The Daily Texan Online – Josephine MaClean
“Bilingual education gives kids more than just the ability to speak two languages. Despite this, bilingual education programs are not being implemented as numerously or as rapidly as they should be due to outdated fears. Although the number of these programs have seen an increase in recent years, there exists an antiquated notion that teaching a child two languages will undermine English, and this still remains a barrier to the widespread acceptance of these increasingly necessary programs. Some educators even believe that a dual language program could be harmful to English language learners. “Oftentimes district administrations are under the impression that the sooner kids are immersed in [English] the faster they learn English,” said Rebecca Callahan, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. In fact, it’s the other way around. While being completely immersed in another culture may get rid of an accent, kids whose primary language is Spanish suffer more from being transplanted into a totally English environment.”(more)