Dual-language education: Who benefits?

Leia Campos, right, is enrolled in Pioneer Elementary's dual-language program

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By Alexa Lee
CNN

(CNN) -- Six-year-old Leia Campos, a native English speaker, can easily switch between English and Spanish in her elementary school classroom.

Leia, spends at least half of her school day at Pioneer Elementary in Lafayette, Colorado, learning in Spanish, now her second language. She and her classmates are part of the school's dual-language immersion program, also known as "two-way immersion" classes.

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The objective is to have students who are literate in two languages. The teaching method puts native English-speaking and non-English-speaking students together in one classroom.

According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, there are more than 250 similar programs around the country. Students are taught in English while also learning Spanish, Japanese, Navajo, Chinese, French and Korean.

"It gives Spanish speakers an opportunity to be in an English environment and also learn English," said Pioneer principal Sue Suggs. "It also gives them a chance to be in a Spanish-language environment where they are taught, for example, reading and math in their first language."

For example, Daniel Palacio, a kindergartner at Roan School in Dalton, Georgia, comes from a family who speaks mostly Spanish at home. He also participates in the school's dual-language immersion program.

Opponents of the relatively new teaching strategy say the classes hinder English acquisition for children such as Daniel.

"They are very helpful for those kids in teaching them a new language," said David Gersten, vice president for development at the Center for Equal Opportunity. "They're not helpful for the mostly Spanish kids stuck in those programs and basically used as tools for helping these English-speaking kids to learn another language."

But Roan principal Frankie Beard disagreed. The program at her school has been in place for six years now.

"We have not seen that problem with the dual-language program, that it impedes the learning of the two languages simultaneously, because that is happening here," Beard said. "It's been very successful and our test scores will show that."

The most comprehensive study to date on dual-language programs was conducted by Wayne P. Thomas and Virginia P. Collier, researchers from George Mason University. They concluded that children in well-implemented, two-way bilingual programs outperform students in traditional one-language classes later, in elementary school.

Leia's parents believe that can happen.

"I've really been amazed by how much she has picked up in such a short period of time," said her father, Paul Campos.

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Topic Areas-Two-Way Immersion
CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer
Roan School

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