Received: from cal.org (cal.org [204.240.146.10]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.6.8/940311.01ccg) with SMTP id KAA08253 for <NIFL-ESL@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV>; Fri, 3 Nov 1995 10:15:51 -0500 Received: from CAL-Message_Server by cal.org with Novell_GroupWise; Fri, 03 Nov 1995 10:17:14 -0500 Message-Id: <s099ec2a.001@cal.org> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Fri, 03 Nov 1995 10:16:50 -0500 From: Miriam Burt <miriam@cal.org> To: NIFL-ESL@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV Subject: RE English only gets a hearing.. Status: RO X-Status: Meg Gam's anecdote about her intermediate ESL class with 8 different languages represented, and learners from all walks of life (businessmen, gan members, cooks, factory workers, etc.) and their unilateral desire to learn and speak English just proves how unnecessary and mean-spirited the English Only position is. Immigrants want and need to learn English. They don't need legislation to force them into the classes; what they (and, by extension, we as adult ESL educators) do need are more resources to provide enough programs to meet their needs, so they don't have to learn in classes of 50, and they don't have to wait years (really) to get in a program. I agree with Rep. Engels - the English Only amendment is "shameless immigrant-bashing." And I wonder why Congress doesn't focus on real issues, like how can we provide educational services for all adult learners, how can we make affordable health care available to everyone, and why is a supposedly ethical, "civilized" society considering providing a tax cut for the wealthy while attempting to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the sick? Why are they wasting their time on an amendment that serves only to slap those on the face who have the audacity to have a native language other than English (and who, gasp, might actually prefer to use this native language at times, sometimes even in public!)? Now I'll duck. Miriam Burt Center for Applied Linguistics Washington, DC miriam@cal.org
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