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According to the U.S. Department of Education website a bilingual education program is "an educational program for limited English proficient students". Furthermore, the term "limited English proficient", when used with respect to an individual, means an individual whose primary language is other than English and whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language may be sufficient to deny the individual the ability to successfully achieve in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or the opportunity to participate fully in society.

In the 50 states of the United States, proponents of the practice argue that it will help to keep non-English-speaking children from falling behind their peers in while they master English. Opponents of bilingual education argue that it delays students' mastery of English, thereby retarding the learning of other subjects as well. In California there has been considerable politicking for and against bilingual education. Much of the argument against hinges on the idea that California is in the United States and that everyone in the US should learn to speak English (although it is not the official language -- there isn't one).

In 1968 U.S. Congress first mandated bilingual education in order to give immigrants access to education in their "first" language. There are two different approaches to this form of instruction. One is called "bilingual education" and it involves teaching in the students' first language and also English. The other is known as an "immersion program" where the teachers instruct predominantly in English, and use the students' native language only for explanations.

The paradox of bilingual education is that when it is employed in private schools for the children of elites throughout the world it is accepted as educationally valid (Fishman, 1976; Fishman & Markman, 1979; Lewis, 1977). However, when public schools implemented bilingual education for language minority students over the past 50 years, bilingual education became highly controversial.

A pioneering study conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) more than 40 years ago revealed that children educated in their second language (a language acquired in addition to the home language) experienced difficulties in school. The report of experts from around the world sponsored by UNESCO declares that the home language (also called the mother tongue or native language) is the best initial medium of instruction because it is the vehicle through "which a child absorbs the cultural environment" (UNESCO, 1953, p. 47), it facilitates literacy development and learning of different subjects, and it promotes understanding between the home and the school. UNESCO recommended using students' native language for instruction and literacy development for as long as feasible. Acknowledging a number of practical limitations--inadequacy of vocabulary in technical areas, shortage of trained teachers and educational materials, multiplicity of languages in a district, and popular opposition to the use of the native language--the report nevertheless argues that they should not stand in the way of making the greatest effort possible to use the mother tongue. The report also refutes objections that are still used to oppose use of native language in schooling: that some home languages do not have a grammar, that the child already knows the native language, that using native languages impedes national unity, and that emphasizing native languages prevents acquisition of the second language. The report points out that all languages have grammar, written or not; that children still have a lot to learn of their language when they enter school; that "the national interests are best served by optimum advancement of education, and this in turn can be promoted by the use of the local language as a medium of instruction" (p. 50), and, most significantly, that "recent experience in many places proves that an equal or better command of the second language can be imparted if the school begins with the mother tongue as the medium of instruction" (p. 49). The report also underscores the importance of teaching language minority students their national language ("the language of a political, social and cultural entity," p. 46) as a second language by gradually introducing it in elementary schools to prepare students for further education.

Many educators and linguists today echo UNESCO's recommendations (Cummins, 1984; Ramirez, 1992; Snow, 1990; Wong Fillmore & Valadez, 1986). Yet others, mostly social scientists and journalists, still adamantly oppose instruction through the native languages and believe that in the United States, intense instruction in English is best for students who speak other languages (Epstein, 1977; Porter, 1990; Rossell & Ross, 1986).

This debate over choice of language for instruction is a phenomenon of the 20th century. In the first century after the American Revolution many languages were used in schools. Communities of settlers and immigrants continued to use their home languages for religious, educational, social, and economic purposes as they established themselves in the new continent. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that "legal, social, and political forces strongly opposed maintenance of languages other than English" (Heath, 1981, p. 7). Thus the United States went from a multilingual society using and accepting the languages of the European colonizers and immigrants to a monolingual society, considering speakers of other languages as language minorities. Language use in education was affected by these changes. Schools went from naturally using the languages of the communities and introducing second languages as needed to using English and considering those students who did not speak English a problem.

Presently, much of the debate centers around which are the best models for educating language minority students. Proponents of bilingual education defend models that use and promote the native language of the students, whereas opponents favor models that only emphasize English language development. This controversy, I believe, emerges from one basic difference. Proponents of bilingual education believe that students learn faster when they are educated through their native languages while studying English. Opponents maintain that language minorities need English as a precondition to becoming educated; thus, the faster these students are incorporated into English instruction the sooner they will reap the benefits of schooling. I believe that language minority students are entitled to quality education as soon as they enter schools and to postpone their access to quality education is to accept mediocrity and failure. . .

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