Considering Bilingual Classes
Thank you for encouraging discussion regarding bilingual education in your March 30 editorial “All Sides Deserve Their Say on Bilingual Education Issues.”
My school district, Orange Unified, is making a stab at discussion now that the vote to apply for a waiver has already been passed by the school board. The fact is that very few in Orange were aware that applying for a waiver was the true intention of the vote. Though the debate was heated, with hundreds of parents and teachers protesting, it was seen by many as an antagonistic call for a study of the bilingual program, not an attempt to do away with it.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that limited English proficient children have been the ugly stepchildren in Orange. Having taught bilingual kids for the past 13 years, I have seen certain individual administrators do what they could for them. Nonetheless, the commitment to these children from both the district and our professional association has been minimal. The results of our lack of concern has at times been tragic.
Thank you again for asking people to talk to one another. It seems a shame that you would have to remind us.
JANE MEDINA
Orange
* I would like to respond to your editorial on bilingual education. I am a member of the South Coast Literacy Council and a volunteer teacher of English as a Second Language two nights a week. I am also a volunteer teacher’s aide in high school in English and American history classes that are between bilingual and mainstream. The main problem with the present bilingual programs is that it provides no motivation for the students to learn English. Why bother to use English when you can converse in your native tongue?
In ESL classes, I have taught students who have never gone to school and students who have graduated college, and they were all motivated and worked hard. We never used their native languages. One group of six students, two of whom had graduated from high school and four of whom had finished between fourth and ninth grades, came from Mexico, Guatemala, Switzerland, Syria, China and Korea. They learned to talk and write and helped each other. They had been in the United States from three months to three years, and they varied in age from 18 to 29.
In the high school classes, many of the students seem not to care whether they learn, and they disrupt the classes so that those students who want to learn are deprived. They pay little attention because it is difficult for them to understand everything and it’s more fun to goof off. Many have little respect for authority and constantly disobey teacher’s requests and drive them to distraction.
I believe that foreign students should be put into an English-only environment from kindergarten through third grade. Students starting after third grade should be given English study only for three to six months and then should be put into the regular curriculum. Of course it will be hard for them, but our parents succeeded, and they will, too.
HOWARD NIEDERMAN
San Clemente
* I disagree with the current method of bilingual education. As a former student of the public school system, I am woefully disappointed in its ability to teach a second language. In middle school and high school, I studied Spanish for six years. I now have a mediocre ability to speak “pidgin” Spanish.
The majority of this capacity to speak the language came from my exposure in the work environment, learning to speak medical Spanish. In that situation, there was no alternative. In order to communicate with Spanish-speaking patients, I had to speak their language.
As a parent, I wanted my children to be able to speak a second language fluently. Six years ago, a Spanish immersion program was started in the local public schools, Saddleback Valley School District. The concept of immersion had been used with success in New York (Hebrew), San Francisco (Chinese), Montreal (French) and locally in Culver City (Spanish).
Starting from kindergarten, the children are taught only in Spanish except that a second teacher instructs on English grammar for a small portion of the day. The students are unaware that their primary teacher is bilingual since she or he speaks only in Spanish.
The first two to three months were difficult. My daughter was at times frustrated by her inability to understand her teacher. But she soon began to understand Spanish like a native. By the end of first grade, near complete comprehension was achieved. She currently can learn any subject in either English or Spanish without difficulty. I am told by Hispanic friends that her pronunciation is indistinguishable from a native Latino.
Our second daughter has since begun the same program and at the end of first grade is achieving similar success. This is all occurring in an English-only household. Similar programs would work in the reverse with non-English speakers. Current second language programs place non-English speakers at a disadvantage in the current American educational and work environment with distinct adverse economic impact.
GEORGE SCHIFFMAN, M.D.
Laguna Hills
