Why learn one language when you can learn two?

Program merge Spanish with English in class

Kelly Astrahan’s third-graders are supposed to be working quietly, brainstorming ideas for future writing assignments.

But occasionally, students lean across their tables, whispering to one another.

Asked to be quiet, Gaby Gutierrez responds, “But she keeps asking me words in Spanish.”

Most elementary school students don’t have the opportunity to learn a second language, even if they want to. But at MacArthur Elementary School in Hoffman Estates, students in one class in every grade from kindergarten through fourth are doing more than learning second languages. They’re learning in the second language itself.

MacArthur has one of a handful of dual language programs in the Chicago area – Des Plaines Elementary District 62 also has a program. Students start the program in kindergarten, in a class that has half native English speakers and half native Spanish speakers. The program started with a kindergarten class five years ago; next year, it will add a fifth-grade class.

As they move through elementary school, each group of students is expected to learn the other’s language.

That doesn’t mean the teacher teaches half in English and half in Spanish.

In the early grades, almost the whole day is spent in Spanish, said first-grade teacher Wallesca Argueta. The school needs to reinforce Spanish skills, because the rest of the world around the students speaks English.

“TV is in English, the radio is in English, the playground is in English, gym and art and music are all in English,” Argueta said. “This is the only place in Spanish.”

Pantomime helps the English speakers understand what’s going on.

“We do a lot of acting,” Argueta said. “We sing a lot of songs.”

And they do a lot of pointing. During the calendar lesson, Argueta asks Aubrey Templeman what day it is, pointing to the blank spot on the calendar.

“Hoy es viernes,” Aubrey responds.

The one time all English speakers are taught in English and Spanish speakers are taught in Spanish is when they are studying reading and writing.

The students don’t formally learn to read and write in their second languages until they have mastered the skills in their first languages, fourth-grade teacher Amy Mosquero said. Three or four students in each language group in her class have started doing their language arts in their second languages this year, she said. But the students all pick up most of the skills before the formal transition, she said.

Second-graders in Lisa Gallo’s class split into language groups for their reading and writing lessons. Gallo works with the English speakers, having them list words having to do with friendship for every letter of the alphabet. Aide Trinidad Rodriguez works with the Spanish speakers on an exercise in following directions in English, their English as a Second Language class for the day. Earlier, Gallo had a writing lesson with the Spanish speakers while Rodriguez did Spanish as a Second Language for the English speakers.

Once the lessons are over, all students return to their tables to write about what qualities they like in friends, each in his or her own language.

The students in Astrahan’s class do more in both languages. Sarai Najera and Tori Raio say it’s not too hard.

“I’m teaching my mom Spanish,” Tori said.

Gaby Gutierrez says she still understands more of what the teacher says in Spanish, but she has no problem understanding and answering questions in English. Christian Carvajal agrees he still understands Spanish better, but he uses English most of the time he’s not in class or talking to his parents.

That’s just fine with classmate Eric Thomas, who says he would rather not have to learn in two languages.

“The Spanish is too hard,” he said. “Besides, it’s an English school.”

Peggy Brothman has heard complaints about how hard the Spanish is from her daughter, now in the fourth grade. Her second daughter started the dual language in kindergarten this year.

But Brothman noticed that her daughter complained about the Spanish when she was having trouble with math.

“When I sat down with her to work on it, I discovered the problem was with the math, not the Spanish,” Brothman said. “She’s never said she didn’t want to learn Spanish.”

Helping her daughter with her homework was one concern Brothman had, she said. But the teachers in the program make sure the parents have access to the materials they need, in both languages, to stay involved.

“It’s the exact same curriculum,” she said.

Brothman chose the dual language program the year it started because she wanted her daughter to have a chance to speak two languages, and, after majoring in Chinese in college, she knew how hard it would be for them to learn later in life.

“I’m always surprised there are people who would not want their children to have a second language,” Brothman said. “It seems like such a natural way to learn a language.”

Such a natural way that 27 parents have chosen it for the kindergartners this year, with parents who live outside MacArthur’s attendance boundaries clamoring to get in. Brothman knows it’s a large kindergarten class, but she said she understands there have to be enough English speakers starting in kindergarten to make sure enough of them will still be there in fourth or fifth grade.



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