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Likely House Judiciary Chairman Is an Anti-Immigration Extremist and Birther

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Obdicut (Now with 2% less brain)11/11/2012 2:13:12 pm PST

re: #89 Achilles Tang

I question how much it costs us to find qualified teachers, and allocate separate classrooms in order to teach subjects in another language, mainly Spanish, when the same resources could be spent on language instead.

It’s not an either or. We can’t just not teach them math for a year. It’s not an option.

I do agree that there are different approaches for different age groups, but my comments are primarily directed at the young, say up to Middle School. In the case of math, I know from experience that the language of math that I learned was not very conducive to tutoring my kids in the way it is presented today and I question just how far advanced those who start in one language will be when they have to switch to another.

Question it all you want, but read up on the subject and you’ll find that English language literacy is very important to math learning when the instruction is in English. And once you’re behind in the school system, it tends to escalate.

Needless to say, we can be critical of how well language is taught to native English speakers in some communities as well. As you say, accent, vocabulary and slang usage can also be a detriment.

Well, they can be, but do we really want to eradicate accent? I’m in a weird position on this because I grew up moving around so much that I never developed an accent; I can speak however I want. I normally combine a very slight southern drawl with a shade of Chicago, overlaid on a field of transatlantic.

But I like accents. I like that people sound different. I don’t want them eradicated— but I do think most people can learn to speak unaccented English as well as accented English. But that’s tricky, I don’t have any actual data to back that up. It may be that accent carries so much socio-economic data in it that it’d be better to emphasize high-status English.