Job Discussion Forums

[dixie]

There is an interesting (and scary) article from the NY Times about "creating" bilingual/multilingual children. The children that are discussed are in the under 6 age group, and the extremes that parents are going to in order to have their child(ren) learn another language (besides English) is amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/02/business/yourmoney/02money.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education&adxnnlx=1202482951-HlIm2zTFYX5EvYwYd3ZzyA

Despite the money, and time spent, it seems that most professionals think it is a waste. I am wondering, are bilingual schools not common in the States anywhere? Obviously here in Mexican we find them all over (however, they are usually private, and thus not easily available for all) but we also have them in Canada (public schools that are French-English). Seems to me if parents are this interested in having children that speak more than one language, than a bilingual school would be more effective than these crazy courses, and schemes.

[MELEE]

A topic near and dear to my heart!

Running a bilingual school as it should be is too expensive and complicated for most places. Canada, as a biligual country that has a vested interest in bilingualism is an exception I think. In the US they are not very common and even in some states illegal!!! for public schools because they were not successfully run.

If parents really want their children to speak more than one language--they need to do two things. 1)give them exposure to the language with meaningful communication. 2)show the children that the languages in question are valued, by them and by society.

Lack of number 2 is why a lot of children of immigrants are not bilingual, the home language was not valued.

[NinaNina]

One model gaining popularity in the United States is the dual immersion bilingual model. In Kindergarten, 90 percent of instruction time is in the target language (ideally taught by a native speaker of that language). In first grade, it's 80 percent. By fourth or fifth grade, half the day is spent in the target language and the other half in English.

Most schools endeavor to keep enrollment as close to 50 percent native English, 50 percent native target language as possible (mostly possible with Spanish).

My son attended dual immersion kindergarten and loved it. It was great preparation for our move abroad. He's now at a 100 percent Spanish-speaking school.

One funny thing: the dual immersion schools in the U.S. are hugely popular, with big waiting lists. Most of them are public schools in diverse neighborhoods that have adopted the dual immersion model because they already had many students/teachers/administrators speaking the target language. However, a few principals told me that some of the native English speakers drop out of the program after third grade or so, because the parents can't help with the homework!

--Serena
http://mexpop.blogspot.com/

[jesusitadelnorte]

I've been lurking on this forum for about a month now, but this thread inspired me to actually write my first post. I thought I'd share a few of my experiences on Dual Language.

I work in a Dual Language Program in a Public Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our school is a Title I school with 100% of students receiving free or reduced lunch. Our program serves over 300 students in grades 6-8. Students attend half of their classes in Spanish and half in English. Students have both Spanish and English Language Arts classes. Science and Social Studies are usually taught in Spanish, Math is taught in English and their elective (Art, Technology etc.) is also taught in English. This can and does change depending on staffing. As Melee pointed out it is difficult to find qualified staff--especially for the Spanish classes. I have been teaching 7th Grade Integrated Spanish Language Arts and Social Studies for 6 years. Although I love my job, finding resources in Spanish has always been a challenge. There are tons of resources for Elementary/Primary aged students, but the well dries up for Secondary students. Most teachers I know do a lot of translating and create most of their own materials .

Here in Albuquerque there are about 6 excellent Dual Language Elementary Schools, and as Serena mentioned, they are all public. Many students are on waiting lists to attend. Because all of these schools are in neighborhoods with a high Spanish Speaking population, these Schools did initially form as a means to better serve the community's English Language Learners. However, many monolingual English families, realizing the importance of bilingualism, don't think twice about driving their kids to the other side of the tracks (or in my case river). Unfortunately, many of these students are unable or unwilling to continue their Dual Language Education past Middle School.

In my current class of 110 Seventh Graders only 47% are classified as English Language Learners. The rest are considered Fluent in English. However, 100% have a parent or home language other than English, in this case Spanish. Only about 15% are new arrivals to the US within the last three years. Only about 10% of my students attended a Dual Language Elementary School. Although most of my students are considered Bilingual and Spanish is the home language, the Spanish literacy skills of my students are quite low. I agree with you, Melee, that providing meaningful communication in the target language is important, but Dual Language Education has proven more effective than other Bilingual models because the focus is on creating not only bilingual students, but biliterate and bicultural students as well. I know this post has gone on way too long so I'll stop rambling.