Dual enrichment programs at local elementary schools start teaching students Spanish earlier
Posted on October 25, 2007
Kindergarten used to be crayons, building blocks and nap time, but it looks like foreign language will soon be added to the mix.
Under the dual enrichment program local elementary school children will be taught half of the day in Spanish and half of the day in English, with the hope that by middle school they will be bilingual and biliterate.
“We will only do Spanish because that is the language other than English that we would have enough students to offer the program,” Wanda Hamilton, ESL supervisor, said. “It would begin in a couple schools only in kindergarten, and then we would add a grade each year.”
This program is still in its pre-planning stage for this area, but dual enrichment has been around for almost 20 years. Schools in northern Virginia have already started to implement the curriculum.
“Dr. Virginia Collier and Dr. Wayne Thomas, researchers on ESL programs and professor emeritus from George Mason University, spent time in Harrisonburg looking at our programs, and they have found this type of program for ESL to be one of the most effective long-terms programs,” Hamilton said.
Before the program is established in schools, teachers fluent in both Spanish and English need to be hired.
“We will need to use native bilingual teachers for these classrooms if at all possible,” Hamilton said.
While this program is in its beginning stages, teachers are already getting prepared on how to handle these types of classroom situations. Dr. Solange Lopes-Murphy from the Department of Exceptional Education focuses on second language acquisition.
“This is the best type of program to engage students, cognitively engaging, not just fill in the blanks and prepositions,” she said.
While some parents might be concerned with starting their kids so young, Lopes-Murphy thinks the earlier the better.
“I think the program is wonderful based on all the research [I’ve seen],” she said. “We need to expose them to language, with strategic teaching, so it is comprehensible to them.”
Equally important is the need to educate parents on the pros of allowing their children to pick up a second language. Parents have the option to say no, but Lopes-Murphy thinks they need to review all the facts before jumping to a decision.
“We need to educate the parents and communicate the gains students have once they are bilingual,” she said. “Windows open for them, and it is the responsibility of the school to communicate that to the parents.”
The area is still learning about the program through the northern Virginia schools, which are being used as models to follow as this idea progresses, but Hamilton said its implementation is still a few years away.
Although dual enrichment is still far off, some JMU bilingual students weighed in on how they feel this will benefit future up-and-coming college students.
“I think it is amazing, because we are becoming more integrated into the global community and are dependant upon each other,” graduate student Laura Glore said. “It is necessary to know other languages. I am going to have a hard time in my area because I’m not fluent in French.”
One student found out how important acquiring a second language was by interacting with other cultures.
“I think it’s a great idea because much of the rest of the world gets intense language training throughout their childhood,” junior Peter Geoghan, who is currently learning Italian, said. “It was really evident when I traveled through Europe and most everyone spoke very good English.”
With anticipation budding around the dual enrichment program, some think that it will benefit the children in the community.
“Research has shown the students that are bilingual show greater potential in the later grades,” Hamilton said. “Our world is so global, that it is an advantage for people to speak a second language.”
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