Ms. Aragon and her young son recently moved to the United States from Mexico. She is considering whether to enroll him in a bilingual education program or immerse him in an English-only school. How would you advise her?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: There are several advantages to bilingual education. Providing instruction in the native tongue lets minority children know that their heritage is respected. It also prevents inadequate proficiency in both languages. Minority children who gradually lose their first language as a result of being taught the second end up limited in both languages for a time. This circumstance leads to serious academic difficulties and is believed to contribute to the high rates of school failure and dropout among low-SES Hispanic youngsters. In classrooms where both languages are integrated into the curriculum, minority children are more involved in learning, participate more actively in class discussions, and acquire the second language more easily—gains that predict better academic achievement. In contrast, when teachers speak only in a language that children can barely understand, minority children display frustration, boredom, and withdrawal. For U.S. non-English-speaking minority children, whose native languages are not valued by the larger society, a strategy that promotes children's native-language and literacy skills while they learn English is the best approach.