Mikhil Patel APLAC, Period 2 Spencer Narrative Draft Pacing Embed reflection Language plays a great role in the process of transmitting knowledge: everybody learns a language at a very early stage of their life and this means of communication will be used throughout in order to give and receive knowledge. In the course of just one day we claim that we know something just because we have read it somewhere or somebody has told us about it. We can therefore see what a powerful tool language is. The statement in the question, however, does not just mean that language is one of the most important ways of knowing, but even that it controls every other one of them with the capacity of influencing or determining our way of knowing the world. At a first sight this thesis seems quite logical: it would be hard for us to imagine a school or any way of transmitting knowledge without the use of language. In my early years, I was brought up in a bilingual household of English and Hindi. My parents, both ethnic Asian Indians, were immigrants that came to the United States in their teens, hoping for a brighter future. My dad was born in England to a middle class family in the suburbs. Naturally, he adopted English as his primary language, and Hindi as his secondary language for conversation in his home. My mother was quite the opposite. Being born in India, she did not grow up in a bilingual environment. Born to a middle class family, she did not have the financial means of going to an
Compared to other Countries, America stands less developed in bilingual abilities due to language requirements taught within our school systems curriculum. Being bilingual is an important skill to have in America, with multiple different prominent languages spoken within our country other than English, we are constantly surrounded by language. The problem that our country is dealing with now, is that we started with the idea that anyone that moved to America should adapt to our languages, instead of us Americans, taking the initiative to learn a new languages. In a report by Hyon Shin and Robert Kominski, showed the number of citizens in America that spoke a language other than English. The “data on speakers of languages other than English
Cultural Diversity has lead schools to promote dual language and bilingual programs for ELL students. However, raising bilingual children according to Marsha Rosenberg is not something that simply happens. Parents must carefully consider how they will raise their children in their new culture. Unfortunately, many parents often forget that neglecting their primary language in the process of raising their children will only hurt them in the long run. However, what they fail to understand is that our current society insists on developing diverse learners, who can speak two or more languages and are diverse (Gensee, n.d). Therefore, in order to raise bilingual students they parents must provide the children with rich experiences at home as well as in a variety of settings (Broekhuizen, n.d.). Furthermore, families need to maintain a close family unity and sense of belonging when dealing with the bilingual issue at home.
In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.
Language is a very import part in our life, we carry it with us through all the steps, processes, moments experiences of our life, language built us and make us grow and the most important thing is that it grows with us, changes, modifies itself, and becomes more appropriate and specific. As we pointed out language help us to create and understand the world around us, gives meaning to everything and gives birth to emotions and feelings; a world without language would be meaningless and very lonely. Language it’s what help us grow up, the more we learn through it, the more we desire to experience and study in deep, leading us to new prospective, opening our mind to more specific and deep concepts, ideas, projects, goals. We really can’t
In his essay, “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez, goes into detail about the struggles he is faced with growing up as a Bilingual Hispanic in America. He was an immigrant living amongst upper class American’s with his family. Strictly speaking Spanish gave him a sense of safety and comfort. In school, he would not feel comfortable speaking and was not sure where he belonged. When he first started school, he was a part of the bilingual program up until his parents were informed if would be better for him and his family to learn English. Rodriguez struggled at first with the battle of losing the closeness he had with his family. Feeling like he had lost his cultural background and let his father down. Explaining the struggles, he overcame to become who he is today.
A big part of the problem is that they do not get enough experience speaking or writing in their parents’ native language (Population Council). However the bigger part of the problem is most immigrants’ method of parenting. Chinese immigrants’ way of raising their children to speak and write both Chinese and English fluently has proven that it is possible to raise the next generations to be bilingual. According to a study by Eddie Kuo, over 90 percent of the studied Chinese-American families mainly spoke Chinese at home, proving that Chinese are the only immigrants who truly hold on to their language everywhere they go. That is why Chinese is the most common language around the world, before Hindu and English (Ethnologue). It is such a big advantage to know multiple languages; bilingual people always have higher chances of getting hired, especially if they are in the community in which that their languages are commonly used. Other ethnic groups should really learn from the Chinese and preserve their native language.
