…soak up new languages" simply because the soak up information like a sponge soaks up water, Cenoz has his doubts. Indeed studies show younger…