Children learn in two languages
BRYAN, Texas - Cheryl Munoz wants her twin sons to learn Spanish so they can help others in a society that is becoming increasingly Hispanic. Her husband, Pete, wants the boys to have strong connection to their Mexican-American heritage. So when the Bryan couple learned of a new program in which students are taught in English and Spanish in the same class, they abandoned their plans to send 5-year-olds Gabriel and Michael to a private school. Instead, the couple enrolled the boys in the new dual-language program at Milam Elementary School. "I've seen the need to be able to speak both languages," said Cheryl Munoz, a registrar at St. Joseph Regional Health Center. "I want my children to be able to help anyone." The program is in its first year in Bryan, although the dual language concept has been around for decades. In dual-language programs, Spanish-speaking students learn English and are able to keep the fundamentals of their native tongue. In most bilingual programs, those students may retain conversational Spanish but lose technical aspects of the language. English-speaking students gain proficiency of the Spanish language, which is becoming more common in Texas. In typical bilingual classes, Spanish-speaking students are taught both languages with English becoming more dominant in instruction as the child moves to a higher grade level. Eventually all teaching is in English. A $1.2 million federal grant and $2 million from the district helps fund the dual-language classes, which are part of a larger bilingual program that includes intervention for troubled students and classes in which adult Spanish speakers learn English. "It's the marriage of the best bilingual program and the best foreign language program," said Frances McArthur, principal of Milam and Jones elementaries. "The traditional bilingual program that we have ... while we may be providing excellent instruction for the children, were segregating them for part of the day from English-speaking children." Mixing the languages in one class builds relationships among children of Anglo, Hispanic and African-American backgrounds, she said. The program at Milam is open to children throughout the Bryan district. In the Classroom The kindergarten class of 20 students begins its day divided into two classrooms. Spanish speakers and English speakers are taught language arts in their native tongue. Then five children from each class change rooms for the remainder of the day, creating two classes that are each comprised of five Spanish speakers and five English speakers. In those groups, the students are taught science, social studies and math in Spanish, and physical education, music and art in English. "The whole idea of how this is taught is language is learned through content," McArthur said. "The kids are merely learning content. Language is just a vehicle of instruction." Two bilingual teachers work with students at Milam. Julia Norsworthy teaches Spanish-speaking children their language fundamentals, and Amy Wilder instructs the English-speaking students. Wilder said the class has taught students the value of both cultures, and they were able to understand new words within a month. "The first three weeks, the English speakers were the most frustrated," Wilder said. "Spanish speakers are used to not being understood. The English speakers had the biggest adjustment. Then all of the sudden, about the third week, it all clicked for them." Norsworthy said she stresses the importance of knowing two languages in a merging society. She tells the children future generations will need bilingual lawyers or even bilingual cashiers at stores. "It is taking Texas into the future because the Hispanics are growing so much," Norsworthy said. "The barriers have been broken. There's no longer the African-American population over here, the Hispanic population over here." The federal grant allows for the class to be taught until the kindergarten students reach fifth grade. Each year, a new kindergarten class will begin the pattern. After the fifth year, the district can reapply for the grant or fund the program itself. "We begin these programs typically from the bottom up, and you start in kindergarten," McArthur said. "The idea is as those children move up through the grades levels you still keep providing Spanish language instruction for 50 percent of their day." The program is similar to one McArthur implemented in 1994 in the Houston Independent School District while working as a bilingual and ESL teacher. McArthur learned of dual language instruction while pursuing her masters degree program at Houston Baptist University. The Houston school board was in favor of the program, so McArthur tried for a federal grant and got it. "I knew that as a mother, that's the program I wanted my own five children to be in," she said. "What we know is that being bilingual is important in our society today. When you place the two groups of children together it becomes a reciprocal relationship where they're helping each other acquire language as they're learning content." Programs across Texas School districts throughout the state are embracing the dual language concept. Large districts such as San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso and Houston and smaller districts such as Jacksonville, Lufkin and Richardson have implemented such programs. Rafael Lara, a director of the bilingual education program at Texas A&M University, said dual-language programs encourage inclusiveness among students. "The kids, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to learn a new language as well as a new culture," Lara said. "Both languages have value. Both cultures have value. In terms of bilingual education, dual-language programs are having tremendous acceptance by the whole community." Students typically take two to three years to become conversationally proficient in a language, he said. It requires four to five additional years to become academically adept at a language when, for example, a student can fully understand a scientific concept in a new tongue. In Jacksonville, the dual-language program is for kindergarten through fifth grade. Sixth grade students are taught one subject in Spanish, said Maria Sheffield, special languages coordinator for the district. The biggest challenge to the continuation of the program is finding bilingual teachers, Sheffield said. There is a statewide shortage of bilingual teachers. The sixth-grade students only receive one 45-minute Spanish lesson because Jacksonville cannot find enough teachers to fill the necessary slots for a full program. But community interest in the program is strong, she said. "We really have seen that this model has worked well for us," she said. "We just opened up to the community and they responded, and it went on from there." |