Trying to get free advertising? (*)(*)(*)(*), you should be banned.

The only problem with mandating tests in English for non-English speakers is that often a poor test score reflects poorly on the school and student when the real problem is that the poor kid hasn't been given enough time to learn English. Learning a new language is no easy task, but I've yet to meet a foreign high-school student who wasn't able to pick up English pretty darn quick. And I had a lot of foreigners in my school. Its even easier for younger kids. The trick is that we need to throw them in normal classes. Total immersion is by far the best way to teach someone a new langauge, ESL alone and a few English tests won't do it. Take in mind anyone you've ever met who took a few semesters of Spanish in college/high school who still could barely speak a word of it.

When you live in an English speaking country and go to an English speaking school the incentive is there to learn English, and the vast, overwhelming majority of kids do, and do so pretty quickly. My girlfriend moved her when she was five from China and now she speaks, I hate to admit it, better English than I do.

So overall giving kids native language tests when they first get here is a great idea, with the idea that the native language is phased out. This way smart kids who haven't had sufficient time to learn English do not get held back, and remain with their peers in a total immersion English environment. Generally, when all the foreign kids get held back because they all failed the English language test (which they couldn't understand very well) they get tossed remedial classes (much like high school Spanish classes, but in English) and only hang out with one another. This is completely counterproductive in that it ensures that the path to learning English will take a very long time, as now the majority of the people they spend time with (friends and family) are non English-speaking.

thats why it should be a requirement to learn english before you become a citizen.

What a stupid thing to say. One of the thing that standardize test look for is: the ability for students to master ENGLISH reading comprehension. There is no way a Latino will ever be successful unless they can communicate in English. ESL programs coddle children too much and treat them like idiots. ESL should only be used to teach English to a point where a student understand the teacher and the reading material. I had a bad experience with ESL where the school try to force me into that program and my English was better than my Spanish!

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In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king
- Nas

I don't care if an immigrant chooses to not learn English, that is their perogative. But we should not cater to them and learn Spanish.

If I move to Brazil and refuse to learn the language, how long do you suppose I would survive?

On the same token, as a businessman one would do best to be able to communicate to one's potential clients.

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Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum
(To such heights of evil are men driven by religion)

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The woman in my avatar is Cristina Scabbia and the woman in my profile picture is Tarja Turunen
Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

Post of the week:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno You just don't relate to my sense of humor. How about this. Gosh darn funny man living in a whale. doncha know that gawd could do that I betcha he could. wink wink.

__________________
The woman in my avatar is Cristina Scabbia and the woman in my profile picture is Tarja Turunen
Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

Post of the week:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inferno You just don't relate to my sense of humor. How about this. Gosh darn funny man living in a whale. doncha know that gawd could do that I betcha he could. wink wink.

Words from a Great, Great man, and a true visionary. This is one Roosevelt we should be celebrating, instead of his socialist cousin who married his cousin.

The real problem is that English isn't the US's national language yet.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"