Exploring a different language may be difficult in the beginning, and our education system in schools around the United States can always use new ways to elevate students’ learning.
Students may not be into adapting to another way of speech when they are comfortable only speaking English, but having an open mind to learn something new is important, and it can turn into building confidence over time.
In today’s society, being bilingual provides more opportunities for people to get a better job and makes it easier to adapt to a different country when traveling to different countries abroad. The standard in the U.S. education system learning more languages is not quite set higher for students to advance, which should change.
A report from The Century Foundation, “Ensuring Equitable Access to Dual-Language Immersion Programs: Supporting English Learners’ Emerging Bilingualism,” talks about the struggles English learners have with the difficult challenge of not receiving fair educational opportunities from dual-language immersion education.
“But without structures in place to protect equity, the linguistic integration that appears to be key to two-way DLI’s success can become colonization that eventually displaces ELs from these schools,” Williams said.
Things that limit furthering students’ education can cause a decrease in test scores, grades, exams, etc. The future of this education system has the potential to crumble if students cannot learn a new language to advance and become better young adults towards other people in domestic or foreign countries for their native tongue.
In an article from the U.S. Department of Education press office, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona talked about the benefits of being bilingual as a great trait to have chances of becoming multilingual.
“As our nation continues to grow more diverse, and as our global economy becomes more interconnected, we cannot seize our nation’s full potential to compete and lead the world unless we raise the bar and provide all students with opportunities to become multilingual,” Cardona said.
Higher learning standards for students to succeed is a great benefit for long-term growth so that students can be successful.
A story from The New York Post, “The Magic Of Bilingual Language,” talks about how being bilingual improves teachers’ communication with their students. Lili Kennington, who works at Great Falls Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va. as a Japanese immersion teacher, talked about her education in language.
“Learning English taught me important life skills,” Kennington said. “Communicating in another language is difficult. It requires patience, perseverance and creativity.”
Whether it be bilingual or foreign language learning standards in school, our education system should make this a higher priority.