9 Mar
2000
9 Mar
'00
2:10 p.m.
The concept of immersion makes sense to me. I came to the U.S. in '52 with
nary a word of English under my belt. I was admitted to the local school
system in first grade, regular classes, with no interpreter anywhere in the
building. That was PS49 in the New York school system. I was later moved
to PS20 where even fewer folks spoke German fluently. Within 6 weeks my
performance was improving to such extent that my language skills were to a
state in which they were not perceived by the teachers to be an impediment.
It didn't hurt that there were lots of Yiddish-speaking merchants in the
neighborhoods through which I walked to and from school. Yiddish is quite
similar to German and certainly makes conversation easier.
Note that I said it took 6 weeks to "catch on" and not the seven or eight
years it typically takes here with the ESL/ESOL programs. If a person has
no reasonable alternative, particularly if that person's young and flexible,
and not fet a bunch of SH*T from the community and from the government,
he/she can learn enough to get by in school, which is more than what's
needed to "get by" in life. I think it's the motivation, not the age,
though. If an adult is motivated to communicate effectively, the road isn't
long, though it may be harder than for a kid.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com>
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Date: Thursday, March 09, 2000 3:52 PM
Subject: Re: languages
On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Mike Ford wrote:
> California has made the correct choice in dropping the whole english as a
> second language program in favor of english immersion. The sooner you
learn
> english and become proficient, the better students
do in general. This
> isn't to say that ebonics or any other cultural language doesn't have
> merit, but points out the peril of "too much" local control in a polical
> setting. This is like offering "creation" as an alternative to
"Darwin",
> the problem being once you declare "God created the heavens and earth"
you
> have branched off from the next 10 years of
scientific education to a
path
that leads to
what?
I don't know...Canada (ok, I'm biased a little being Canadian) allows for
official provincial languages outside of the national official languages,
French and English. It's a neat system, which I think provides a lot of
flexibility for subcultures to preserve their language/history. I'm
definitely not one of the "Speak English or Get Out" crowd.
As far as evolution/creation (oh boy, here we go), I think the problem
with their original idea of teaching both disciplines fell short right at
the place where they had to rectify the problem you mentioned, which
simplifies to the question of where a "safe" re-entry point was in the
continuum of Science for those who went apostate and chose Creationism
over Darwinian Evolution...