Electronic resource: Article posting at LPRU, Arizona State University

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Language Policy Research Unit (LPRU) www.language-policy.org
Educational Policy Studies Laboratory (EPSL) www.asu.edu/educ/epsl
Arizona State University

The Language Policy Research Unit has just posted the following new article
from James Crawford.

The article may be viewed at
http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/LPRU/features/brief8.htm

"Hard Sell: Why Is Bilingual Education So Unpopular with the American Public?"
James Crawford

...While attention has been paid to the rhetoric of English-only proponents,
arguments supporting bilingual education have rarely been subjected to
analysis. This paper will seek to remedy that omission, exploring the
ways in which bilingual education has been framed by the programs's advocates
as well as its critics, and the relative success or failure of these
approaches. It will begin with a brief overview of voter attitudes
toward bilingual education before campaign arguments have been heard.
It will consider opposing hypotheses about sources of opposition to the
program. It will analyze the various paradigms that have been used to
explain bilingual education and evaluate the strategies that have been used to
resist English-only campaigns. It will conclude with some recommendations
on improving advocacy for language-minority students.


LPRU, under the direction of Terrence G. Wiley, with assistance from
Senior Researcher Wayne E. Wright, promotes research and policy analysis
on the challenges and opportunities posed by national and global
multilingualism. LPRU priorities include: a) interdisciplinary studies
to promote equitable language policies in education and society; b)
demographic studies with policy implications for language rights and
preservation; c) historical and contemporary studies on language contact,
conflict, and minority language accommodation and promotion; and, d)
media, legal and legislative analyses to inform public discourse and
policy making in state, national, and international contexts.

www.language-policy.org