USA - Push for Official Language Would Challenge Bilingual Schools

[Harold F. Schiffman]

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USA - Push for Official Language Would Challenge Bilingual Schools

Written by Paul Kita     Thursday, 15 February 2007

Bolstered by recent polling evidence, politicians and a pro-English action
group are pushing for the adoption of English as the official U.S.
language. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spoke at a ProEnglish
press conference Wednesday, focusing his criticisms on lax immigration
standards and bilingual education. "I think the federal government should
finance a nationwide program, working with the states, so that anybody who
is legally here who needs to be immersed in English has an opportunity to
learn the language as rapidly as possible and have the best possible
future," Gingrich said.

Proposed legislation would require the federal government to conduct
business in English but would not place restrictions on language in
businesses. Specifically, Gingrich said he recommended legislation
requiring an English test as part of becoming a U.S. citizen, rescinding
current law requiring the government to offer access to documents in
multiple languages and the conversion of bilingual schools into "immersion
centers." "Our 20 year experiment with bilingual education has been a
disaster and we should focus on immersion in English," Gringrich said.
"Immigrant parents want their children to do better than they did back
home - that's a major reason for coming here ... and that inherently
requires mastering English."

Immersion centers would preserve the English language, said K.C. McAlpin,
executive director of ProEnglish, by teaching core classes like math,
science and history in English while requiring non-English speakers to
take supplementary English courses. Bilingual schools introduce English
gradually and teach students some subjects in their native languages for a
time. An immersion center would require students to practice more English
than a bilingual school, McAlpin said, meaning they would perform better
on English proficiency tests. However, some critics claim immersion
centers would promote a "sink or swim" learning environment. "This doesn't
work for all children - especially those from poor communities coming from
backgrounds with parents who are less educated,"  said James Crawford,
president of the Institute for Language and Education Policy.


With the current bilingual school system, Crawford said more people are
learning English at a faster rate. Crawford said the issue is less about
education than politics. "This is a mean-spirited effort to punish
immigrants," he said. "Every time there is a backlash against immigrants,
we see this issue appear." Most students are already immersed in English,
surrounded by the language in the world between home and school, said
Christopher Loya, principal at Davis Bilingual Magnet School in Tucson,
Ariz. "The goal of dual-language education is teaching students to be
bi-literary," Loya said. "Bilingual programs are not anti-English, they're
English-plus." Loya said his school has not been directly affected by a
proposition supported by more than 70 percent of voters last year making
English Arizona's official language. Although Arizona's Nogales Unified
School District No. 1 switched to an English-immersion curriculum after
the vote, Superintendent Guillermo Zamudio said he cannot compare test
results to the district's bilingual days because state education
requirements have changed.


Sixty percent of Americans said Congress and the president are not doing
enough to protect English's role as the common, unifying language of the
United States, according to data compiled by Zogby International. "Anybody
who comes here ought to make the crucible or the assimilation process to
be an American," said Arizona state Rep. Russell K. Pearce, R-Mesa, the
chief proponent of the state's ballot measure. "But that doesn't mean they
can't maintain their own culture at home." If the federal government were
to make English the official language, state governments could still
decide whether to implement the legislation. Two Republican senators,
Steve King, Iowa, and James Inhofe, Okla., plan to introduce legislation
on the matter later this year.

Paul Kita
Scripps Howard Foundation Wire
http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5313&Itemid=85

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