The Pros & Cons of Teaching Spanish as a Second Language in Schools
There are four available methods of bilingual education known as: Spanish as a Second Language (SSL), submersion, two-way bilingual immersion and structured immersion. Each of the methods has been known to be useful and valuable in specific learning but they each have their advantages and disadvantages. All of the techniques should be considered when developing a Spanish language instructional program.
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Spanish as a Second Language
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In the SSL method of learning, minority students are situated in normal submersion instruction for most of the school day. During a portion of the day, however, the students receive additional instruction in Spanish. This secondary help is based on a particular curriculum intended to teach Spanish as a second language. One of the best ways to learn Spanish is to use it consistently in real conversational setting. Although they may be basic, real life conversations characterize the most natural language-learning approach available. Nevertheless, when only a partial day of learning is exercised, it takes longer to grasp the language.
Submersion Learning
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Submersion ("sink or swim") learning is when non-Spanish speaking students are placed in a classroom where Spanish is spoken as the first language. The minority student's home language isn't utilized in the classroom and there is no individual program to help students overcome the language barrier. According to a Supreme Court case, Lau v. Nichols, it was determined that the "sink or swim" method was in direct violation of the minor students' civil rights. Thus, academia was required to assist in overcoming the language difficulties of non-Spanish speaking students. The student will learn the minority language because he is required to do so. However, during the learning process, the student may drop back in his studies due to an incorrectly perceived understanding.
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Two-Way Bilingual Immersion
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In the two-way bilingual immersion method, students are taught in their national and alternative languages. It follows the 90-to-10 model by immersing students by plunging students into English. "90-to-10" means that 90 percent of instruction is performed in the student's native tongue and the other 10 percent of the day is taught in Spanish. As the student progresses through the curriculum, the amount of Spanish instruction is increased until the two languages achieve equality in the delivery of instruction. The major objective of two-way bilingual immersion method is to establish language proficiency in both languages. An importance is placed upon maintaining the resident language instead of completely substituting it with the dominate one.
Structured Immersion
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The Structured Immersion Instruction method is similar to the method of submersion, but there are differences. The immersion teacher understands the minority language, and students are allowed to address the teacher in the minority language. The immersion teacher, however, usually responds only in Spanish. Also, the curriculum is structured so that prior knowledge of Spanish isn't assumed. The curriculum is introduced and taught in a way that can be understood by learning students. Although it's assumed there is no prior knowledge of Spanish, language-minority students learn Spanish as they would any other subject through English instruction that is understood at their own level of proficiency.
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