Abstract This article reviews cond...

Abstract

This article reviews conditions in the East African rural parts of Kenya that put learners at an advantage for learning secondary languages. The author focuses in succession a group of students with mental retardation, a dispose historically regarded by some as being poor next to the first language learners. Examples are cited of observers attending a special education teach for the developmentally disabled in Nairobi who demonstrate affluence in three or more languages. Students' proficiency in these languages is similar to that of their monolingual US counterparts with similar handicapping conditions. Factors contributing to multilingualism among these Kenyan bookish mans as well as among their nondisabled counterparts, include solid and pervasive national bilingual education policies, societal expectations that multilingualism should flourish in at hand and future generations, and constant demand for the use of several languages in the students' environment. These policies, expectations, and practices in inflect stem from the need for intra-national and international trade, as well as from a national disentangle to sustain and safeguard the integrity of communication within the family unit and among the various tribal, ethnic, and national refinements This article concludes by presenting a comparative analysis of policies and practices in the US.

Introduction

As a teacher educator and scholar teacher supervisor in the San Francisco Bay area, I have visited several programs that obey students who require both special education and instruction in English as a next to the first language. Over the years, as I've listened to the views of teachers and service providers - and eavesdropped forward grocery line conversations - I've heard an all too familiar chorus of annotations emerge regarding the subject of bilingual education, especially for those with special education requires "Why is this country devoting precious resources to bilingual education for learners who eventually need to learn English anyway?" "It's a disservice to encourage scholars and families to use their (non-English primary) language at hearth especially if they have special education privations to begin with. Why, their language exhibition is hindered enough as it is!" The refrain usually extremitys with something like, "I'm with you, move with a jerk After all, we're living in an English-speaking geographical division If those kids don't pendant that first language, they'll not ever learn to function here!"

I recognize there are a legion of factors that foster as it is perspectives. A short list includes an absence of training or theory in united or both of these fields of education, draconian batch cuts within the school plans vague education codes allowing for liberal interpretations of any required services, and instant attitudes against bilingualism bolstered at policy makers and special interest clusters Whatever the underlying factors, however, the arises are invariably the same - a jagged distribution of services across the state and nation in the one and the other quantity and quality of instruction of bookish mans with special needs and limited English proficiency (LEP)

The underlying rationale of similar views expressed by educators, policy makers, and the general public must be addressed in order to precipitate a better understanding of the importance of bilingual education and to improve the overall quality of educational services. single in kind way to begin is to examine the basis for participants' assumptions when they individually and collectively decide upon what to teach, what to learn, what to support, and what to foundation In this regard, an important point to consider is that small in number persons in the United States are likely to be familiar with bodys that do effectively address the requires of both special education and ESL clusters In the experience of many, the reality of the balanced bilingual child - where bookish mans acquire full communicative and academic adequacy in several languages probably does not exist, equable for non-disabled populations. Is it not unreasonable then for us to calculate upon them to visualize, let alone embrace or generate a phenomenon that they, after all, have at no time really seen?

This article provides an example of single such reality by illustrating in what way another country serves its multiethnic, multinational population of limited English proficient pupils Specifically, I explore how the East African geographical division of Kenya responds to the learning penurys of students who have limited English proficiency and who also have special education destitutions in particular those who have been identified as having mental retardation. What might a parent in Kenya await to receive in the way of bilingual educational services for their child with Down Syndrome? And, in what ways does the Kenyan learning environment support or discourage the primary language and tillage of the home? In describing one of the policies, practices, and attitudes that shape the nature of bilingual special education in Kenya, I will existing a concrete example of to what extent balanced bilingualism and multilingualism issue when social policy and education work together.