Bicultural and Bilingual Programs

U.S. Bicultural and Bilingual Programs

As it is known, bicultural and bilingual programs has been a major success in the United States. No single definition of individual bilingualism is broad enough to cover all instances of individuals who are called "bilingual." The range can be from native-like control of two or more languages to possessing minimal communicative skills in a second or foreign language. The former will exclude most individuals and create a new definitional problem of what native-like control of a language means. Most experts in the field prefer the latter as the beginning point from which a variety of bilingual skills can develop, including biliteracy. (Hornberger 1989)

Similarly, for societal bilingualism, there is a range of possibilities. The United States, for example, is widely recognized as monolingual when judged in terms of its interest and success in the study of foreign languages. (Simon 1980) Even though the United States has become so prominent in the bicultural and bilingual programs, they were so slow to develop such programs because of the lack of interest as well as the low count of immigrants that were in school that spoke a different language. Contrary to what most may believe, it could have also been delayed because of the ignorance to whether or not immigrants were legal or illegal. However, in schools such as Catholic and Lutheran schools, there was always a desire to gravitate to the teaching of bilingualism. Since this was such a common desire amongst all of the “religious” schools, the idea was looked upon in 1877 by the superintendent of schools in San Francisco and they argued that public schools should begin offering different languages.

By the late 1880s, eight states had statutes authorizing bilingual instruction in public schools. (Peterson, P54-55)

These programs are now offered at public schools, catholic and Lutheran schools, as well as Colleges and Universities. This really benefits us as a nation...