How Bilingual Education Can Be An Asset For Students

Bilingual education is considered by many as a gift that will provide students more opportunities to understand more people from other parts of the globe. It also gives them a personal advantage whether for business or employment purposes.

This is one opportunity that should be made available to everyone except that lately, there are talks that while bilingual education can be advantageous to white students, it can be disadvantageous for immigrants. The competitiveness of the United States somehow depends on having a labor force that can speak more than one language.

PBS NewsHour said that in California alone, employers would prefer to have bilingual employees regardless of the size of their business and the sector where they belong. English and Spanish classes are now being offered in elementary schools in Texas so that these students with the hope of developing bilingual students once they reach middle school.

The said bilingual education program, however, would be illegal in Massachusetts after majority of the voters agreed that only the English language be made mandatory except when another language would prove advantageous to those whose native language is English. Hechinger Report said David Nieto of the University of Colorado's BUENO Center for Multicultural Education believes that such law is unjust and discourages bilingual children to excel in their schools.

Among the states that require educational instruction to be made done only in English are New Hampshire, Arizona and California. Meanwhile, bilingual education will arm students with valuable skills that will help them develop language proficiency not only in English but also in a second language, as well as make them proud of their culture.

Through bilingual education, Center for Advanced Linguistics said students are able to maintain their native language while adding another language. They develop pride in their own culture while developing an understanding of others.