Bilingual education a growing issue on U. Colorado campus

Boulder, Colo.—Bilingual education for native Spanish-speaking students is an increasingly important debate at the University of Colorado, where students and faculty represent different personal perspectives on the issue.

Alejandrina Guzman, a sophomore biochemistry major, knows first-hand what many Hispanic students face when they enter Colorado’s school system.

Her family moved from Guadalajara, Mexico to Colorado when she was 17 years old.

She started her junior year at North High School in Denver enrolled in its English as a Second Language (ESL) program, which provides students with courses taught in their native language.

“If you don’t speak English, you have to start with something,” Guzman said.

Some CU students who have never personally experienced this challenge still view the questions surrounding bilingual education from a personal perspective.

A new strategy of bilingual immersion uses a dual language approach at the elementary school level where a classroom is shared by native-English speakers and native Spanish speakers. The instructors teach part of the day in English and then part of the da y in Spanish with the goal that all students will be completely bilingual in both languages by the fifth grade.

“It’s more of an even playing field,” said Brooke Staton, a senior Spanish major.

Staton said she learned about the dual language programs in her education courses at CU and believes they are a good option.

“In the bilingual immersion programs, no one is singled out for not speaking the language,” Staton said.

Paul Campos, a CU law professor, sends his daughter to Pioneer Elementary in Lafayette, one of three schools in the Boulder Valley School District that offers the dual language program.

“My wife and I thought that having our daughter learn Spanish in school would be a very positive and challenging experience,” Campos said.

Campos himself didn’t speak English when he started elementary school and therefore has more than just a theoretical interest in bilingual education.

He says there is a need for a national debate on bilingual education.

“Especially in Colorado, where we have such a large ESL population, I think issues of bilingualism are just crucial,” Campos said.

The Population Estimates Program of the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the number of Hispanics living in Colorado has increased steadily from 424,309 in 1990 to 603, 582 in 1999.

One side of the debate on teaching native Spanish-speakers argues for English immersion, where non-English-speaking students are immediately placed in English courses.

The other side of the debate maintains that bilingual language immersion programs, such as the program Campos’ daughter is enrolled in, are the best option.

ESL is the bilingual strategy most often used in schools nation-wide, in which students like Guzman are placed in classes where the majority of instruction is in Spanish and only some in English.

Critics say that the ESL program is not enough. Guzman agreed, and said that is why she chose to take herself out of ESL in order to enroll in regular classes at North High School.



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