Mayor Bloomberg recently decided that bilingual education will continue to be available through the New York public school system.
Supporters of his decision believe that bilingual schooling helps children adapt into the English speaking mainstream of children who attend public schools and learn English.
This is a changed stance for Bloomberg, who during his election campaign in 2001 was an avid supporter of newcomers’ full immersion in American culture. The Mayor decided that some classes in public schools should continue to be taught in mother tongues. The Mayor assigned $20 million from the City’s budget to the English Language Learner Program. The money will cover the costs of teacher training and a new academy for teachers, where 107 educational specialists hired by Bloomberg will teach.
The Immigrant’s Dream
“Our goal is to improve the educational achievements of those children who have to learn English first,” Bloomberg said at a conference, which took place in Battery Park. Referring to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island offshore, the mayor said that he was standing on “a historical site, where immigrants arrived before entering the City in search of a better life.”
“The goal of the reform at hand is to give the children of newcomers an opportunity to pursue the American Dream,” Bloomberg added. By changing his stand on bilingual education in New York, the Mayor is hoping to please the Hispanic constituents who voted for him, and whose support he’ll need during his reelection.
The three main methods of bilingual teaching currently used in public schools will be sustained. The first one provides a ‘transitional period’ during which the child learns English but also other subjects, such as mathematics or history, taught in the mother tongue. The second method, called “English as a Second Language,” allows the child to spend a majority of each school day studying English. Only later are other subjects gradually added. The third method, “Dual Language,” entails teaching in two languages. English speaking students, as well as those who are only able to communicate in a foreign language, participate in classes taught in two languages—English, and Spanish or Chinese, for example. The first school in the country offering classes based exclusively on the “Dual Language Method”—Asian Studies and Dual Language High School—is located on the Lower East Side and should open its doors to the public in September.
Immersion vs. Adaptation Stress
Linguists believe immersion to be the most effective method of teaching foreign languages. Immersion, as opposed to submersion (teaching foreign languages through mother tongues), forces the student to think in a foreign language and use it as a tool for expressing thoughts sooner.
“During my classes I try to speak English only. I show the context in which a particular sentence was produced. It brings very good results,” says Juan, an English teacher at The Queens Community Center. “I admit that sometimes, when dealing with an abstraction I add some comment in Spanish making it easier to understand for my Spanish-speaking students, who make up a majority of my pupils. I try to avoid doing that as it’s not fair to the Chinese, Polish and Pakistani students, who also attend my classes. “
For students, who all their lives spoke Chinese or Spanish, and now have to attend regular classes taught in English, education means stress. Dorota, the mother of 9-year-old Michal, says, “ For my child, school meant a lot of pressure for the first two years. My son didn’t want to speak at home or school. At home we’ve been using Polish since we came here three years ago. Today he speaks English fluently, of course, but I know that getting to this point has cost him a lot.”
This type of stress may be reduced through bilingual methods of teaching.
Those who learn a second language in the United States are usually members of immigrant families who use a mother tongue within their own community. Members of an immigrant community wanting to blend into American society or get better-paid jobs have no choice but to learn English. Being bilingual is a great asset, the key to participating in the multicultural reality of this country.
Teaching methods offered by institutions such as the “dual language method,” are great ways of educating immigrants’ children. Bilingual teaching methods used in the initial years of a child’s education will reduce learning-related stress.
Unfortunately, at the moment bilingual classes are only available in Spanish and Chinese.
For changing his mind about bilingual education, Mayor Bloomberg stands to gain the gratitude of thousands of immigrants and their children.
