Bilingualism
Essays

¶ … sign language in public settings for people who are deaf.

This is a paper that explores the economic and professional performance of Mexican-American and Chinese-Americans.

The following are descriptions of the 2 article reviews contained in the file. Sayahi (2011) conducts an interesting and detailed study in on code-switching in Tunisia. Analyzing the data form interviews with 12 Tunisians, Sayahi discovers that code-switching is limited to nouns and noun-phrases, that Tunisians who are university-educated are more likely to code-switch, and that it is unlikely that the French language threatens the maintenance of Arabic as a dominant language in Tunisia. Cruickshank (2008) offers a historical and contemporary look into Arabic-English bilingualism in New South Wales, Australia, offering insightful recommendations for ways government-supported Arabic instruction can improve after the Arabic language experienced a gradual slide into insignificance following events of the past decade.

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…

Both Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez frame language in terms of political and social power. Malcolm X and Richard Rodriguez both comment on the power of language to demark social status.

The world is changing and recent influxes of immigrants into America have presented a dilemma for educators. Some believe the bilingual education is necessary for those that do not speak English as their first language;…

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…

A content-focused approach to reading and writing instruction with this student. The ationale for this choice was based predominantly on the student's continued frustration and embarrassment about his difficulties with making progress in fluency in English. The goal was to embed specific language development strategies into content that the student would find engaging and respectful (i.e., content that most 10th-grade boys would find of interest). Content-focused approach. Chose baseball as the content area and based the student's reading, writing, and math goals on that topic. Many highly successful baseball players speak English as a second language, which the student found intriguing and empowering. As a sport, baseball highlights the individual personalities, characteristics, career and game statistics, and history of the game. In other words, this is a content-rich area that lends itself well to reading about players and teams, and writing opinions about player's skills and attributes—basically those characteristics that make them valuable players—and why players get traded. In addition, the promise of interesting math problems about baseball players is very rich. Because the student already had an understanding of the sport of baseball, fundamental background knowledge was not a difficulty. Further, by using interesting and age appropriate content, I was able to avoid the pitfall of simplifying the content instead of the language.

Literacy-based curriculum for students who speak English as a first language is a proven method for developing high levels of linguistic fluency—children are seen to acquire language skills quite readily with these techniques. Moreover, as strong language skills develop, they transfer into writing and reading. For students who are native English language speakers, working on literacy skills and practicing English in verbal, auditory, and written modes helps them to become fluent speakers, readers, and writers of English. However, this same approach to teaching students has not been demonstrated to work well with all English Language Learners. In fact, some programs using this approach devolve into the strategy that teachers just need to continue instruction according to this format until the students who are English Language Learners reach their performance targets. Nevertheless, the research literature on literacy development indicates that this uniform approach to instruction does not achieve desired level of language acquisition and academic performance in diverse societies, such as that of the United States. What the research does indicate, however, is that the cultural background of students is relevant to their learning styles. The differences among children and families carry over into the classroom, creating a unique mosaic of learning styles and cultural experience. Approaches to academic learning environments that are invitational and inclusive provide a promising foundation for achieving high levels of success for all students. Educational programs that articulate meaningful ways to include parents and families in their children's schooling are also able to consider and address the diversity that is based on economic and, perhaps, even health-related issues. A number of ethnic-based educational programs have found that student performance is enhanced when the cultural considerations are integral to the curriculum and the instruction. Culturally sensitive curricula and instruction have been shown to improve student engagement—a condition that is robustly related to academic performance. While ethnic-based educational programs are increasingly recognized to have academic and social benefits. Policy makers are taking the position that inclusive educational programs that work deliberately to reduce marginalizing students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds also do a better job of engaging students in academic learning—and the students' levels of success in these programs indicates a strong positive relationship between academic performance and inclusive, culturally-sensitive educational system.

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)