An Analysis Of The End Of 20th Century The New Policy On Bilingual Education In California -- California Cause Of Winning The 227 Proposal And Its Impact

Bilingual education in United States of America has contributed a lot to children with limited English proficiency (LEP) since the Act of Bilingual Education was taken into effect in 1968. But there are still many problems existing. Many children cannot go into the mainstream classroom after several years' study in school. Under such situation, more effective educational programs are needed to improve LEP children's English. There were heated arguments about bilingual education in America in 1980's and 1990's. Proposition 227, which was known as "English Language Education for Immigrant Children in Public Schools," was passed in 1998. The new state law requires all instructions in class should be in English. English learners would be placed temporarily in a program called "sheltered English immersion" with a temporary transition period of one year.From the perspectives of education policy, we found the goal of Proposition 227 is in line with the economic and political realism in the American society, and this is in keeping with the aspirations of the mainstream society梠ne nation one language. Therefore there is some rationalization and appropriation in it. However, the formulation of this policy is deficient on theoretical basis and also lacks scientific grounds of arguments, which leads to many problems and which brings many difficulties in implementation. From the point of view of psycholinguistics and bilingual education theory, new policy does not conform to principles of language education and unbeneficial to language and cognitive development for the LEP children. From social-linguistic perspectives, it will bring passive effect to long-term achievements of the children from the minority family. Therefore new policy is an ethically unsound education policy.With the methods of literature review and comparison, this study analyzes the specific case桺roposition 227, we can gain a great deal of enlightenment. 1) The formulation of education policy should be scientifically analyzed to make sure it workable not only from the perspectives of politics and economy but also in technology during implementation. 2) It should be guided by some scientific theories such as linguistics and education. 3 ) When seeking the effective method of improving English, developing and preserving the heritage language and culture should also be take into account.We may also give some suggestion to bilingual education in China: 1) The formulation and implementation of the education policy should depend on our country's conditions. 2) When students have age-appropriate competence in both mother and English languages, and positive cognitive capability, the goal of the bilingual education will be benefited. Therefore, academic bilingual curriculum may be started in wide range on university or college level. 3) The formulation and implementation of bilingual programs should take the flexibility of education into account and regulation of bilingual education as well.