Buenos dias, ninos.

Good morning, children.

Two languages will find a home in classrooms starting later this year under a pilot program in Volusia County schools. The program was approved Tuesday by the Volusia County School Board.

In these classrooms, teachers will speak to English and Spanish speakers who will help each other learn to read and write in both languages. For much of the day, the instructor will teach in English, covering lessons such as science and social studies. A separate bilingual teacher will help with translations for the Spanish speakers.

For about an hour a day every day, the instruction switches to Spanish only and the English-speaking students learn reading and writing through immersion, a longstanding technique used to help people quickly learn another language.

The concept is already being tried in Orange and Osceola counties. Educators across the area are trying out such programs as a way to produce students who are more culturally well-rounded and better prepared to enter a global work force.

Officials hope to introduce the program to first-graders at Deltona Lakes Elementary and to second-graders at Freedom Elementary in DeLand by the end of December.

The program differs from Spanish classes taught at other Volusia elementary schools in which children learn only basic conversation skills. It is designed to help the entire class become literate in two languages, said organizer Carmen Menendez. Parental permission is required.

“I think it’s a neat opportunity,” Deltona Lakes Principal John Atkinson said.

English-speaking children who want to learn a second language would benefit from working with a teacher and children whose first language is Spanish. Spanish-speaking children would learn to read and write in their native language as they are learning English, Menendez said.

In doing so, students become models for one another.

“They’ll help each other out, and that’s the beauty of it,” Menendez said.

Officials chose Deltona Lakes and Freedom for the project, which will be funded in its first year with a $250,000 state grant, because of their sizable Hispanic populations. About one-fifth of the students at the two campuses are Hispanic.

Officials hope the program would also help students succeed in other areas. Studies show that children in language programs do better on standardized tests such as the ACT college-entrance exam. They also may do better in math and science because they develop strong analytical skills by comparing the two languages and dissecting their grammar, said Al Smith of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Smith said introducing foreign language while children are young encourages them to continue studying. Children also are more likely to learn languages faster than an adult.

“Young children are not as inhibited as older people,” he said. “Therefore, they imitate more readily, they engage in learning in a more playful way. And, from that point of view, they do learn and they retain well.”



Comments are closed.