For David Castillo, a bilingual instructor at Metro Tech’s campus on S Bryant, teaching his auto service technology class can wear on him more than a bad quart of oil.

After all, he’s teaching everything twice.

“It’s challenging,” Castillo said. “I start off in Spanish and then I repeat it in English. I’m teaching these students a skill and English at the same time.”

But for the Hispanic, Spanish-speaking students in the vo-tech’s auto service class, the new program allows them a chance to do something in class that’s doesn’t always come easy: Understand.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Oklahoma’s Hispanic population has grown 58 percent since 1990. Many of the state’s Spanish-speaking students are dropping out of school because they get frustrated, Castillo said.

After looking at the high Hispanic population in south Oklahoma City, Castillo said Metro Tech officials decided a bilingual class might stave off the dropout rate and encourage learning in the Hispanic community.

Castillo applied for the teaching job, earned it and has been perfecting his double-speak ever since.

After attending an Oklahoma City School District principal’s meeting, Barbara Gravitt, director of Metro Tech’s Bryant campus, knew the Hispanic students feeding into the center needed more options. The school officials decided high school students who only spoke Spanish should have opportunities to benefit from vo-tech classes.

Though the auto mechanics class text is in Spanish, instructions are given in English and Spanish. But the two languages mix when referring to certain auto parts. The mechanical knowledge, as well as being equipped with bilingual abilities, will make the students in the program more marketable in the growing auto service field, Gravitt said.

“This was just a pilot program and we had no idea it would be so successful,” Gravitt said. “The reaction has been overwhelming.”

Hispanic students at Metro Tech’s nine feeder schools flocked to enroll in the program. Students in Castillo’s class spend half the day at one of the nine participating high schools and the other half at Metro Tech.

Castillo taught bilingual classes in Chickasha schools and spent nine years at Canadian Valley Vo-Tech before coming to Metro Tech. He said all the students in his class speak Spanish while a few speak English as well.

Castillo says a better knowledge of English, as well as learning a marketable skill, will help the Hispanic students in their future job hunts.

“There are a lot of Hispanic mechanic shops opening in south Oklahoma City,” Castillo said. “But a lot of the owners don’t even speak English.”

Gravitt is pleased with the success of the bilingual auto service class and said it is likely to continue. Metro Tech is considering adding other bilingual courses. Cosmotology is one option being considered.



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