Persuasive Essay Over Bilingual Education

Much of the debate over bilingual education stems from high expectations of immediate results (Nunez and Karr-Kidwell 4). Many people expect limited English proficient students to accomplish a task that they themselves have been unable to do, become fully proficient in a new language. Historically, however, bilingual students have struggled to meet their high expectations. Native language instruction is vital to a bilingual student’s literacy in a second language (Nunez and Karr-Kidwell 4). Furthermore, they expect these students to do so while also learning academic subjects at the same rate as their English speaking peers in a language they do not yet fully comprehend. While students in bilingual education programs maintain their academic