These programs don’t advance students’ home languages to their full capacity, rather, TBE programs are designed to temporarily support English learners’ home language as they transition to English dominant instruction. In the U.S., transitional bilingual programs (TBE) have been the preferred form of bilingual instruction. Gándara argues that the type of bilingual education programs offered to ELs matter for their long term outcomes. These findings highlight the potential costs associated with losing your home language and why the language instruction programs used to educate ELs are so consequential-even bilingual programs. Additionally, he found that fluent bilinguals hold higher occupational prestige in their jobs and confirmed that bilingualism has direct and positive impact on earnings. Moreover, using data from surveys of adult children of immigrants in Southern California, researcher Rubén Rumbaut found that those who are fluent bilinguals were more likely to complete their high school education than those who grew up speaking only English or were non-fluent bilinguals. Specifically, he uncovered that fluent bilinguals earned more than $5,400 annually than their monolingual peers. Agirdag found that linguistic assimilation (e.g., losing your home language to become English monolingual) comes with significant financial costs. can speak, read, and write a non-English language "very well" or "well") and English dominant monolinguals. For example, Orhan Agirdag, a professor at KU Leuven and the University of Amsterdam, analyzed two national longitudinal data sets to compare and contrast the earnings of fluent bilinguals (e.g. Gándara notes recent findings from various researchers showing the disadvantages that ELs experience when their home languages are not developed and supported. Moreover, employers compensate their bilingual employees by offering them more job security and promotion opportunities.īut what does this research mean for English learners (ELs) who historically have been educated in ways that promote their acquisition of English often at the expense of their home languages? This is due to the important contributions that bilingual employees provide to the workplace. Specifically, in a 2014 study, Gándara, along with co-authors Diana Porras and Jongyeon Ee, surveyed 300 employers (representing all sectors of the economy) and found that a majority preferred hiring bilingual staff-particularly in the areas of management services, retail, construction and health care.Īdditionally, Gándara explains that although some employers don’t necessarily compensate bilingual employees at higher rates for their language abilities––many bilingual employees tend to earn more. Employers are increasingly looking to hire individuals who are able to serve a broader clientele and collaborate with colleagues across distances and linguistically diverse groups. These trends align with research (paywall) by Patricia Gándara, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project and a leading researcher on language policy and the economic benefits for multilingualism in the U.S. Utah’s State Board of Education website, highlights that students in DLE programs “are better prepared for the global community and job markets where a second language is an asset.” Delaware’s DLE program recognizes that students in these programs will obtain an economic advantage in the job market. Both Utah and Delaware have undertaken ambitious initiatives to create and expand dual language programs in an effort to help build a multilingual workforce. Specifically, demand for bilingual employees who speak Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic has increased, particularly in the finance, healthcare, legal services, and customer service sectors.ĭue to the rising demand for multilingual workers, states are expanding (or considering expanding) their dual language education (DLE) programs. According to a report published by the New American Economy, the demand for multilingual workers more than doubled from 2010 to 2015. Research shows that multilingualism can have many economic benefits, too. ![]() Helping students retain and strengthen their home language affords them many cognitive, social and even health benefits.
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