Tournament: Warner Robins | Round: 1 | Opponent: | Judge:
Contention 1 is Our Story
My name is Wei Cheng Cheng and this is my sister Eva Cheng. We were born to Taiwan and moved to Montreal Canada when we were very young. We were basically raised up in Canada and moved here 3 years ago. Our parents only talked in Chinese to us and we grew up learning French. It was very challenging to come in the middle of the year and have to get used to a full new language where we barely learned it before. We can’t focus and fully understand other subjects too because the teacher will be speaking fully in English and will not stop in the middle every time I will need to understand the concept fully. We do not feel comfortable, that we, as immigrant can fit into the educational world in the United States. No one can understand what we are trying to say. This has made it harder for us to make and maintain friends or close relationships in school. It has also made it impossible for us to be competitive in debate because of our difficulty understanding the language and speed of debate and the difficulty that judges and other debaters have understanding us. This makes us feel excluded by the current system. The United States is a nation that respects the individual without the regard of their social status, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or body size. But, the language barrier still prevents immigrant children from fitting into American Societies, which means we can hardly find friends and inject ourselves into their recreation and education conversation and friendships. In debate, our trouble expressing ourselves means that we can barely express our feelings toward the plan and makes it more difficult for us to convince the judge to vote for our plan. The practice of spreading in debate makes this especially difficult because it is more difficult for us to understand and flow fast speech in a language that is uncomfortable for us. If we attempted to spread in English, the judge would never understand us and it would be more difficult to process information in English to talk fast. This makes it difficult for us to read a full 1AC. This speed makes the debate round unfair for us and decreases the education of this round for all involved.====
Therefore, Wei Cheng and I advocate that, in order to increase our engagement with the immigrant experience, the debate community should utilize a dual immersion bilingual education model.
In order to support this advocacy and allow us to compete on an even playing field, we will read the rest of our 1NC in French. Please read along in the translated copy that we have given you.
Contention 2 is Dual Immersion
The role of the ballot is to produce the most inclusive, educational debate space. The way we frame and decide our educational debates over ideology will determine the strength of that ideology’s hold over us
Louis Althusser, Marxist philosopher; Professor of Philosophy, Ecole Normale Superieure, 1970, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm-http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm, web paging
That is why I believe that I am justified in advancing the following Thesis,
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a mode of production threatened in its existence by the world class struggle.
English puts nonnative English speakers at a disadvantage
Romo 7/25/2013 ( Vanessa “English Language Leaners: Public School’s Forgotten Kids” June 25, 2013)
High school graduation rates across the country are at a 40-year high, with 75 percent of students making it to the finish line. Between 2000 and 2010, 46 states saw substantial gains.
And the upswing in graduates
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dropout and poor educational performance."
Language barriers keep millions of children out of Education
Marketwire 11/26/2009 ("Language Barries Keeping Millions of Children Out of Education, Warns Sace the Children")
Millions of children are missing out on an education because their schools teach in a
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is one of the best ways of tackling dropout and poor educational performance."
Bilingual education is under attack in the United States. This is a symbol of the anti-immigrant policies in the United States today.
Rethinking Schools 03. Editorial. Winter 2002/2003. Bilingual Education Is A Human and Civil Right. http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bilingual/Bili172.shtml
In 1864, Congress prohibited
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sentiment and lead to divisive and unnecessary conflicts.
Current policy denies immigrants human and civil rights. Our immersion into this English only debate round is an example of how the current system destroys our access to a fair round and violates our right to equal educational opportunities. This is because of denying our access to our native language and the speed with which the other team reads its evidence, which makes the curriculum incomprehensible in a way that excludes immigrant populations. As an educator, the judge is the key to overturning these policies.
Rethinking Schools 03. Editorial. Winter 2002/2003. Bilingual Education Is A Human and Civil Right. http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bilingual/Bili172.shtml
The current attack on bilingual education denies children a basic human and civil right -
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not be denied the right ... to use his or her own language."
The dual immersion model is the best educational model for all students. However, the debate community most closely models the submersion model, which harms students and has been ruled illegal in classrooms. This is an independent voter because the judge should not uphold an illegal system.
National Latino Children’s Institute. 1998. The Benefits of Bilingual Education. http://www.nlci.org/press/Past20articles/bilinged.htm
There are three primary bilingual education models currently in use AND with any additional English language instruction.
Bilingual education is both more effective and preserves the students pride in their heritage.
National Latino Children’s Institute. 1998. The Benefits of Bilingual Education. http://www.nlci.org/press/Past20articles/bilinged.htm
There are three primary bilingual education models currently in use in the United States:
All good teaching uses the learning tools students already have as the basis for building
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they will need to learn in order to interact effectively in today’s society.
There are several other distinct benefits to the use of bilingual education, besides its
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for Bilingual Education (NABE) at (202) 898-1829.
Two Way Bilingual immersion promotes education and cultural understanding for both native speakers and non-native speakers
Center for Applied Linguistics 1999. July. Two-Way Bilingual Education Programs in Practice: A National and Local Perspectivehttp://www.cal.org/resources/digest/ed379915.html
Two-way bilingual education (also known as bilingual immersion, two-way
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self-esteem and cross-cultural understanding (Christian, 1994).
Empirically proven: Dual Immersion Education Works
Center for Applied Linguistics 1999. July. Two-Way Bilingual Education Programs in Practice: A National and Local Perspectivehttp://www.cal.org/resources/digest/ed379915.html
Various reports and statistics reveal that the two-way approach is effective not only
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society but particularly fragile today.