Annotated+Bibliography+1-9

Morse, Jane, and Todd Bullock. "Americans Breaking Out of Their English-Only Shells." America.gov Press Release. 04 Mar 2006: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 27 Sep 2010. The The authors, being Washington File Staff Writers, are trying to inform American citizens through this informational report, that America no longer holds up the “language barrier”. The author’s firmly believe that America has jumped aboard ship with all of the other countries and decided to make learning foreign language a new priority in their education systems due to the influx of immigrants to the country over the last few decades. Learning a new language has become easier than ever due to the many new resources evolving over time. Also, the authors state that 1.4 million students are studying a foreign language in college, in which many cases are by choice instead of solely being a requirement. I believe the authors adequately addressed their information on this topic. The authors demonstrate a lot of examples and shows facts to support their ideas. The authors do not display biased opinions, and they give off a positive message about America moving toward becoming a more bilingual country. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains a lot of different topics on why foreign language learning is important for many different reasons. For example, the article provides me with a lot of background information on the teaching of foreign language in schools all over America, and the benefits of doing so.

Kennedy, Edward M., and others. "Starting Young: The Case for Investment in America's Kids." American Prospect Vol. 15, No. 11. Nov. 2004: A1-A23. SIRS Researcher. Web. 29 Sep 2010. The authors, being writers from the American Prospect, are trying to inform American citizens through this informational report, about the importance of early childhood education. The author’s firmly believe that what children learn when they are young determines their success as a person in the future. The author’s illustrate the importance of learning a language early due to the way that the human brain develops. For example, the article states that after a child’s newborn stage they usually lose their innate ability to differentiate certain speech sounds as they become perceptually attuned to the language they will learn. Therefore, the authors believe a person is never too young to learn a language. The authors also discuss the importance of help from the parents in a child’s learning process outside of school. I believe the authors adequately addressed their information on this topic. The authors demonstrate a lot of examples and shows proven facts to support their ideas. The authors seem to have somewhat objective opinions, but they are usually fact based. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains background information on neurological science and how learning of a new language works. This neurological information can help me to support my findings throughout the rest of my research, and help me to understand the learning process better.

McLaughlin, Barry "Assessing Language Development in Bilingual Preschool Children." ASSESSING LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT IN BILINGUAL PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. Summer 1995: 1-22. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 29 Sep 2010. The author of this article, is also the author of the book, “ Second-Language Acquisition in Childhood: School-Age Children. The author firmly believes that what children learn when they are young determines their success as a person in the future. The author’s illustrate the importance of learning a language early in a more psychological approach. For example, in the article the author discusses important topics such as stages of development, assessment process, background information, and curriculum development. The article also talks about the popularity within California to teach children a second language in comparison to other states. The author also discusses the importance of assessing and monitoring the child’s language development over a certain period of time. I believe the author does adequately address information on my topic in this article. The author demonstrates a lot of examples and explains things into great detail. The author does not really show his own opinion on the topic due to the fact that this article is solely for informational purposes. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains a great amount of background information and information on assessing the children learning the language. This information will actually not only be able to help me for my research report, but also for my volunteer work in the day care center.

Manzo, Kathleen Kennedy. "Language: Mission Critical--Students Taking Spanish, French;..." Education Week Vol. 25, No. 29. 29 Mar 2006: 1+. SIRS Researcher. Web. 07 Oct 2010. The author Kathleen Manzo, whom is a writer for Education week, is trying to inform Americans through this informational report about the importance and process of teaching children a second language. The author goes into depth about the language teaching process in which I think will help me to better understand the way in which children learn. The author discuses obstacles in which may occur when trying to teach a second language to a child and the ways to try and overcome those obstacles. The information in this article can be very useful to me because it uses a lot of examples, and real life instances for me to relate to in my understanding process. The author’s firmly believe that learning a second language as a child is very important for a child’s success in the future. The author goes into depth about the popularity in schools by stating that over 4.76 million students in the United States choose to learn Spanish out of all of the language choices. The author does not display a biased opinion anywhere throughout this informational article. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains a lot of prime examples of the benefits and the way that the learning of a language process works.

