Bilingual by fifth grade

DILLON - This program is light years ahead of the days when learning to count to 10 in Spanish with characters from Sesame Street made children feel multilingual.

And it far supersedes time spent in a high school or even college classroom learning just enough Spanish to pass, get credit, then never practice and forget all but the basics.

In the El Valle dual-language program at Dillon Valley Elementary School, many first graders have already mastered pronunciation, are conjugating verbs and are well past giving blank stares to the teachers who speak to them in their non-native language. The split population of native English and Spanish speakers are becoming bilingual, biliterate and bicultural.

"It's amazing what they're learning," said Kendra Carpenter, kindergarten teacher who instructs in Spanish.



Flexible minds

Carpenter said she has watched as the children break through cultural barriers, help each other learn languages and really get excited about becoming bilingual. While she teaches in Spanish, another teacher with a classroom behind her teaches in English. The two coordinate lesson plans and work together to help the children learn.

Principal Gayle Westerberg began looking into dual-language programs about 10 years ago, partly because of the growing number of native Spanish-speaking students in the county. It works the best with 50 percent English and 50 percent Spanish speakers, which is close to what Dillon Valley has, she said.

Research shows that the more grounded a child is in their native language, the more easily they acquire a second language, Westerberg added.

Also, learning at a young age makes proficiency more likely. "Their minds are just a lot more adaptable and flexible," she said.

According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, other benefits include improved overall school performance and superior problem-solving skills. Students of foreign languages tend to score higher on standardized tests conducted in English.

Additionally, the 2003 results of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) showed that U.S. students who had studied a foreign language for four or more years outscored all other students on verbal and math portions.

"We'll have more global citizens, most internationally minded," Westerberg said. "So it's bigger than just learning another language. ... Being bilingual is just a great asset in today's economy."

Currently, kindergarten and first graders are in the dual-language program that began last school year. The rest of the school takes a Spanish class, but is not immersed this way.

Adding a grade each year will help the school and staff get used to the program, Westerberg said. Every teacher they hire from now on will have good Spanish communication skills, she added.



'Really confident'

In kindergarten, the children learn to read and write in their native language. They have a homeroom mixed with native English and Spanish speakers. They take a language class and spend part of the time learning social studies and science in their non-native language. About 30 percent of their time is spent learning that way.

The goal is that by fifth grade, the students will spend half their time learning curriculum in English and half their time learning in Spanish, Westerberg said.

And despite the increased attention to a foreign language, the curriculum and standards are the same. The teachers are just using Spanish as a vehicle to teach part of the time, said Westerberg, who visited some 10 schools before beginning the program.

By third and fourth grade it was hard to tell who were the native English speakers and who were the native Spanish speakers, she said of the programs she visited.

"The first year was a dream," Westerberg said. "We had incredibly supportive parents."

The program attracted 14 families from other parts of the county whose parents provide their own transportation. And, in all, there are about 50 first graders and 74 kindergartners.

Cassidy, 7, a native English speaker, and Karolena, 6, a native Spanish speaker, worked next to each other on a science lesson in Spanish. They took a moment from their work talk about the program.

"It's cool," said Cassidy. "It's fun to say."

Karolena nodded with a shy smile, and they both agreed that they've made new friends since they started learning each others' languages.

"They're really good and they feel really confident that they speak Spanish," said Leslie Davison, Spanish teacher at the school. "We're really lucky to have it."

Shelly Martinez, the English Language Acquisition teacher, added, "It's exciting to watch the kids interact and grow."