Parents of dual-language students will get to learn, too

CHAPEL HILL – It won’t be only 44 students who will take part in the city schools’ inaugural dual-language immersion program when classes begin next week.

It will be their parents, too.

Parents are expected to be heavily involved in the two dual-language kindergarten classes – an English-Spanish class at Carrboro Elementary and an English-Mandarin Chinese class at Glenwood. To support the parents as they try to aid their children and to help them learn along with the students, the district will offer a series of “survival” language courses in both Spanish and Chinese.

“Many of the parents who have children in the dual-language classes want to know how they can support and interact with their students [as they learn another language],” said Josephine Harris, the district’s director of special programs.

“What we want to do is teach at least some of the ‘survival phrases,’ so that when their children talk, the parents will have some understanding. They will have a sense of what is going on in the classroom and be able to contribute.”

For the last three years, the district has offered similar classes – in Spanish, Chinese and Japanese – to school system staff. But this is the first time the eight-week-long courses have been open to parents.

While the classes are specifically targeted to the parents of students in the dual-language program, any local parent could sign up if openings become available.

“There will be limited space, so we want to make sure that the dual-language parents have priority,” Harris said. “The program demands a great amount of parent involvement and a lot of volunteering. The classes are designed to make the parents feel as comfortable as they possibly can with the other language.”

The 22-student classes at each of the schools are both equally divided between English-speaking students and either native Spanish or native Chinese speakers. Each class will have two teachers – who are fluent in both languages – with a lead English teacher and a lead foreign-language teacher.

The two classes also each will have two bilingual teacher assistants.

In each class, students will learn equally in both languages. Rather than learning languages per se, the students will learn content subjects in both languages.

The classes will work on the 50/50 model, with content taught half the time in English and the other half in the foreign language.

As this year’s kindergartners move as a group through elementary school, an additional grade will be added each year to expand the dual-language model. A new group of kindergartners will start the program each year.

The survival language classes will be taught at the schools, with the fall session beginning in late September. The classes will meet twice a week, for two hours each on Tuesday and Thursday.

A second series of classes will begin its eight-week run in early February.

Neil Offen [email protected]; 918-1035



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