Dive Brief:
- In an essay posted on Valerie Strauss' Washington Post column, the Answer Sheet, Yale University linguistic professor Claire Bowern argues that bilingual education is beneficial for all students, not just the affluent.
- As proof that bilingual education is useful regardless of socioeconomic status, Bowern cites two studies: one zeroing in on children of Spanish-speaking immigrants and the other on aboriginal teens. Both groups were economically disadvantaged, both had bilingual opportunities, and both scored higher on standardized assessments.
- Additionally, Bowern sets out to dispel the notion that bilingual education promotes decreased English fluency with the point that children of immigrants become fluent in a country's major language within a generation.
Dive Insight:
Bowern's essay was spurred by recent discussions on bilingual education in California. Last month, the state's legislators sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown that gives 2016 voters the opportunity to annul Proposition 227, a 1998 bill banning bilingual education by requiring most schools to only teach in English.
Bowern is not alone in her promotion of bilingual education. Researchers at York University in Toronto recently reported that learning to juggle two languages actually strengthens the brain's functions and improves attention.