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Condemned Without a Trial: Bogus Arguments Against Bilingual Education | 
 enlarge | Author: Stephen D. Krashen
Publisher: Heinemann
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $9.75
You Save: $3.25 (25%)
New (9) Used (7) Collectible (2) from $6.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 119237
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 5 x 0.3
ISBN: 0325001294
Dewey Decimal Number: 370.11750973
EAN: 9780325001296
ASIN: 0325001294
Publication Date: January 28, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New Copy - May have a small publishers mark
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The book succeeds admirably in its goal of demystifying the political discourse surrounding bilingual education.
- Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development Here is a timely and important book for anyone concerned about the future of bilingual education in America. Written by Stephen Krashen, the nation's foremost expert on second language acquisition, it disproves many of the false assumptions and outright distortions that led to the passage of Proposition 227 in California. Now, as some of those same arguments proliferate in other states, Krashen explains the bases for five of these key beliefs, and provesstep-by-stepwhy they are wrong: - Bilingual education is responsible for the high Hispanic dropout rate. In fact, studies show reduced and even no difference in dropout rates when background factors are controlled.
- Most immigrants succeeded without bilingual education. Krashen argues that many immigrants arrived here having had a de facto bilingual education in their countries of origin; and that until the last half of this century, economic success was not so strongly dependent on school success.
- The United States is the only nation that has bilingual education. There is ample evidence of bilingual programs not only existing, but also succeeding in countries like Norway and the Netherlands.
- Bilingual education failed in California. The author explores flaws in the methods of various studies and counters with other reasons why bilingual education students may not thriveNincluding widespread poverty and lack of reading materials.
- The public is against bilingual education. This argument, propagated by the media, proves false when one examines the biased language used in survey after survey.
In its careful delineation of the real issues, Condemned Without a Trial gives educators, administrators, parents, and voters the essential understandingand evidencethey have heretofore been denied.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Remark on the First Post July 29, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
From the first post:
"When a grammar expert is needed at my office, I am called upon."
The self-refutation of the author's claim is too humorous to miss the attention of even one reader.
 Bilingual Education - The story of a bilinqual child. March 25, 2001
8 out of 42 found this review helpful
I am tired of hearing that bilingual education works. Human nature is such that we all gravitate to the easy road in life. This is the central problem with bilingual education. There is no incentive to put yourself through the humiliation of speaking a foreign language if you have no incentive. I learned to speak English at the age of five (as of yet my parents do not speak it). From the minute I entered grammar school I was placed in a classroom full of English speaking kids. I wanted to play with them and show I was not dumb - so I did the only thing I could, I learned to speak English. (PS - at this point you may say I had wonderfully supportive parents - NEVER HAPPENED, that had nothing to do with my success). I have scored in the 98th and 99th percentiles in my SAT, LSAT, and GMAT English tests. When a grammar expert is needed at my office, I am called upon. I am also not that unusual, just ask the other bilingual kids I went to school with who learned English the same way I did. Stop telling me self esteem is earned by gently guiding kids into a new language - the only thing that gentle guidance teaches kids is that they don't have to put themselves through the trauma of learning. Yes, trauma is terrible, but it is also a wonderful teacher. Only by experiencing that trauma will children ever have true self-esteem. Only then will they earn and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment learning a new language will give them. Only then will they have an opportunity to succeed in America. The premise of this book is ridiculous - why don't these authors ever inteview the children who lived in bilingual worlds, like me? Why is it that all of the children who learn English in bilingual programs say its successful, yet I never meet them at any professional association luncheons, see them running their own companies, call them Doctor or counselor, or find them in anything but low paying difficult jobs? Those jobs are great if they are what you want out of life, not great if they are all you can get out of life and book like these don't seem to point out that children educated in bilingual programs end up there because other opportunities are forecloseded to them. Push them to learn they will, show them they don't have to, they won't.
required reading October 2, 2000
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
Dr. Krashen presents a clear, documented analysis of bilingual education, verifying that when it is done right, it is the best way to educate language minority students. He accurately disects the arguments against bilingual education, showing that they are based in misinformation and prejudice. In light of ballot measures in California, Arizona, and across the country that would dismantle effective bilingual education and force all students to sink or swim, this should be required reading for all voters.
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