Photo by //amy//
The following is a guest post written by Suzanne G. Mateus, a doctoral student in Bilingual and Bicultural Education and a bilingual teacher. She is a supporter of dual language immersion schools. You can find out more about her through her blog, Interpretations of a Bilingual Life.
Saludos! I’m excited to share with all of you, the readers of SpanglishBaby, my volunteering experience with Magellan International School (MIS), a dual language immersion school in Austin, Texas, that is scheduled to open fall of 2009! ¡Por fin!
Let me preface my posting by stating that I am a first year doctoral student in the bilingual and bicultural education program at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin and a bilingual reading and writing teacher, also in Austin. When I heard of the request to help observe children to more or less determine their language proficiencies as well as social, academic and emotional levels, I jumped at the opportunity. MIS has already done a lot of the groundwork required prior to implementing a successful dual language school, like gathering support from the community and parental commitment. I’m not a parent, yet, but I have been letting everyone know about this wonderful school. I firmly believe that everyone should have the chance to learn a second language from the time they enter kindergarten.
There has been a dual language movement stirring in the Austin community for a few years now. When I came back to Texas in 2007, after teaching in a two-way immersion school in Kansas City, Missouri, I was utterly amazed that my town, a progressive, multicultural university community nestled in the heart of Central Texas did not have a single dual language program!
It isn’t difficult to infer through my various experiences in Austin as a doctoral student, teacher and community member that there is still a lot of advocacy work to do to inform the community as to what dual language education means. That being said we are definitely making gains and MIS is the perfect example to prove it! Similar to other dual language immersion programs, the idea of MIS originated from parents wanting their children to learn another language in school and at a very young age. The founder of MIS, Erin Defosse, started advocating for raising bilingual children, like many of us who have a desire to build awareness about being bilingual with a blog called Austin Bilingüe.
During my two-hour volunteering session, I was excited about the parents eagerness to have their children enrolled in MIS. At one point, I spoke to Defosse about my experiences as a two-way immersion teacher and about my husband´s experience in an International Baccalaureate school in Bogota, Colombia, where the founding head of MIS, María Isabel León, is conincidentaly coming from. He shared with me that he intends to continue to advocate for dual language immersion education in the Austin community by expanding the support at MIS to include university professors and students from the teacher education programs at UT.
I cannot end this post without mentioning the children I spoke with in both English and Spanish this past weekend. There was a range of children in terms of bilingual proficiencies. They all seemed very interested in speaking another language and smiled when I said something in Spanish. The children we were observing ranged in age from three to seven years old. Most of the time they would either give me a short verbal response in Spanish or would respond in English, confirming they understood my questions or comments in Spanish. I walked away with a glimpse of what the school could achieve in terms of the way I see my town in the near future: a progressive, multicultural and multilingual university community nestled in the heart of Central Texas.
List of English-Spanish dual immersion programs
Although the following is only a partial list, we wanted to share with you some schools with English-Spanish dual immersion programs around the country:
Escuela Bilingüe Internacional-Oakland, CA
International School of Portland-Portland, OR
Jardín de Niños Interlingua-Austin, TX
The Awty International School-Houston, TX
Worldspeak-Los Angeles, CA
Denver International School-Denver, CO
For a searchable directory of dual-language immersion programs in the US, visit the Center for Applied Linguistics’ website by clicking here.
Want to know more about dual language immersion programs? We’ve put together a three-part series with useful information about this type of education. What are these programs all about? Do they really work? What do parents whose kids are enrolled in them have to say about them? What can you do if this option doesn’t exist in your area?
Wait! There are more posts like this one:
- Foreign Language Academies of Glendale: A Dual Immersion Case Study
- What are Dual Language Immersion Programs?
- What if There are No Dual Immersion Programs in Your City?
- Ask an Expert::Will a Language Immersion Program Work for Us?
Tags: children, dual language, education, immersion, language, school
my 2 kids look like me,my stepson looks like vin diesel.so cute .
This is a timely post for me. When my daughter was born, even though she wouldn’t be enrolling in school for several years, I began searching out local educational options which incorporate a bilingual/multilingual education. I was shocked to discover there was nothing – not a single thing available in my tiny little state. I am now developing my own program. I’m just figuring out what this might look like and I’m very excited about it. Starting a business is all foreign territory to me but because I know the value of something like this, I know other parents will love it. I look forward to this series. Gracias =)
Carla (MamaHeartsBaby)’s last blog post..My Everyday Treasure
I can’t tell you how often I have wished for something like this in my area. I really think my children would benefit greatly from this type of experience. I look forward to reading more about this!
Monica’s last blog post..The Woman Who Outshone the Sun
I recently visited a dual-immersion French/English school. I was blown away! I spoke with some 4th grade students who switched from French to English with perfect ease . . . and then conversed in their native language (Creole.) ALL kids can become bilingual if just given the chance. Wish there were more educational options like this out there.
diane’s last blog post..Happy Birthday Hungry Caterpillar
Unfortunately the dual language movement in many states, and cities is headed by parents and communities that are privileged in socio-economic terms. Thus, the dual language schools benefit the already privileged. However, the students that are already growing up bilingual are being left out by the privatization of this dual language movement. Many of the students that are speaking two languages, not from kindergarten, but from the crib, are receiving the message by our public education system that they are not valued unless they give up their second language, and master only English.
Too bad the MIS school follows this trend. And I call it a trend because it is so trendy for parents nowadays to have their kids attend bilingual or even trilingual schools. Well, guess what? For hundreds of years there have been people born speaking a second language in this country that have been beaten and made ashamed of their language and heritage.
Ugh, anyway… not happy about MIS, I wished the open charter in Austin had been approved.
@ T.A.-We completely understand the frustration you express. Both Roxana and I are parents living in “challenged” school districts (L.A. and Denver) where bilingual education has even been banned and given a negative connotation because it’s real benefits to society as a whole have not been understood.
We’re with you 100%
Even so, we are both determined to find dual-language public school options for our kids.
We’ve done our research and prepared a series of articles on public dual-language immersion programs which will be posted starting tomorrow, Monday. What they are, how they work, resources to find them and stories from parents who have been able to convince and work with their districts to create programs in their schools. Yes, it’s possible.
We’re excited some parents do have the option of progressive schools like MIS. The opening of more and more of these schools show there is a real need, thus becoming a “trend”.
We hope these stories will inspire us to take action to change our schools and make dual-language learning a possibility for all.
@Carla–you go, girl!
Ana Lilian’s last blog post..Yo Quiero Links!
Dual language immersion from a young age is ideal to widen future generation’s wisdom. Recently read an article explaining that being bilingual trains the brain to be multitasking.
Anne Tessier Galea´s last blog ..Skylark School of English
Hi! I realize this post was written well over a year ago, but I’d love to contact the author. We currently live in Kansas City and when my daughter starts kindergarten in a few years, we’d really like her to attend a dual immersion or bilingual school. I can’t seem to find any here though! My daughter was 9 months old when we moved to Madrid, Spain where we lived for almost 2 years. She watches Spanish television programs and can understand a lot, but has lots most of her speaking ability. Can you let me know more about the school you taught in here in KC? Thanks!