Content for High Point's Dual Language Webpage
What is a Dual Language Program?
A dual language program, as the name implies, teaches content in two different languages. While there are schools that use Chinese, Japanese or German as the target language, the large majority of schools in the United States use Spanish. This means that half of the direct instruction students receive will be in Spanish with the other half of the instruction in English.
If all of the students in the class were English speakers learning Spanish, this would be considered a one-way immersion class. It’s referred to as one-way because all of these English speakers are trying to learn Spanish; learning occurs in one way or in one direction from English to Spanish. The dual language program is unique in that half of the students are native English speakers while the other half of the students are native Spanish speakers. This is referred to as a two-way immersion class because Spanish speakers are learning English at the same time the English speakers are learning Spanish; the learning occurs in two ways.
A dual language classroom would look like this:
| Spanish Speaking Students | English Speaking Students |
| o o o o o o o | x x x x x x |
| Dual Language Classroom |
| x o x o x o x o x o |
Different schools have different ways of defining their programs, so it’s best to familiarize yourself with some of the terms you will encounter as you learn about dual language programs. Refer to the What else should I know about Dual Language programs? section to find these terms and their definitions.
What are the goals of a Dual Language Program?
The main goals of a dual language program are bilingualism and biliteracy. Biligualism refers to the ability to speak fluently in two different languages. Biliteracy refers to the ability to read and write in two different languages.
Dual language is a form of bilingual education. Technically, bilingual education refers to any program that uses two languages for instruction. The connotation, however, of bilingual education is what is now known as early exit or transitional bilingual programs. These transitional programs focus on getting non-English speaking students into regular English classes as quickly as possible. Most programs are designed to transition these students to English classes within three years. This strategy has met with limited success. While students may learn English well enough to be main streamed in the regular English classes, they never close the academic gap between themselves and native English speakers. The other problem with this strategy is that the native language is lost as more English is acquired leading some to label it subtractive bilingualism. The overwhelming majority of bilingual programs in the US are of this type. By promoting the growth of students’ native language (L1) while learning the target language (L2), dual language programs can encourage the transfer of skills between the languages while minimizing any potential loss in the native language.
The secondary goals of a dual language program are cultural. They include an awareness and respect for different cultures. This exposure to the language, culture and customs of the target language should foster cross-cultural competence.
While every program touts high academic achievement of their students as a goal of their program, dual language programs are measured against the students not enrolled in the program. Meaning, the academic achievement of these students needs to be equal to or exceed the students in non-dual language programs. This is particularly true for native English speakers’ mastery of English. Parents of English speaking children want them to learn Spanish, but not at the expense of falling behind in English.
The majority of research shows these concerns to be unwarranted. Even though half of their day is dedicated to instruction in a second language, the students enrolled in a dual language program outscore students not enrolled in the program in their English proficiency. Refer to the How effective are Dual Language programs? section to find more information regarding this research.
How does a Dual Language Program work?
Usually driven by community demand, a dual language program is established in a local school. They can exist within public, private or charter schools and can be implemented as one program among many offered. These programs start in either kindergarten or the first grade. Most of them last for at least five years with others extending into middle and high school.
The main difference in dual language programs is the amount of time spent in the target language. A full immersion program, sometimes referred to as 90/10, initially teaches the target language 90% of the time with the remaining 10% in English. This ratio is gradually adjusted through the years until the third or fourth grade when students settle into a 50/50 schedule: 50% of their day in the target language and 50% of their day in English. A partial immersion program, sometimes referred to as 50/50, start with half the day in the target language and half the day in the native language. High Point Elementary is a partial immersion or 50/50 school. Students will spend half of their day receiving instruction in Spanish and half their day receiving instruction in English.
Instruction occurs in both languages. Regardless if the students are native Spanish speakers or native English speakers, they will sit next to each other and learn how to read. For part of the day they will learn how to read in Spanish. For another part of the day, they will learn how to read in English. Teachers will help them transfer their knowledge and literacy skills between the languages. In fact, much research is dedicated to the idea of transfer. The greater students develop their native language (L1), the more successful they will be in the target language (L2).
Different schools have different ways of addressing and nurturing this bilingual environment. Some schools will have the students spend the morning learning English with the afternoon dedicated to Spanish. Some schools will alternate days: Mondays are for Spanish, Tuesdays are for English, for example. Depending on whether the school is full or partial immersion different issues need to be addressed. For example, in a 90/10 or full immersion environment, how will the teacher transition between the languages? In a 50/50 environment, it is an easier distinction to spend half the day with the English teacher and half the day with the Spanish teacher.
Beyond literacy, schools need to address which language the content will be taught. Schools may choose to teach science in English and social studies in Spanish or simply cover both content areas in both languages. In the 90/10 schools, a majority of the content will be taught in the target language. In the 50/50 schools, the curriculum usually mirrors itself. Students will learn math in Spanish with their Spanish teacher and learn math in English with their English teacher. This redundancy helps their language acquisition as well. The main thing to note here is that students learn the language through the content areas and not just direct language instruction.