Many people still debate the benefits of bilingual education. Even if the program were supported, there would be no way to insure that it has successfully achieved its goal. “The problem with this method (bilingual education) is that there is no objective way to measure whether a child has learned enough English to be placed in class where academic instruction is entirely in English. As a result, some children have been kept in native language classes for six years” (Hayakawa 577). Not only is there no way to measure if a student is ready to be out of the program, those students who were stuck in the program for several years infers the feeling of being out-casted. Children complain of systematically being segregated from their English-speaking peers being put in to the bilingual
The problem with both bilingual education and English-as-a-second language instruction in the United States lies in our unwillingness to treat English for non-speakers as an academic subject (Haas, 2007). While the bilingual programs in California are thought to be mostly for people who speak Spanish, there are also Asian students that need to be taught proper English before continuing their education. As one anonymous teacher points out: "I have had 32 different languages spoken in my classroom over a 25-year period. Eighty-four languages are spoken in our district."(Anon 1998 & Haas 2007). Which for most teachers mean that it is both educationally and economically impossible to teach every student in their own native language.
Introduction - Being a part of a bilingual speaking family, like with my mom and dad who are Chinese immigrants, is an experience that no one can imagine unless you are part of a bilingual speaking family. Experiences such as knowing a language that not many of our neighbors don't know can be frustrating for both sides. Being young in my early years, learning English was not only a struggle for me but for my family. I noticed that my parents struggled learning english and communicating with the outside world. From buying groceries to paying for the bills, I observed the painful experiences that my parents persevere through all these years. I was glad public schools gave me the opportunity to not only learn English but to help my family live in this English superior society.
Language is common in the world it is the way humans communicate and relate to things with one another.Language is a powerful tool in the world because it can give power to people and can be used to manipulate through renaming people,stereotyping a person and using a euphemistic approach in addressing a person.
Growing up I never had a second language that I could feel secure and connect with my family. The only language I speak fluently is the primary language of America. Since I am adopted and not bloodrealted to my family, the opportunity to get a sense of my family’s history has always been a challenge. My family’s ancestry tree is completely different from one another. I also don’t have another language I can connect with my friends in the halls at school. With two different parents, authors Martin Espada and Ricardo Rodriguez have contrasting views on the subject of bilingualism. Across America, the arising multicultural complication of native people speaking another language than the “considered” language in the country has created a
Bilingualism and home language can be encouraged by the educator to ensure that the student learns successfully. As an ELL student it can be a challenge to learn a new language, this is why educators should allow students to use their first language to promote a meaningful connection with the second language that is being learned. At home it is quite evident that ELL students communicate using their primary language, therefore at school it is a complete turnaround. Educators, at this point can promote literacy skills in which the native language is used, but then transferred into skills that are valuable to learn English. The home language use in effect influences English learning in maintenance of cognitive aspects in bilingualism by the ELL students (Academic Writing Tips, 2011). For example, encouraging collaboration and peer groups of students of the same academic level, but of various cultures, will promote the student to use their language sparingly, but also become familiar with the second language. ELL students have to have the confidence and courage to learn a second language and develop the literacy skills that are involved in learning, this is when parental and community resources should be available to incorporate English acquisition skills.
Language is an important part of our lives. I remember when I arrived to USA I could speak a little English. I went to school to improve my language, reading and writing skills; even now I am learning my second language, without English I cannot survive in this new environment. Now I am raising my own kids and I want them to have this important skill, this privilege of knowing a second language, language of their parents and grandparents. By looking at studies of bilingual children, research shows how important it is for a child to learn a second language. Raising a bilingual child is a benefit because it improves social skills, academic proficiency, introduces child to a different culture, and prepares for the future.
For many immigrants, in America, language barrier is one of the many obstacles that they have to face. Ashima encountered this barrier when she was at the hospital for Gogol’s birth. “Patty smiles, a little too widely, and suddenly Ashima realizes her error, knows she should have said “fingers” and “toes.”” Ashima realized that she made a mistake. This hurts Ashima because she tried hard to learn English like many other immigrants. Immigrants not only have to worry about learning another language but they also have to worry about teaching their kids their native language. Usually, when people move and have kids in America, the kids have a hard time learning their parent’s native language. Ashima and Ashoke wanted to avoid this problem so they sent Gogol and Sonia to Bengali language and culture lessons every other Saturday because it failed “to unsettle them that their children sound just like Americans, expertly conversing in a language that still at times confounds them in accents they are accustomed not to trust.” This shows the language barrier between the parents and the kids. When Gogol and Sonia speak they sound American
Since Asia is a vast and thriving country, there are plenty of different languages—Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese are just some common languages that are in United States. However, language barriers present a problem to Asian Americans especially in the older generations. “One of the contributing factor to the differences between AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) group is English proficiency…” (Migrante21). The reason why English proficiency is a factor in Asian Americans is because some Asian American households only have one language spoken at home. By retaining their languages at home, the elderly has very little chances to speak English unless they are speaking to their grandchildren or their children. This type of language isolation is very prevalent in my own household where my mom and dad sometimes have a tough time speaking in English and would often stumble on their own words. This is because in the household,