Comments on Suzanne Irujo's Review of Rosalie Pedalino Porter's: Forked Tongue: The Politics of Bilingual Education. The Reviewer Responds

Abstract

While I generally agree with Irujo's TESOL Quarterly (Vol. 25, No. 1) review of Porter's Forked Tongue, there are some flaws in the review. Irujo's most devastating criticisms of Porter are that (a) Porter gives a biased presentation of the research by ignoring studies that contradict her opinions, and (b) Porter misrepresents the research of others. I fully agree but take issue with Irujo in that she barely scratched the surface of Porter's unscholarly misrepresentations. Consider these examples which Irujo did not mention. Porter's discussion of the Fairfax County ESL program illustrates the biased way she treats the research literature. Referencing one report from the Fairfax school system, Porter concludes These evaluations portray a program that is working well for its (p. 148). No mention is made of Collier's (1987, 1987/1988) extensive evaluation of the program which concluded by recommending it be replaced with a transitional bilingual education (TBE) program. Porter describes a report from El Paso (1987) which, according to Porter, concluded that an all-English immersion program was superior to TBE. The report makes no such finding. The experimental El Paso program is a dual bilingual immersion program in which the students are taught both and English: BIP [Bilingual Immersion Program] is a bilingual program, students receive instruction in both English and Spanish (El Paso Independent School