Research Shows That Bilingual Ed Does Work

Re “Bilingual Education Gets an F (for Farce) Grade,” Letters, Oct. 13:

Mary Margaret Silva claims that bilingual education has produced “mostly all negative results.” The scientific research says otherwise. Nearly every scholar who has reviewed the published research has concluded that bilingual education works. Children in bilingual programs acquire at least as much English as children in all-English immersion programs and usually acquire more.

The most recent review of this research, by Jay Greene of the Manhattan Institute, found that use of the native language has positive effects and that “efforts to eliminate the use of the native language in instruction ... harm children by denying them access to beneficial approaches.”

Those who profit from bilingual education are not its advocates, as Silva claims, but the children in the programs. They acquire English and develop their first language at no extra cost.

Stephen Krashen

Los Angeles