Blog 21

There is a high increase in immigration for the past few years that has been ignored by educators.  Little is known about the situation of immigrant children and the struggles that teachers go through in the U.S trying to give them a better education. Latino children have different needs compared to the children that were born in the U.S.  Research shows that parental involvement increases students’ success. We want Latino parents to also be involved in their children’s education and need to be informed of what system the school is using to teach. The purpose of this research is to identify how Bilingual Education works and evaluate the importance for the Latino community to be informed on how much it impacts their children.

Research shows that parents are not aware that there are different approaches to teaching English language Learners, and which programs work better than others.  There were many older approaches but one of the main ones was “sink or swim”. In this program, repetition and scaffolding are the primary teaching tools. In the approach my interviewee described teachers make checks on whether or not students understand, and take steps to ensure students have resources to move ahead on their own.

In this study, I interviewed a Bilingual teacher who was involved in developing new methods to teach K-3 English Language Learners. Also the study will address the different types of methods of teaching that are being used in classrooms and which one is more effective. We want to know if students are learning English effectively and know what the struggles in the classrooms and home are. Latino children have different needs compared to the children that were born in the U.S. We want parents to also be involved in their children’s education and need to be informed of what system the school is using to teach. The study will be narrowed; it will not generally pick what system works better to teach Bilingual Education because situations are different in all the schools. Also, the study will not evaluate teacher training because teachers across the U.S use different teaching methods and are taught different ways to teach.

****The English-only, "sink or swim" method was a cruel failure for generations of immigrant and Native American children, leading to low academic achievement and high dropout rates. That's why the Bilingual Education.*****

Literature Review:

“Bilingual Education” by the National Association for Bilingual Education elaborates