Dual Language Immersion

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going
~ Rita Mae Brown

Dual Language Immersion

Both quotes are favorites of Rosamaría Laursen, program manager of the Dual Language Immersion/English Language Learners Program. And perhaps more than any other words can say, those sentiments explain the value of the school district’s burgeoning Dual Language Immersion Program.

Or, as Lausen says, “The biggest reason why the Dual Language program is essential is because it increases our efficiency in helping our students reach high academic abilities, especially for our students who have a high proficiency in Spanish, but might not have developed strong skills in English yet.”

According to the district, “In dual language education programs, students are taught literacy and academic content in English and a partner language. In Beloit, we have chosen Spanish as the partner language. The goals of dual language programs are for students to develop high levels of language proficiency and literacy in two languages, to demonstrate high levels of academic achievement, and to develop an appreciation for and an understanding of diverse cultures.

Two-Way Immersion

“In the School District of Beloit, we have implemented a special type of dual language immersion called Two-Way Immersion. In Two-Way Immersion, balanced numbers of native English speakers and native speakers of the partner language are integrated for instruction. Both groups of students would serve as language models and language learners at different times.

“The Dual Language Program is located at Hackett, Robinson and Todd Schools. During the 2014-2015 school year, this program will be offered at Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade. After the 2014-2015 school year, a grade level will be added every year until at least 5th grade to accommodate the students who have been in this program.”

As Merideth Glosemeyer, Hackett Dual Immersion teacher explains, “In our immersion program, a set of 18 students, a mix of native English and native Spanish speakers, spends the morning immersed in Spanish. Then, in the afternoon, this class switches with another class who has spent its morning immersed in English. Students are taught literacy (reading and writing) and math in English for half of the day, and literacy (reading and writing), science and social studies in Spanish the other half of the day.”

“Time and time again,” Laursen explains, “the research supports teaching children to read and write in the language in which they are more dominant, which is why we teach the students to read in both English and Spanish (in the program, we have students who are more proficient in Spanish, more proficient in English, or somewhere in between). Students only need to learn how to read once, meaning that their literacy skills transfer to other languages (hence they’d only need to learn the language itself, they don’t have to re-learn how to read in the new language) It’s much easier explaining to a child the skills needed to read and write well in a language he or she understands and have him or her practice in a language in which he or she is most comfortable.

Continuing Laursen says, “Another way that the Dual Language program increases our efficiency is because it is a cost-effective way to provide services to our English learners. Besides being the right thing to do, federal laws and state statutes require schools to provide services to help students whose first language is not English. The teachers providing these services must have a license to teach English as a Second language [ESL] and in most cases must have a bilingual certification. Many school districts will hire English as a Second Language teachers to support the students academically (usually in reading, writing, and math) and to teach them the language that they need for the topics they are covering in class.

Learning Another Language for Children

“In school districts (like ours) where the number of English learners are all from the same language group (over 99% of our English learners come from homes where Spanish is spoken), and where there is a high number of them overall (15% of our total student population are English learners; this does not include the number of students who don’t need services anymore or didn’t need services since the beginning of their school career because they have a high command of English- even though they might come from Spanish-speaking households), the number of ELL teachers that the school district would need to meet the students’ needs can be quite high. By hiring classroom teachers who have these certifications (ESL and/or bilingual), we are not only providing the students with programming that has been shown to be most effective, but the classroom teacher is serving a double purpose: teaching grade level content and being the service-provider for our English learners.

“Also,” she adds, “learning another language is much easier for young children than it is as an older student. The brain is primed for learning language, especially before the age of 7 years old. Children who begin learning a language before this age are more likely to learn it like a native speaker. In the U.S. we tend to see foreign language study as an elective, whereas in other countries, they tend to see foreign language study as an integral part of their curriculum. This would explain why only 18% of Americans know more than one language, where in the rest of the world, the number of people who know more than one language is almost 70%. Besides this, bilingualism/multilingualism has been shown to have a protective effect on the brain: it delays the effects of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, it keeps the mind more flexible and able to focus, as well as increases its problem solving abilities.

“…they’d hire the bilingual candidate.”

Finally, Laursen says, “Another reason that the DLI program is essential is because it does impact the Beloit business community in a positive way. I did an informal survey of local companies and businesses in preparation of our proposal to add the DLI program a couple years ago. I asked them about the languages they felt were most important for their future employees to know. Many said that Spanish was very important because of the shifting demographics in this country and our proximity to Latin America. They felt that a bilingual staff would help them in areas such as marketing, understanding trends and preferences among different groups of people (for new or updated products), and in management and human resources (communicating and relating to their Spanish-speaking employees). Also, in hiring, if they had two equally qualified candidates and one of them is bilingual, they’d hire the bilingual candidate.”

According to Laursen, “Students can sign up for Dual language starting in Kindergarten during the Spring semester (middle of February is when applications usually become available) up until the beginning of the school year if there is room. They could also be placed on a waiting list up until the beginning of 1st grade. Preference is given to students who have attended 4K or preschool, and attendance to ‘getting ready for Kindergarten- in Spanish’ summer school is highly recommended.”

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