Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

256 Language Diversity in the ClassroomNot drowning, but swimming?Among the remaining (seven) educational contexts that Bakerdiscusses, three are listed as ‘weak’ forms of bilingual education. Thereare, for instance, ‘transitional’ programs, in which minority-groupspeakers are allowed instruction in their maternal variety until theyare proficient enough in the mainstream language to move into‘regular’ classrooms. This is a gentler alternative to sink-or-swimsubmersion, but critics will point out that its aims are still essentiallyassimilative, and it is relatively unconcerned with the languages thatthe children first bring with them to school. In fact, it can be understoodas a sort of compensatory provision, to be phased out as early aspossible. Transitional programs have been the mainstay of bilingualeducation in the United States, since it was first federally mandated in1968, but they are frequently found in some form or other in othersettings wherever, in fact, immigrant children come to school inliberal-democratic societies.A second form is ‘separatist’ education, a less violent manifestation ofapartheid. Although Baker states that the goal here is ‘limited bilingualism’ which justifies his characterization of ‘separatist’ programs asweak bilingual ones his brief discussion emphasizes first-languagemonolingualism, and it would be more appropriate, therefore, to placesuch programs in the monolingual basket. Think of voluntarily selfsegregatingreligious groups (the Mennonites, the Old Order Amish, andso on) in which the ‘apartness’ is desired, and in which an endorsementof German (say) over English is a buttress to sociocultural isolation.A good argument could be made here that language practices dependupon the strength and degree the orthodoxy, perhaps of religious selfisolation;that is, in those societies whose borders are more permeablethan others, we might expect to see educational provisions that do allowfor some ‘limited bilingualism’. There is, of course, a very wide range ofpossibility here. I have just been reading about some sub-groups withinthe larger Anabaptist tradition: some reject virtually all modern technology,some use trucks and vans but not cars (although they may gladlyaccept lifts), some drive cars if they are black, some allow electricity (butonly in emergencies), some use machines if they run off batteries ratherthan the mains, some will describe themselves on websites so long asothers construct and maintain them, and so on. A bewildering variety,many of whose intricacies are baffling to the outsider, and one that maybe reflected in many different educational thrusts.