Short Answers to Common Questions about Bilingual Education. Special Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This report answers questions commonly asked about bilingual education in the United States, by persons who may be puzzled and wish to have more information. The questions addressed are: (1) What exactly is bilingual education and why is it so important to Hispanics? (2) Other immigrant groups of the past did not need bilingual education. Why is it needed now? (3) Why not concentrate on learning English by using it as the exclusive language of instruction? (4) Why didn't the U.S. Supreme Court require bilingual education? (5) Doesn't the use of the home language in school become a crutch that can slow down children's transition into English? (6) The rationale for bilingual education seems sound enough, but why does it also have to be bicultural? Why do the schools have to teach anything other than the mainstream American culture? (7) Isn't there a greater danger of segregation in bilingual education than in monolingual education because of the language grouping practices that are used? (8) Why is the research evidence on the effectiveness of bilingual education so inconclusive? It seems uncertain whether bilingual education really "works." (9) Quebec has had major problems with bilingualism. Isn't bilingual education going to create the same problems here? (KH)