You Have to Be Bilingual Before You Get The Benefits: Bilingual Education

Teacher Julia Puentes, left, high-fives student Mathew Botros, 9, center, during an English class at the Coral Way K-8 Center, the nation's oldest bilingual school, in Miami. At right is Duna Lopez, 9.

In our neuroscience seminar, Valerie Flores discussed her dissertation about bilinguals possibly having strengthened executive functions. Strengthened executive functions in bilinguals allow for better performance on tasks involving language, as well as protection against cognitive deterioration. Remarkably, bilinguals show a delay in the onset of Alzheimer’s by approximately four years.

Flores noted that two processes in executive functioning, inhibiting and shifting are areas in which bilinguals have advantages over their monolingual counterparts. According to Flores, bilinguals have the task of switching between two languages and cultural systems, which would require inhibition of one language and shifting towards the other vocabulary and grammar. In order to better measure the advantages of bilingualism, Flores focuses on the special population of bilinguals: language brokers, who are individuals that translate materials in a range of difficulty in multiple setting for family or friends every day. These individuals engage in more inhibiting and shifting as they are more often translating. They have improved grades and higher standardized test scores, leading to the idea that these individuals do have strengthened executive functions.

A little language broker

According to Flores’ research, bilingualism has definitive advantages, but there are still difficulties that come with the identity. An article published in the Huffington Post, entitled “U.S. Bilingual Education Challenge: Students Learning English as Second Language at Risk”, marks some of the issues that come with trying to become bilinguals just to be able to learn. The article points out that in the 2009-2010 school year there were “4.7 million students classified as ‘English language learners’ – those who have not yet achieved proficiency in English”. These children require special programs that teach them a new language while also learning the same material their English-dominant classmates are learning. Our schools are not equipped to give these children the programs they need; most English learners live in low income areas with large populations, so the amount of students per qualified teacher is enormous.

Furthermore, there is a debate in our country over what kind of teaching program would most effectively teach these children. The article states “Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas from George Mason University in Virginia studied more than 6 million student records and found that full-immersion bilingual programs in which native and nonnative students are given instruction in both languages are the most effective.” Despite this, California, Massachusetts and Arizona have banned bilingual programs. The racism and general xenophobia leads to these children not receiving effective education. “In California, 59 percent of secondary school English learners were found to have been in U.S. schools for more than six years without reaching English proficiency.” This is in stark contrast with the little girl at the beginning of the article. Duna Lopez moved from Spain and was placed in Coral Way Bilingual K-8 Center. She did not know a word of English, but after seven months she learned English and is incredibly active in her class. It is obvious that bilingualism can have advantages, but our schools need to promote it effectively if our English learners can ever succeed, and go from being monolingual to bilingual.

Work Cited:

Ramos, Zuania. "U.S. Bilingual Education Challenge: Students Learning English As Second Language At Risk." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Apr. 2013. Web.