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  3. Bilingualism is the use of two or more languages in places of work or educational facilities and the treatment of each language

Bilingualism is the use of two or more languages in places of work or educational facilities and the treatment of each language

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问题    Bilingualism is the use of two or more languages in places of work or educational facilities and the treatment of each language with equal legitimacy. Thus, a program of bilingual education may instruct children in their native language (such as Spanish) while gradually introducing them to the language of the host society (English). If such a program is also bicultural, it will teach children about the mores and folkways 0f both the dominant culture and the subculture. In the past, American society demanded conformity to a single cultural tradition in terms of language. Immigrant children from Europe and Asia — including young Italians, Jews, Poles, Chinese, and Japanese — were expected to learn English once they entered American schools. In some cases, immigrant children were actually forbidden from speaking their native languages on school grounds. There was little respect granted to the immigrants’ cultural traditions; a young person would often be teased for his or her funny name, accent, or style of dress.
   In recent decades, this pattern of forced obedience to our dominant culture has been challenged. Beginning in the 1960s, active movements for black pride and ethnic pride insisted that the traditions of all racial and ethnic subcultures should be seen as legitimate and important. Partly as a result, society began to view bilingualism as an asset. In an educational sense, also, bilingualism seemed one way of assisting, millions of people in the United, States who do not speak English as their first language, but who might want to learn English in order to function, more effectively within American society.
   Bilingualism has been a particularly sensitive issue for millions of immigrants from Spanish- speaking nations. The difficulties of Hispanic schoolchildren are only worsened by the fact that many teachers reject the philosophy of bilingualism and biculturalism and make their feelings known to students. This can certainly make the Hispanic child feel unwelcome in an American classroom. Furthermore, even teachers who support bilingual goals may be ill-prepared to conduct classes in two languages.  Those from English-speaking backgrounds, may be uncomfortable teaching in Spanish, and vice Versa.
   Research studies evaluating bilingual programs among Navaho-speaking children in Arizona, Chinese-speaking children in New York City,  French-speaking children in Louisiana and Minnesota, and Spanish-speaking children in several states have all demonstrated that a quality bilingual program can be effective in improving both general learning skills and performance in reading and speaking English. Moreover, a recent study by Henji Hakuta, a psycholinguist at Yale University, offers new support for bilingual education. The research among Hispanic children in New Haven, ’Connecticut, revealed that the more the children use both Spanish and English, the greater their intellectual advantage in skills underlying reading ability and nonverbal logic. While opponents of bilingual education have charged that it causes mental confusion among children, Hakuta found only positive cognitive effects resulting from bilingualism. At the same time, however, many educational researchers seem to agree that studies on bilingual education have been methodologically unsound and therefore remain inconclusive.
   American policymakers have been rather ambivalent in dealing with the issue of. bilingualism. In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provided for bilingual, bicultural education. Then, in the 1970s, the federal government took an active role in offering local communities direction as to the proper form for bilingual programs. Washington also increased funding for such educational efforts. In 1970, the federal government allocated ＄7.5 million for 76 programs, thus aiding 26,000 students. By 1981, funding had risen to ＄170 million, assisting 350,000 students in 564 different bilingual programs.
   However, by the early 1980s bilingualism had become a much more controversial political issue. The attacks on bilingualism came on a number of fronts. For example, in 1983 San Francisco voters approved by a 2-1 vote a nonbinding referendum opposing the practice of printing city ballots in Spanish and Chinese as well as English; in 1984, Californians passed by almost a 3-1 margin a statewide referendum supporting repeal of a federal requirement that ballots be printed in foreign languages as well as in English. This was somewhat ironic since a survey of Californians found that about the same proportion of Whites as Hispanics used non-English ballots in the 1984 elections.
   In response to this mood and as part of an overall effort to cut federal spending, new regulations issued by the Reagan administration, which went into effect beginning with the 1984 elections, sharply reduced the number of counties required to provide bilingual ballots for Hispanic Americans and other voters in need of bilingual services. In addition, a proposed constitutional amendment was introduced in the Senate to designate English as the official language of the nation.
Bilingualism could be described as all the following EXCEPT______.
选项 A、bilingualism is equivalent to biculturalism
B、bilingualism is a controversial issue in the U. S.
C、bilingualism has worked in some areas of the U.S.
D、bilingualism helps minorities to function more effectively in English
答案A
解析
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