Now that it's a new year I have to start thinking about kindergarten for Cali. In San Antonio, as well as other major cities in Texas, they have two-way dual language programs.( I think they are done slightly different in each city and yes this is public school) This is what it is if your not familiar with them. Each class consists of 50% english only speaking students and 50% Spanish speaking only students. The class is taught 90% of the time in Spanish and 10% in english starting in kindergarten. In 5th Grade its about 50/50. San Antonio boasts that students are fluent in both languages by 5th grade.
It sounds awesome to me. Some people argue it puts the english students at a disadvantage to their other english peers in traditional classrooms and academically they are behind. I don't know if that's really true, haven't seen any numbers on it. It's a relatively new thing, but next year they are expanding the program to 10 elementary schools within our district because of its popularity.
Okay so why the blog...I'm just wondering if anybody knows any info about this or if they have first hand experience...please share.
take the poll to let me know what you think I should do.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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So, from what I've learned in my university studies, the students who are in duel language programs can be a little behind in the first few years, but eventually research shows that they not only catch up to their peers but in most cases surpass them. One professor in my department is actually working on a research project that is studying the benefits and/or disadvantages or duel language learning as complementary cognitive tasks.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you, I might enroll Cali in the program since she's advanced for her age anyway, and then see how it goes. I would guess she'll probably be frustrated at the beginning, but she would pick it up pretty quickly. If Cali doesn't like it after the first year, or you don't like it, she wouldn't really be behind for first grade.
And when I said "research eventually shows," I meant research shows that eventually students do catch up (usually in 3-4 years) with their peers. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd when I said "duel," I really meant "dual" because you never want kindergartners dueling at any time. :)
ReplyDeleteI really wish I could edit my comments after I post them!
While I'm sure it's not for every child...with Cali I'd definitely go for it. The advantages far outweigh any disadvantages...in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI would do it also. Especially since you know that Cali is going to get plenty of supplemental education at home. She's probably be bored with regular Kindergarten anyhow. Give the girl a challenge :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I will send you my list of San Antonio good eats when I find my list...Let me know if you are going up there anytime soon.
There are similar programs in Oregon because of the growing population of Spanish speaking children.(I grew up in Oregon and my mom teaches in the public schools there). I know that there is a lot of concern that there is more attention paid to learning English than academics. I think you would have an advantage to Cali picking up on Spanish faster because Tim speaks Spanish. I have not heard anything about how kids do after the first grade though. It may be worth trying. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you've already decided on this, but you should go for it! Liam's actually going to attend a private school that does this since none of the bilingual public schools in our area are very good. Here's his school's website that talks about the benefits of learning a second language at a young age: www.dischool.org/. My niece and nephew have learned Spanish and English from birth - now at 7 and 4 they are totally fluent in both languages and have no problems (though they were slow with English at first). Let me know what you decide!
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