Spanish Immersion at public school K-5 -- advice needed....

[Beth in SW WA]

My dd is eligible for a Spanish immersion program at our neighborhood school. It will be 90% Spanish, 10% English instruction.

 

Am I crazy to consider this -- or crazy not to jump at the chance?

 

Any input will be appreciated.

 

Thanks a million!

[Mabelen]

I don't have first hand experience but I have a friend whose children attend a French immersion school. There are also some Spanish and Chinese immersion schools in my school district. From what I know, parents are happy regarding the language experience even when they do not speak the language of immersion. I think this kind of program has some definite positive points, I would try to find out more from current parents or parents of alumni if that is possible.

[Unicorn.]

My df has 2 dd's in an immersion program here. It has been positive exp. for them, and she plans on her younger dd's going into it when they are older. The only problems she has had have been things like not having enough library or classroom books in Spanish. Her oldest (5th) was the first class to begin this as K'ers. The book situation is improving. If this is an established program, you wouldn't have to worry about those things though.

 

If it is a good school, and you are okay with the school in general, the program itself can be an awesome experience for your dc.

[Beth in SW WA]

Thank you both for your replies. I thought we were set to enroll dd in our local classical Christian homeschool co-op. But our neighborhood school just announced this program will start in the Fall. They would hear/speak no English except at PE and Music.

 

Who would have thought my 2 daughters adopted from China would be speaking Spanish fluently? Nothing surprises me anymore. :)

[Niebski]

Wow, I would love that! Not sure if the kids would, though.... I'd keep an eye on their skills in English :)

[genestaz]

Hi Beth,

 

Sorry this is going to be long but it's a big question. Dual language immersion programs can be excellent but evaluating them can also be tricky. My son (age 4) is currently attending a Spanish immersion preschool program and we've researched a lot of the issues surrounding these types of programs. My kids are trilingual and we're considering pulling them out to do homeschooling partially so they can receive a comprehensive education in all three languages as their third language (Farsi) is not available in any school.

 

Public dual immersion programs: The quality of these programs vary widely. It's important to note that's dual immersion programs are still relatively new in this country. As such they haven't been fully tested and are usually at risk for premature political involvement (ie: test scores aren't good enough so let's shut down the program). The areas of concern I've had with public immersion programs in our area are primarily that they aren't truly dual immersion. For dual immersion to really work you need a linguistically balanced student population. In our area roughly 90% of students in public dual immersion programs are "English language learners." (Most native Spanish speakers). This creates a number of problems. Pressure on the program to beef up English skills. Lower than average standardized test scores as a result of limited English. Not enough exposure to peer level English for native speakers. An English speaking child can experience some of the same problems in such an environment as a non-English speaking child in an English only environment can. Overall, I'm a bit worried about the overall academic quality of most of these programs given that the student population isn't very balanced and thus a lot of attention must be paid to issues that are of specific concern to immigrant families.

 

Private dual immersion programs: In our area these schools have the opposite problem. Most students come from English speaking homes with parents who want their children to learn a foreign language. These schools tend to be structured to fit that need. I'm guessing the school you're looking at is facing this situation since you mentioned that most of the instruction is done in Spanish. At my son's preschool all instruction is in Spanish. In Kindergarten they start with one hour a day in English, up to 2 hours in first grade and then half and half by second grade. This seems to be a fairly effective method of teaching young children a foreign language. Roughly half of the children in my son's class had no prior knowledge of Spanish (the others were from either bilingual families or had Spanish speaking caregivers before starting school). After one year all of the children are able to comprehend conversational Spanish without any trouble. Most still choose to speak English most of the time but will sing songs in Spanish and respond in Spanish if asked to. The kids who also speak some Spanish at home seem to be very comfortable in both languages. My son usually bounces back and forth between the languages with his peers and speaks only in Spanish to his teachers. We speak Spanish at home but his Spanish is now better than mine and he has taken to coming home and teaching me new vocabulary he's learned at school.

 

This is all great for preschool but I still have a lot of questions when it comes to looking at the academic program for elementary. Since we're looking at homeschooling I naturally thought my son's school would be a great resource for advice on how to structure dual language curriculum. So I discussed the topic at length with his principal. She initially explained how many hours a day they do each language but was surprisingly short on specifics. So what subject is taught in what language? She wasn't really sure how they're going to do that (to be fair, this is a new school and right now they only have up to first grade). The kindergartners and first graders study reading and writing in English and everything else in Spanish. After that, they're really not sure how they're going to study which subjects in which language. The request about how they chose curriculum in Spanish was even more vague. Apparently, the school simply contacted the Mexican consulate and got all of their curriculum from them because their materials followed the Mexican educational standards. Now, last I heard Mexico is not exactly known for having an outstanding educational system so I was a bit surprised at how little research into Spanish curriculum was done. Overall, these would be questions I would ask of a school. How did they choose their Spanish curriculum? Specifically, what does the day look like? Do they do Math in English and Science in Spanish? Or study all subjects in both languages and rotate days? How does the English curriculum coordinate with the Spanish curriculum? Are the general educational approaches consistent in both language or does one set of curriculum utilize a completely different approach than the other set? (ie: are they teaching a phonetic approach to reading in English and then using a sight-word recognition approach to reading in Spanish?) Those would be the kinds of inconsistencies I would look for.

 

Finally, I think it's important to understand how the school handles the different needs of different groups of kids. My son's school is designed to meet the needs of English speaking children wanting to learn Spanish. That's great but not all of the kids fall into that category. Some children (although not many) are from immigrant families and have very little exposure to English outside of school. The school has taken the position that those children will learn English from other kids. That has proved to be true for the most part. However, children do not teach academic language skills. My son and I have started studying phonics at home and I have noticed some stumbling blocks for him in that process. When we're looking at pictures and trying to decide what sound the word starts with he knows some words in English, others in Spanish, and others in both. The fact that there are common words of the type that show up in Kindergarten level textbooks that he knows in Spanish but not in English could cause significant problems for him if he had to go to an English only public school. The public schools in our area have an unfortunate tendency to categorize children as "English language learners" quite early and getting shoved into an ESL program would be devastating for his overall academic development since those programs DON'T teach academic language in ANY language. Dual immersion schools that focus on the needs of one language group without paying due attention to the needs of the other language group can inadvertently hinder students by limiting academic exposure to both languages early on.

 

Good luck with your decision!

 

Genesta