It’s hola one day, hello the next.

Bilingual educators in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district introduced a new way of learning this year. Instead of leaning heavily on Spanish instruction, bilingual teachers use a 50/50 model, which allows them to instruct students in Spanish for a day and in English the next.

“Teachers can also teach a half-day in Spanish and a half-day in English,” said Gonzalo Ramirez, the district’s director for multicultural education. “Most other bilingual models are in 90/10, which means the students learn 90 percent of their instruction in Spanish and 10 percent in English.” As students progress in school, the amount of teaching conducted in Spanish decreases under the 90/10 model, he said. Giving students a strong foundation in their native language was the idea behind the older model of teaching bilingual education.

“A lot of teachers wrestled with the [50/50] philosophy, because they learned that you need to build a strong foundation in the native language,” Dr. Ramirez said. “But we’ve found that, if you put more English into the instruction, the students accelerate in language proficiency in both languages.”

Instruction in the 50/50 model begins early, starting in kindergarten and continuing through the second grade. The program has been introduced in eight district schools this year.

The Irving, Grand Prairie and Richardson school districts are the other Dallas suburban districts to use the 50/50 model.

“We’re piloting the program, but later we may extend it through more grade levels,” Dr. Ramirez said.

The model has been in limited use in public schools for 30 years, but its use has increased substantially in the last decade, he said.

Teachers, who were at first wary of the program, say they’ve had great success with it in shorter periods of time than with the older model.

“In 1999-2000, three to four students out of 20 would be on grade level in English,” said Amelia Aguirre, a second-grade teacher at McLaughlin Elementary. “By the end of last year, I had 12 out of 21 students on grade level.”

She went through a short training course last summer to learn more about the model and how to teach it effectively.

The 50/50 model requires more hands-on teaching, and instructors must refrain from giving the answers to questions in Spanish.

Ms. Aguirre said that students might not take English lessons seriously if the teacher readily gives them the answer to questions in their native Spanish. Teachers are also encouraged to create a supportive classroom environment so students who are excelling help those who are not.

“If a student is stuck, we ask other students in the class to help them out,” she said. “This way, they are maintaining their native language while integrating a second language.”

In a classroom on the opposite side of McLaughlin, kindergarten students were learning in Spanish for the day.

Their teacher, Diane Barbee, gave a lesson about Texas, complete with a “campfire” made from construction paper and beans the students ate from paper cups while they listened to a story in Spanish. All around them, signs were printed in both languages. Throughout the story, they pronounced Spanish words and asked questions.

“When they have trouble in English, one of the hardest things is to not revert to Spanish,” Mrs. Barbee said. “But they do a good job.”

Maria Montenegro, a bilingual aide, said the 50/50 model has actually improved her English skills. All four of her children went through bilingual education under the old model.

“I have been working with students for five years, and I see the difference in my skills. I can’t talk in sophisticated or high English, but I feel more confidence,” she said. “I think the students improve so they can communicate with anybody. I see the difference.”

Ideally, a single classroom would have 50 percent native English speakers and 50 percent native Spanish speakers, Dr. Ramirez said.

In that model, both sets of native speakers would learn both languages proficiently using a 50/50 format.

“We’re looking at that now,” Dr. Ramirez said. “But we’re not sure when that will be available.”

Staff writer Katherine Morales can be reached at 972-418-9999, ext. 2005, and at [email protected].



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