Gardner, Marilyn. "Bringing Up Baby Bilingual." Christian Science Monitor. Aug. 27 2003: 11-13. SIRS Researcher. Web. 07 Oct 2010. The author Marilyn Gardner, whom is a writer for The Christian Science Monitor, discusses parent’s desires and methods of teaching their child another language at a young age. This article contains information on the challenges and positives of raising a child to be bilingual in the United States. The author believes that parents should be taking advantage of the opportunity to help their children learn how to speak another language while they are easily capable. The author states reasoning for why growing up bilingual is so beneficial due to the face it makes people better-rounded, more intellectual, and sometimes even more aware of their cultural roots in specific cases. The information in which I think is most beneficial to me and my research is the part in which the author discusses parent’s methods for teaching their children a foreign language. For example, the author explains how parents read their child bedtime stories in another language simply for exposure; and that exposure can shape them for a lifetime. I believe the author does adequately address information on my topic in this article through explaining the benefits, the challenges, and the learning process of children learning a second language at a young age. This article takes on a different curve on my topic considering most articles only display information about teaching children a second language in the educational system. I think learning about how children are taught in a different manner can help me to broaden my understanding on my topic. The author does not really show her own opinion on the topic due to the fact that this article is solely for informational purposes. This information will be of good use when it comes to the hands-on portion of my project.

"Bilingual Education." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 15 Feb. 2005. Web. 7 Oct. 2010. . This article was composed through the works of many scholarly authors. This article goes into depth on the history and background information of bilingual education in the school systems. This article demonstrates how bilingual education even came to be, and the importance of having it today. This article also contains information on the struggle for bilingual education in places, and also the many faults that are within it. The article explains the specific process of the fundamentals behind teaching foreign languages in the educational system. For example, the article states that the United States government gives six billion dollars in grants yearly towards this cause. This background information on teaching foreign languages gives me a better understanding of the fundamentals of this process, and how much people take it for granted. This article shows that people should be appreciating and taking advantage of the opportunity to learn another language due to the fact it has been such a long struggle to be able to obtain these programs in schools. The authors do not seem to display a bias in this article due to the fact the authors are just trying to inform America on what bilingual education is in schools, and how it came to be.

Yajuan, Yin. "On the cultures in foreign language teaching and learning." Canadian Social Science 5.2 (2009): 74+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. The author, being a foreign language professor at Shenyang University, is trying to inform people all throughout the world through this informational report, the importance behind learning a foreign language. The author firmly believes that along with learning a foreign language one can delve deeper into understanding more about the culture of the people whom speak that foreign language. The author believes that a language can reveal a lot about a culture. The author also discusses the importance of language and culture being studied together to get the best understanding of the language and culture as a whole. I believe the author adequately addressed some information I needed to understand for my research. The author demonstrates a lot of examples and shows facts to support their ideas. The author does not display a biased opinion. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains information on why foreign language learning is important in which many of my articles didn’t cover. For example, the article provides me with information on the benefits of learning a foreign language and how it creates a better understanding on culture as well.

Dooly, Melinda. "Carmen Munoz, ed. 2006: Age and the Rate of Foreign Language Learning." Atlantis, revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos 30.1 (2008): 173+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. The author, in a book review format, is trying to inform people all throughout the world the importance behind learning a foreign language and the way in which people grasp the concept of it based upon their age. This article provides research on the influence of the age factor in first and second language learning. The author also looks into the controversy that is ongoing about foreign language teaching to younger children. The author states that some people don’t feel that it is useful to teach it to young children, when in reality it is. I believe the author adequately addressed a lot of information that I need in order to understand my topic. The author demonstrates a lot of examples and shows facts to support their ideas. The author does not display a biased opinion, but instead creates a good balance of showing both sides viewpoints to the ongoing controversy. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains information on why foreign language learning is important and how one learns it based upon their age group.

Schick, Jo-Anne E; Nelson, Paul B. "Language teacher education: The challenge for the twenty-first century." Clearing House 6(2001):301. eLibrary. Web. 21 Oct. 2010. The The authors, being writers for the scholarly journal Clearing House, are trying to inform American citizens through this informational report of the controversies and basics of foreign language education in schools. The author’s firmly believe that America over the last fifty years has gained momentum of the urge for second language learning. This article also includes information on all the different language learning programs that are in schools today such as FLES, FLEX, immersion, and basic secondary language class options. The authors discuss that language learning has become a lot easier over the past fifty years as well due to the increase in resources and advancements in technology. This article in which was similar to another one that I have read states the importance of the integration of learning about culture along with learning a second language. The authors adequately addressed this topic by supporting their thesis that due to recent changes in United States society and demands for increased language learning opportunities for students have opened up and have become more popular. The authors demonstrate a lot of examples and shows facts to support their ideas. The authors do not display any biased opinions, and they give off a positive message about America changing along with times to best suit its people. I feel that this source is very helpful to my research because the article contains a lot of different topics on why foreign language learning is important for many different reasons. This article also provides information that can be useful for my project because it focuses on the need for learning of a foreign language and how it has become possible over the past years.