My name is Hector Ayala. I have taught English, including AP English for the last twelve years at Cholla Nigh School in Tucson, Arizona. I am also co director of English for the Children-Arizona, an organization designed to abolish bilingual education in Arizona. I would like to say that I am here to give my rationale for having started this organization, what it is that finally moved us all in Arizona to do something about bi-ed.

To make a long story short bilingual education can mean several different things, depending oft whom you talk to. That in fact is its main drawback. When bilingual ed started out in ’68, it began with the focus of teaching non English speakers the English-language as quickly and well as possible. Since then, bi ed has been taken -over-by-political groups bent on indoctrinating young children into their political agendas. And the result has been that bi-ed has turned !Into native language instruction for all immigrant Hispanic students, often for up to seven years, and known my experience, to-the detriment of these students’ ‘ success.

Canadian researcher Jim Cummins and others have felt that children Must be taught in their native language and slowly weaned into English as children become more academically proficient; they claim that it takes children anywhere from seven to ten years to learn academic English adequately. This plays right into the hands of separatist political groups and their agendas since it forces Mexican children to retain their Spanish, which in and of itself is not a bad idea. Unfortunately, bilingual education was neither designed to achieve that goal nor can it And again, it has been my and others’ experiences that it does not.

In the meantime our Mexican children do languish all those years in bi-ed only to discover that not only have they not been prepared academically, but neither has their English progressed. As a high school teacher in a bilingual feeder pattern I have experienced what many Of my colleagues in. similar positions have experienced. My freshmen students who come through our feeder pattern come in reading at about a 4th grade reading level. Every year we receive about 640 freshmen, four years later, only about 200 graduate. The experience of twelve years I have has shown me that these students drop Out because they find themselves tragically challenged in their abilities to speak English or do academics, both of which bi-ed claims they teach better than anyone.

The irony is that the -movement in favor of bi-ed is generally limited to bi-ed educators. The movement is neither started nor continued by the desire of Mexican parents to make their kids bilingual, which bi-ed cannot do anyway, but by Anglo university professors and perfectly assimilated, professional Hispanics who never went through bi-ed themselves. Now they feel perfectly secure in that this is a program that must be thrust on all Mexican parents and their children.

Our organization English for the Children — AZ first, decries the ineffectiveness of a system that is generally undefined, arbitrary, and capricious. More often than not, children are placed in bi-ed classrooms without their or their parents’ consent or knowledge. Often, monolingual English speaking children are placed in bi-ed classes where they are taught in Spanish based on their Hispanic surname. Also, generally, when parents do find out their children are in bi ed classes they are not allowed to remove them. There is a principal of a bi-ed school who has told parents that in her school’ there will never be English only classes.

Second, we intend through our-initiative to establish a uniform and most effective approach to the teaching of English and that is Structured English Immersion. This method refers to an approach that places elementary aged children in classrooms where academics of grade level are taught to them in English. Contrary to reactionary belief, we have no intention of doing away with Spanish, even in the form, of occasional help for a student who maybe having problems in the immersion classroom. We are not associated with any English Only or immigrant reform groups. Our intent is solely to afford Young Hispanics the level-playing field they deserve, which can only be achieved by speaking English well.

The main issue which turned me against bi-ed has been the results of standardized test scores through the years.

These are examples from last year:

elementary schools–of the lowest scoring twenty-five elementary schools, twenty-three are bilingual ed schools. Even so, the bilingual director in our district has said that he intends to make all elementary schools in the area bilingual schools. Even he operates on the belief that bilingual schools create bilingual students.

middle schools–the lowest scoring ten middle schools are all bilingual ed schools.

high schools–the lowest three scoring high schools are -all at the end of bilingual feeder patterns, mine included (drop out rates are highest for Hispanics than for any other group. bi-ed has never kept records that would prove any success especially where it’s most important college attendance and graduation rates. Every indication points to a general ineffectiveness of bi-ed.)

And what we hear most often is that these kids are doing worse than any other group because they are poor and there is little support in the home. I find it difficult to imagine that any school is incapable of compensating for the deficiencies of the home, either in English or academics. No other school district in Tucson uses bilingual education and they all scored better In their Stanford 9’s than any of these bilingual schools.

Another common argument against us is that non-native children must have a command of academic English before they can be taught in English. You don’t teach academic English, a child develops academic English by doing academics in English. What they say is equivalent to saying that a child cannot t become a conceit pianist until he car, play piano like a concert pianist; we must not allow him to play the piano then until he can play like a concert pianist. All a child needs to develop in enough proficiency in English to understand what the teacher is saying; he can then develop the academic English with experience in the classroom. But not if he is taught in his native tongue, which as I said is what is currently happening.

What is being done to these non-English speaking kids amounts to a patent racism, since they are riot receiving the same schooling that English speaking children are offered: they are segregated into different rooms, or different areas of the same classroom, they are given different work, usually in Spanish, or simply busy work in English.

Does English Irnmersion work? Not only is these research that shows it does, but now we are beginning t receive quite encouraging numbers from California which in effect demonstrate the ease with which young children can learn English as long as they are immersed. L.A. Times, San Diego Union-Tribune and the Wall Street journal have all reported these results.

About research; All we generally hear is that some researcher has seen favorable findings on bi-ed. After thirty years, we need much more than favorable findings. In any case, we must resist flinging research at one another and start concentrating on the fact that there thousands of children who are the real issue. We don’t need research that shows bi-ed could work, should work, has worked. We need results.



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