Bilingual Centers Speak Every Kid's Language

Imagine being an English-speaking child trying to learn science in a Mexican, Cambodian or Korean school.

That’s about what it’s like for hundreds of children in Orange County schools: They speak Spanish or Korean – but not English.

Yet such pupils can still learn their lessons in their own languages, said Yvonne Diaz, program consultant for bilingual programs in Orange elementary schools.

They study at bilingual centers set up in schools.

Five new centers have opened in elementary schools this year, bringing the total number in elementary schools to 17, Diaz said.

More than 1,300 pupils attend the centers, where they are taught math, reading, social studies and science in their own languages.

To learn English, the pupils take a course in the language each day. Then they return to their homeroom class for physical education, art, music and lunch.

“This allows them to learn English in a situation with less anxiety,” Diaz said.

As a child gets more familiar with the language, he or she begins taking more courses taught by English-speaking teachers, Diaz said. Eventually, the pupil takes – and participates in – all English-speaking courses.

“It doesn’t happen overnight or in six months,” she said. “It takes time.”

Bilingual centers are not new. Orange County schools have had them for 14 years, Diaz said. But they are growing in number.

Seven middle schools each have one, including Ocoee Middle School, which opened its bilingual center this year, said Ron Bryant, secondary program consultant.

At the elementary level, Diaz said, 12 of the centers cater to Spanish-speaking students, three to Haitian students and two to students who speak such languages as Arabic, Japanese and Korean.

One of the centers for Spanish-speaking students opened this year at Cheney Elementary School in east Orange – where it’s much needed, said Gloria Fernandez, an assistant principal at the school.

“We’re having a hugh growth of hispanic students here,” Fernandez said.

The bilingual center, she said, is “another service to the community. We’re helping (the children) learn English so they can get into the mainstream as quickly as possible.”



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