eir own. This may be true to an extent, however, to throw them into the mainstream academic environment without the advantage of bilingual education can also isolate them, and put labels on them. Many will be labeled dumb, and perhaps they will not be able to fit in, make friends, or may not even finish school. Federally funded programs are often criticized for their failure to require that teachers themselves be proficient in English, or for devoting too much attention to non-English speakers at the expense of English speakers, and for overall being ineffective. Neither of these are accurate criticisms as Federal programs do have requirements that teachers be proficient in both the language they are instructing in, and English. And adequate programs are already in place for the mainstream student such as the special education classes to help slow students, and the speech therapy programs schools have to help students with the English they already know. However, little is available specifically for the Limited English Proficient child. Many schools in the United States do not even have a bilingual educational program set up. The assertion that bilingual programs are ineffective is completely false. Bilingual instructional programs aid the Limited English Proficient Child in numerous ways, not the least of which is in instilling a greater level of reading comprehension, one of the highest determinants of a students academic success. No matter where a student lives, they are bound to need English at some point and time in their lives. If a student has the ability to read English, they have a better chance at learning how to speak it, and this will also help the student in the changing, growing world around them. The availability of bilingual education programs, however, varies around the world, not just in the United States. Cultures differ in their expectations of students to learn the majority language. In Canada for examp...
