Speech #970156556

Senator. I have worked extensively with the science of communicating thoughts and feelings. It was very apparent to me some time ago that clear communication is the key to any successful relationship whether it be negotiations between countries or a conversation between an American citizen and a newly arrived immigrant. It is the lifelong interest in improving the lines of communication between all people that has compelled me to introduce this bill today. as well as to propose a constitutional amendment declaring as the law of the land what is already a political and social reality: that English is the official language of the United States. This is necessary for clear communication among all our residents whether they are longtime citizens or recent immigrants from Cambodia. In considering the issue of a common language for Americans. we must address the question of how best to deal with foreignspeaking immigrants who must learn English in order to join the mainstream of education and our society. I believe the first duty of any immigrant is to learn the language of his new homeland. Therefore. I am appalled by recent implications to new immigrants that English is unnecessary for full participation in our democracy. My constitutional amendment stresses that differing languages can fracture and fragment a society. while a common language unifies. I believe that my constitutional amendment as well as the legislation I am proposing today will prevent a crisis similar to the separatist move. ment of French Canadians. That confused state of affairs is a result of controversy about which language shall be the official one used in Canada. Congress recognized the importance of teaching English to immigrants in 1968 when they passed title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This act permitted the development of pilot projects to teach English to underprivileged immigrant children and was expanded in 1978 and renamed the Bilingual Education Act. These amendments introduced the option of providing academic instruction in the native language of the immigrant student. coupled with English instruction. The expansion of this program has resulted in federally mandated adherence to this method of teaching immigrants. with few exceptions. Unfortunately. Congress 1978 Bilingual Education Act deprived local schools of their flexibility to determine the best method of instruction for their particular immigrant group. Bilingual education programs were originally designed to help nonEnglishspeaking children learn English quickly so they could join the mainstream of education and our society. But the term bilingual education has been giving me some problems. Chances are that when five people are asked for a definition. five very different answers will be given. According to one interpretation. it simply means the teaching of English to immigrant students. This is the method I prefer and is usually called Englishasasecondlanguage or ESL. However. the definition used to determine eligibility for title VII funding involves teaching academic subjects to immigrants in their own language with a secondary emphasis on English. often called transitional bilingual education. Some immigrant groups argue that this provision is necessary to preserve equal educational rights for nonEnglishspeaking students while they are learning English. I believe that this requirement actually results in discrimination in the administration of title VII programs. The cost of providing academic subJects in a language other than English limits such programs in local schools to immigrant groups which have large numbers of students speaking the same language such as Spanish. This excludes many of our recent Indochinese immigrant groups who speak a variety of languages. Imagine the cost to a local school of providing academic instruction in Cambodian. Hmong. Laotian. and Vietnamese. These students are no more proficient in English than the traditional immigrant groups funded under title VII. However. because of the limited instructional approaches allowed for funding. these schools cannot apply for title VII money. Section 2. subsection 2 of the Bilingual Education Improvement Act would allow funding for projects which use a variety of methods for teaching children with limited English proficiency including but not limited to transitional bilingual education. ESL. or immerson. Section 2. subsection b insures educational quality for immigrants by requiring applicant schools to show that they have selected instruction methods that will complement the special needs and characteristics of the children to be served by the project. I agree wholeheartedly that we need to do all we can to teach the English language to nonEnglishspeaking students. However I cannot support a rigid mandate prescribing a single method of instruction. I believe that. given the flexibility to choose their own program. local schools will emphasize English instruction. Through my personal communications studies. I have observed that the more academic instruction children get in their immigrant parents language. the less quickly they learn English. What the learning of a new language requires. as is well known in U.S. military language schools. is total immersion in the new language. or as close to total immersion as possible. Though I personally support intensive methods of English instruction. the point is that the bill I am proposing will allow local schools the freedom to choose the teaching method that will serve their immigrant population and maintain their eligibility for Federal bilingual education funds. The learning capabilities of children are at their highest from the ages of 2 to 10. None of us is as brilliant a student of language as we were when we were 6 years old.