so what's wrong with being bilingual?

Call it The Curse of the Idealistic Teacher. I am enrolled in a Foundations of Bilingual/Multicultural Education course and have begun my course readings. A thought...'people' are always saying "we need to compete with other countries" and "our school system is way behind other countries", etc etc. What people lose in the mix is that in other countries, bilingualism (if not trilingualism) is learned by students and practiced by citizens. Why are we so eager to enroll preschoolers in foreign language classes but those who come here have to put away their 'foreign' language and only speak English? Yes, my grandfather (Dziadzi) came from Poland with barely a 3d grade education and learned to speak English, as did my mother and her siblings.But...her primary language for instruction (math, reading, science et al) was Polish, and she attended 'English' classes as part of her school day. What's more, store signs were in Polish and English, Masses were in Polish and English, and community gatherings were especially in Polish rather than English. Yes, my Mom did master English by the time she went to high school...so why should we expect anything different of newer immigrants to this country? I invite any of you to join in this discussion with a _rational_ commentary based upon research findings or personal experience. Even if you do not agree with me, I would like to hear from you as well. A work in progress...

great news!

My proposal for a poster session at the ASHA Convention at Philadelphia in November 2010 was accepted! My proposal is on pre/post-test measures of intelligibility and auditory discrimination with my pronunciation students at RIT.