Friday, February 14, 2020

Bilingual Education Curriculum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Bilingual Education Curriculum - Essay Example It is then necessary to lay down the reasons why despite several convincing arguments on the effectiveness of bilingual education, the arguments and debates continue. And to shed light on the cloudy controversy, Crawford (1998) presented the ten misconceptions or common fallacies about bilingual education as follows: 1. English is losing ground to other languages in the United States. More of a panic view than an empirical one, Crawford (1998) acknowledged that there are more world languages spoken in the US now more than ever but quantitative, he argued and not a qualitative change from earlier periods. He pointedly added the concentrations of non-English language speakers common in the 19th century provided for by laws authorizing native language instruction in several states and territories. Children in big cities and rural areas attended bilingual and non-English schools with a diversity of French, Norwegian, Czech or Cherokee while "English survived without any help from government such as official-language legislation," (Crawford, 1998). 2. Newcomers to the United States are learning English more slowly now than in previous generations. Another unfounded belief, Crawford (1998) argued that recent immigrants "appear to be acquiring English more rapidly than ever before" while minority language speakers grow, bilinguals fluent in both native and English language "is growing even faster. Waggoner (1995) reported that between 1980 and 1990, the number of immigrants who spoke non-English languages at home increased by 59%, while the portion of this population that spoke English very well rose by 93% . Likewise, Crawford (1998) added that only 3 percent of US residents reported speaking English less (as compared to well and very well) while only a very insignificant portion spoke no English at all. Also, Veltman (1998) found that about 3 in 4 Hispanic immigrants were reportedly able to speak English on a daily basis after 15 years of residency, and that 70 percent of their children became monolingual English speakers 3. The best way to learn a language is through total immersion. Rodriguez (1982) and de la Pea (1991) were often cited to have "succeeded in school without a special program and acquired a very high level of English literacy," (Krashen, 1997) but it was found out, both had substantial advantages. Rodriguez grew up in an English-Speaking neighborhood in Sacramento, California instrumental in his informal immersion from classmates while de la Pea had the bilingual education advantage in Mexico until fifth grade, and was placed two grades backwards in his schooling in the United States. Crawford (1998) further argued "there is no credible evidence to support the "time on task" theory of language learning-- the claim that the more children are exposed to English, the more English they will learn" emphasizing quality over quantity of exposure while Krashen (1996) pointed out that second language input must also be comprehensible to promote second language acquisition. Crawford (1998) adde d that children left alone to learn on their own in an all-English classroom setting with little or without help via native lessons, English learning will be of little use. And that native instruction will make learning

Sunday, February 2, 2020

How far can acts of violence and coercion be attributed to beliefs and Essay

How far can acts of violence and coercion be attributed to beliefs and ideologies Discuss with reference to Block 6 and one oth - Essay Example In many parts of the globe today, there are places where violence is experienced. Violence however, can be prevented through various ways. Evidence shows that there are various implementations that can help do away with violence in the society. Among these implementations are: Developing good relationships between parents and children Education on how to prevent maltreatment Practicing gender equality Having programs in schools that address gender issues and attitudes Reducing the availability of alcohol since the effects are known to be negative to the users Supporting the economic empowerment to avoid misunderstandings among individuals. These are some of the strategies that can be implemented to make certain that violence is done away with. Coercion on the other hand, refers to the use of forceful activity to make an individual or a group of people take to take part in something in a manner which is involuntary. This means it is a situation where individuals are forced to undertak e some activities without their will. Coercion can be in action or inaction through the use of intimidation and threats and some other forces of pressure. This is therefore an act that violates the free will of individuals because they take part in activities when they do not want to. Coercion generally includes blackmail, extortion and torture among other forceful-natured actions. It is an act forcing individuals to act against their own interests resulting to cooperation by the individuals being coerced. In this case, they have to cooperate because there are consequences faced by those who are not willing to do so. To avoid these consequences, they end up obeying all the rules and regulations they are given making sure that they do what is expected of them. This essay seeks to explain the degree to which the acts of violence and coercion can be attributed to beliefs and ideologies. The two issues that will be discussed in this essay are Religion and economy. These are some of the issues that have been influencing how people live with each other for a long time now all over the world. This gives a clear impression that they are sensitive issues and affect the lives of people. They have direct impacts on lives of people because practices therein are undertaken in day-today life. They are among those factors that contribute to differences and the ways in which people associate with each other. This essay will therefore cover Europe as a region in the world to see how these two issues had influence on humans and to what degree they can be attributed to beliefs and ideologies. Looking at the first issue of religion, it is clear that individuals were ordered on what to believe in and how they were to carry out their worship. The nature of the teachings in churches would not change rapidly because there was a specific thing that was supposed to be taught. Following the rules and regulations, it was quite hard for the church leaders to teach what they chose to becau se they could not do it. Attending the communion was a compulsory thing which mans individuals had no choice but to do what they were told. The fact that individuals were forced to worship in some way following rules and regulations they were not willing to, made them have issues with their leaders and at times engaged in violent activities. These leaders practiced coercion out of beliefs that there are some things that were not supposed to be practiced in churches (Wallace, 2004, 48). They came up with the idea that they should control