legal concerns

1. Chapter 6
Theories & Methods of Bilingual
Education

2. Important Areas
• Bilingual education’s legal evolution
• Issues related to teaching in two
languages
• Organizational models of instruction in US
schools
• Instructional strategies
• Updated report

3. Bilingual Ed: A quick history
• Always been bilingual education (since 1664 Dutch, French,
German, etc…)
• After WWII, language minority students were seen to be “culturally
and linguistically deprived” and disproportionably placed in special
classes due to low IQ scores on ENGLISH tests
• Cuban crisis in Florida created new demand for language instruction
in schools
• Bilingual has been seen as “remedial”
• English as Official Language movement (1980s) created politically
charged discussions on whether students should learn in their L1 or
L2!
• States are in control of education so it varies from state to state

4. Legal Evolution: TESOL/NCATE
Standard 2
• Title VI (Civil Rights Act) 1964 provided minimum standard for education of
any student by prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national
origin
• 1968 Bilingual Education Act – first federal law related to bilingual children
• In may, 1970, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) districts with 5% or more bilingual
students had to provide language services, prohibited them from placing
students without testing into special education, required communication with
parents in a language they could understand – was AR effected at this
point?
• Lau v. Nichols – 1974 – benchmark case – practices that excluded children
from effective education based on language deemed illegal
• EEOA – Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 – language forefront
• 1974 Reauthorization of the Bilingual Education Act refined service to students
– Equal educational opportunities to ALL children
– Eliminated poverty as requirement
– Included Native-American children
– Provided English-speaking children to enroll in bilingual education programs
– Funding for teacher training
– Technical assistance
– Dissemination of instructional materials

5. More decisions/legislation
• Castañeda v. Pickard (1981) (EEOA)
• Fifth Circuit court outlined three criteria
– Sound educational theory
– Adequately trained personnel & sufficient resources
– Evaluated as effective for overcoming language barriers
• Plyer v. Doe (1982) – illegal immigrant children allowed to attend
public school (14th amendment)
• No Child Left Behind (2001) –provides funding for language
instruction programs for LEP and immigrant students, provided they
meet the same standards as all children are expected to meet.
– Revision September 13, 2006
– Criticism: NABE states that NCLB does not consider resource
inequities, critical shortages of teachers trained to serve ELLs,
inadequate instructional materials, substandard school facilities…

6. Issues Involving Bilingual
Education
• Underachievement
– Ethnic minority groups, except for Asian Americans, attain lower
levels of education
– Out of 62% who attended college, only 5.6% were of Hispanic
origin – only 3.3% of higher education faculty are Hispanic
• Dropouts
– 27% dropout for Hispanics, 3.6% for Asian Americans
– Hispanic Dropout project suggested three things – high quality
curriculum/instruction, teacher become knowledgeable about
students & families, professional development for teachers
• Overachievement
– Stereotype the Asian American students as top of the class
– Within group Khmer & Lao children have a lower GPA than white
students whereas Vietnamese, Chinese Vietnamese, Japanese,
Korean, Chinese and Hmong students are above

7. Issues Involving ELD Students
• Placement
• Retention/promotion
• Segregation
• Culturally based teacher expectations p.
155

8. Organizational Models
• Submersion – sink or swim
• English as a second language
• Pull-out ESL
• ESL class period
• Content-based ESL
• Sheltered Instruction (SDAIE)
• chart

9. Bilingualism in Arkansas
• ESL is official policy of the state
• Still important to consider the following
– Subtractive bilingualism
– Additive bilingualism
– Which is better for individuals and society as a whole?
• Newcomer Centers
– Focus on learning language as quickly as possible –
video
• FLES (language learning in elementary)