Bilingual Education and the Foreign Language Teacher

Abstract

The enactment of Title 7 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has sharpened the increasing emphasis on the education of the bilingual-bicultural student, especially the Mexican American. Although the guidelines, regulations, and the amount of the appropriations for this new program remain unknown factors, its ultimate goal of providing an opportunity to teach each bilingual child educational concepts in all phases of the curriculum in his mother tongue and another language at the same time has been clearly established. Many of the 100,000 bilingual teachers so essential for the success of this new educational venture exist, but must be quickly identified and trained to teach hundreds of thousands of youngsters in the United States to function and be a part of two cultures. Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese can assist the new program by breaking out of the narrow academic community in which they have long been placed by supporting the new concept in their communities and by helping school systems develop and carry out the program. Unless foreign language teachers assume the leadership of this new movement, their role in influencing its direction will be diminished and eventually lost. (AF)