Ch. 6 Reflection

Theories and Methods of Bilingual Education

I found the page on "Ten Common Fallacies about Bilingual Education" to be interesting. Many things in it (such as "total immersion" in a language is the best way to learn language) were things I had heard before. It's interesting to know that many of those things have no real credible evidence backing them up and that a lot of common things we hear about language are not really true.

I also thought it was interesting about how "The Hispanic Dropout Project found that teachers may make one of the two choices that undermine minority students' achievement: either to blame the students and their families for school failure or to excuse the students' poor performance..." I know as a teacher it is important to know how to balance many things in the classroom, and you also must balance your bilingual students in a way that you are treating them fairly. You shouldn't be too hard on them, but you shouldn't let them slip through the cracks and let them go either. As always, parental support and involvement is most always a very helpful tool for children in school.

I also like the idea of Newcomer Centers. I think it is a good idea to allow children new to this country a chance to be educated in an "emotionally safe educational atmosphere." Where it allows rapid development of english and improves self esteem instead of lessening it. It can be terrifying to be totally submerged in an english speaking classroom of kids and not knowing any of the language. This can quickly become detrimental to self esteem and participation in the class as a whole.