Must Reads

This post was originally published on June 22nd, 2009. One of the most helpful and resourceful experts we met while doing research for these articles on language immersion programs was Cristina Aguilar Allen. She is the Dual Immersion Facilitator for the Glendale (California) Unified School District’s Foreign Language Academies of Glendale (FLAG) which offers elementary language programs in Spanish, Korean, Italian, German and Armenian. Cristina has 25 years of experience as a Spanish bilingual teacher and a Master’s Degree inRead More ...

The following is a guest post by bilingualism expert, Dr. Fred Genesee, Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Canada. There are many good reasons for raising children bilingually. First and foremost are personal and family reasons. If members of the immediate family or extended family include people who speak other languages, then it is a benefit for everyone if your child speaks their languages. This is especially true if some family members speak only one language and might beRead More ...

While I was registering to get the H1N1 vaccine this weekend at the local high school, the lady who was taking in the forms very politely asked if I’d rather get the information in Spanish. (I guess she’d overheard us while we were making the line.) I, also very politely, answered that it didn’t matter because I was bilingual. I don’t know if, at first, she didn’t understand me because she asked the question again. So, I repeated that eitherRead More ...

More than one study has proven that the best way for children to develop their language and reading skills is through dialogue. This is particularly important for bilingual children. It is a fallacy to think that just sitting your child in front of the television set to watch a program in Spanish or to let them mouse around with a bilingual computer game will expose them to the kind of vocabulary needed to become proficient in the minority language. SoRead More ...

This post was originally published on March 26, 2009. Although I believe I already was a supporter of dual language immersion programs prior to the extensive research I’ve done to put together this education series, now that I’ve learned more of its intricacies I can definitely say I have become one of its fervent advocates. Allow me to  tell you why. A well-designed dual immersion program encompasses the “best of both worlds,” as I was told repeatedly by the educatorsRead More ...

Photo by Gaetan Lee Back in March, we published a series of entries related to the complex subject of bilingual education. Ana Lilian and I spent a bunch of time researching this topic: interviewing some of those involved in this area of education–including parents and teachers–and even visiting a few schools which offer this option to their communities. Since they were pretty popular with our readers, this week we’ve decided to re-post them in case you might have missed themRead More ...

I‘ve been racking my brain the last few days trying to come up with a definition of what’s a Latino. And, for the life of me, I still don’t have an answer. I mean, I guess I could look it up in the dictionary, but the word evokes so many different attributes that the truth is there just can not be a sole interpretation. Plus, I’ve found that it really depends on who you ask. Although it’s no longer newsRead More ...

My 18-year-old goddaughter, Veronika, was recently in town for the weekend and I noticed something pretty interesting that I’m still trying to figure out. Although she was raised bilingual by my (Peruvian) sister and her father, who is Cuban, (but moved to New York as a toddler and thus speaks more English than Spanish,) ever since I can remember, we have always communicated in English. I mean, I know she understands Spanish, but when I talk to her, she hasRead More ...