How effective are Dual Language Programs?
The answer to this question is partially answered by another question: Where can I find schools currently running dual language programs? A web site linking to a database of over 300 dual language programs throughout the country is provided. Each listing has a contact name and phone number. While this approach may be slightly biased, you could find out from the schools themselves that have implemented these programs how successful they’ve been.
Overall, dual language programs have been wildly successful. The research has proven time and time again that dual language programs not only promote bilingualism and biliteracy, but that English-speaking students enrolled in Dual Language programs outscore their English-speaking peers who are not enrolled in Dual Language programs in English. Said differently, even though half of their day is dedicated to learning a foreign language, it is helping them to excel in their native language.
Here is a sample of the research that exists supporting the effectiveness of dual language programs:
1. The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All - Collier and Thomas
<http://www.dlenm.org/resources/publications/general/related_articles/TAEDLEA.pdf>
2. Dual Language Programs: Key Features and Results - María E. Torres-Guzmán
<http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/pubs/directions/14.pdf>
3. What Works: Reviewing the Latest Evidence on Bilingual Education - Krashen and McField
<http://users.rcn.com/crawj/langpol/Krashen-McField.pdf>
4. Educational effectiveness of a two-way dual language program - Mercado
<http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI3080478/>
5. Transition in Bilingual Reading: A Smooth Road to Biliteracy - Mora
<http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/TransitionMMdl/Default.htm>
There are always exceptions, and there have been dual language programs that have failed. Most of the failed attempts stem from human limitations more than any limitation of the concept. Poor implementation, lack of planning and lack of commitment can all be fatal to a new program. Community involvement can’t be underestimated. If a school tries to implement a program without including the community of parents and teachers, many will feel as if it is being forced on them. The overwhelming majority of information and literature on the subject is positive.
What are the requirements for entry or transfer into this program?
To enter the program, the school strongly suggests starting children in kindergarten. Students can still enter the program in the first grade. After the first grade, however, students will not be able to join the program unless students can pass a Spanish proficiency test.
Where can I find schools currently running dual language programs?
For a listing of schools that have implemented dual language programs (two-way bilingual immersion programs), the Center for Applied Linguistics maintains a database on their website:
http://www.cal.org/jsp/TWI/SchoolListings.jsp
Over 300 programs are listed by state and provide information concerning the program including the language used and the model followed. A contact name and phone number are also provided. Each listing is linked to another page that provides a more in-depth look at the program including the school’s demographic composition. Each school also has the opportunity to provide additional commentary addressing the following questions:
1. What are the most important factors in the success of your program?
2. How has the community responded to the program?
3. What challenges have you faced while establishing your program? How have you dealt with them?
4. What advice can you offer new two-way programs that are starting up?
This is a very robust site not only providing the above school information, but also much other information about dual language programs in general including guiding principals, frequently asked questions and tools for practitioners.
What else should I know about Dual Language programs?
With almost 5 million English language learners in the US, it’s surprising that dual language education is a relatively young field. As America becomes increasingly more multicultural, we need ways to promote biligualism, biliteracy and cross-cultural competence. Dual language programs offer tremendous potential to address these issues.
Being a relatively young field, there is some variance in the terms used. The potential pitfall with this variance is that these labels can be inaccurate. The best way to understand a given program is to become familiar with the terminology of the field.
Immersion is another term to become familiar with. High Point’s dual language program is a two-way, partial immersion program. Two-way immersion refers to the students in the class: half will be native English speaking and half will be native Spanish speaking. Learning will occur in two ways: English speakers will learn Spanish, while Spanish speakers will learn English. One-way immersion implies that the entire class consists of a homogenous group working on a target language. Partial refers to the amount of time spent learning the target language. At High Point, 50% of the day is spent learning the target language with the other half of the day in the student’s native language. The 90/10 dual language program is referred to as full immersion.
Generally speaking, immersion is a teaching technique. Instead of teaching the language directly, the language is taught indirectly by simply using it to teach the content areas. Students are immersed in English by taking math, science, social studies and other classes all in English. It may be a matter of semantics, but this is not supposed to be the “sink or swim” implied by the word submersion. Being in a class of their peers approximately at their same level mitigates the “sinking” feeling students may have taking all of their classes in what it to them a foreign language.
Here are some links to explore:
1. The Center for Applied Linguistics <http://www.cal.org/>
2. UC Berkeley’s Education Page - CREDE (The Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence). <http://crede.berkeley.edu/>
3. Dual Language Education of New Mexico <http://www.duallanguagenm.org/>
4. National Association for Bilingual Education <http://www.nabe.org/>
5. Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition: Improving Language Teaching and Learning (CARLA) <http://www.carla.umn.edu/>
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