Bilingualism and Bilingual Education Justifications and Rationales

Bilingual Education and Heterogeneity  Linguistic diversity  economic development  social structure  education and availability of resources  cultural practices and traditions  religious differences  political participation and traditions  values, norms and basic personality traits  patterns and traditions of family line  Bilingualism related to total structure of political, economic and religious institutions.

Settings  Historical variables  US ethnic groups Indigenous: Autochthonous and Incorporated Immigrant: with historical and linguistic ties, free-floating, involuntary

Institutional settings  Institutions = agencies for crystallizing and consolidating individual attitudes  Institutional variables --> affect the character of ethnic groups and the relationship between educational provisions for minorities and mainstream system of education –US: * peripheral * parallel and independent –Some variables: Methods (selecting and retaining students, total length of formal education, etc..) and status (high vs. low)

Behavioral settings  All systems of education in heterogeneous society are related to distribution of power = definitions of valued populations –mainstream system  manipulate demands for bilingual education  explain support or rejection to bil. ed.  embrace of all social strata  Just equilibrium =understanding of salient differences within the general attitudes to life of individuals and groups

External and Community-type settings  External –Country’s relationships to other states  Examples: Japan, Germany, Cuba.  Communities –Geographically isolated  Diffused or enclaves –Bounded comm.. physically, politically or culturally and socially. –Segregated  Rural or Urban (ghettos and barrios) –Mobility and migration factors

Sources  Baker, C. Key Issues in Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters,  Lewis, E.G. Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Oxford: Pergamon,  Miramontes, O., A. Nadeau and N.L. Commins. Reestructuring Schools for Linguistic Diverstiy. New York and London: Teachers College Press, 1997.