Washington Academy of Languages

ARIZONA

Originally uploaded by MikeJonesPhoto

On April 20, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court began to hear arguments in a case testing what states might do to comply with the federal law requiring state public schools to teach children to speak English. What is the law and how does it work? The major court decision was Lau v. Nichols. That case began in 1970 when a San Francisco poverty lawyer learned a client’s child was failing because he could not understand the language of instruction. The lawyer filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Kenny Lau and 1,789 Chinese-background students that he found in the same predicament. The lawyer’s claim was “that these children were being denied education on equal terms.” The lawyer intentionally used the same language as the famous 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which upset the separate-but-equal Jim Crowe Laws. The San Francisco Federal court ruled that there was no disparate treatment and the School District was not to blame that the children only spoke Chinese. Unlike the Brown case, the State does not cause children to start school speaking Chinese. In the Brown case, the State forced children to be segregated.

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Old computers

Originally uploaded by eurleif

I am often asked about learning a language through software. What are the strengths and perhaps shortcomings of learning with the aid of modern technology? Some learners prefer the dynamics of a live classroom where interacting with teacher and classmates is integral to their learning. Some learners prefer the convenience of studying at a time of their choosing and being able to control their own rate of learning. It seems to me that approaching a discussion in terms of individual value and preferences is one way to proceed and the end of such a discussion will sound much like the beginning of it. In other words, attempting to deal with the question in terms of individual preferences doesn’t really address the question I posed.

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