AZCapitoltimes reports on new movement to change the Arizona law that requires "Structured English Immersion", and the provision that children learn English and be put in mainstream classrooms after a year. A description: "English learner students spend four hours every day learning English. State Department of Education officials say the goal of Arizona’s concentrated four-hour English training is to make students English proficient in one year. However, critics of this methodology point to research that suggests it takes the average person five to six years to become proficient in another language". Forget about the devaluing of bilingualism for a second. There really is no better way to ensure failure than to approach second language acquisition in this way.
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I am a professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College, and director of the Curriculum & Instruction doctoral program. I have served as an associate editor at Child Development, Applied Psycholinguistics, and an editor at Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. I was a bilingual teacher in Detroit, MI and have worked in district, state, and nonprofit settings. I work with bilingual learners from multilingual homes in K-8 settings, thinking about language use and development, cross-linguistic relations, instructional interventions, and teacher practice. I've published a bunch of articles and book chapters, and have developed language and reading curricula. I always work in close collaboration with teachers to facilitate the translation of research to practice.
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