According to historians, bilingual education has been also an essential part of the immigrant life and experience in the USA. The history of education dates back to Colonial periods and native-language schooling in those times was considered as a rule rather than exception. After immigrants had settled in the USA, they began to teach their offspring in their own languages, although their attempts were restricted by English instructions. Actually, bilingual education has originated from German.
In the late 19th century Polish, Dutch, Italian, Scandinavian and French schools were established. It is known that during up to 1880 the medium of instructions in Louisiana was French, whereas since 1848 the medium has been Spanish. In the early 20th century first German-English schools were founded in Baltimore, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Further, it is necessary to underline that through 1950 the development of bilingual education decreased significantly because of World War II and partly due to intense nationalistic mood of the country.Fore example, President Roosevelt explained immigrants that “there is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism and any man who comes here must adopt the institutions of the United States, and, therefore, he must adopt the language which is now the native tongue of our people, no matter what the several strains in our blood may be”.
After World War II softer approach to assimilation was created by missionaries.In the middle 20th century English was provided as a second language with the purpose to teach students and diplomats to comprehend other cultures, though later only minority students were allowed to teach it. Actually, bilingual schooling was reborn since 1963 after the creation of bilingual programs in Florida and Dade County. The programs were developed by Cubans after the Cuban revolution of 1959. Nowadays bilingual education is common approach to education involving not simply learning English grammar and vocabulary, but also involves oral expression and reading.
