Today´s question was sent by Chris Cannon:

“What are the advantages/disadvantages of full immersion school versus half-immersion school? Background: We have boy/girl twins who have attended (full) Spanish immersion preschool for the last two years (totalling 4-7 hours/week of exposure). Neither my husband nor I are bilingual, though I do know some Spanish and have been improving on it and using it more“

Dear Chris:

If your long-term goal is that you would like your children to be highly proficient in both languages, then a full immersion program would be more beneficial in kindergarten. Research has demonstrated that students in both types of programs will score comparably in English by the end of elementary school, but students who receive more instruction in the target language (i.e., Spanish, French, German, etc) over the course of the program will attain higher levels of second language proficiency than students who are only immersed in the target language for half of the day.

You mentioned that your children have been in a full immersion preschool for two years and have spent approximately four to seven hours a week learning Spanish. In many states children attend kindergarten classes for only half the day, which consist of no more than three hours of total classroom instruction per day. If your children will only attend a half-day program, this would mean that your children would only receive about five to seven hours of instruction in Spanish per week, which might not be sufficient exposure to develop high levels of proficiency in Spanish if they only receive exposure during the school day.

On the other hand, you also mentioned that your children have attended an immersion preschool for two years and that you are also beginning to incorporate Spanish literacy into the home. Have your children already developed a basic understanding of Spanish? If your children have a basic understanding of Spanish, have opportunities to practice Spanish outside of the school day, or will be enrolling in a full-day kindergarten program, then a half immersion program will be sufficient to develop high levels of literacy in both languages.

What is more important than the “time spent in Spanish or English” dilemma is the quality of the instructional approach you choose. We know from research which instructional components are necessary in order to have high-quality bilingual programs. When enrolling your children in either a total or partial immersion program, you will want to compare the programs in terms of the critical components that make bilingual programs successful. You can consult my “A Parent’s Guide to the Critical Components of Effective Bilingual Programs” as a starting point.

I wish you luck in choosing the instructional program that best suits your particular situation. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section and I will do my best to assist you.

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

Do you have a question for our experts? Remember no question is too big or too simple. So, to send us your question, please click here or leave a comment below. Thank you!

Thanks,
Margaret Villaseñor”

Dear Margaret,

You definitely have quite a dilemma in deciding which academic program would be best for your children, and it seems that both choices put you in a “win-win” situation. It’s important that you sit down with your husband and outline the pros and cons of each academic setting for your particular family, as well as the goals that you have for the Spanish proficiency of your children.

Your children may have exposure to Spanish in a Waldorf school as you noted, but the instructional component will more than likely not result in high levels of biliteracy in both English and Spanish. It is possible that as a parent you can promote high levels of proficiency in Spanish at home, but it will require much effort, exposure, dedication and a systematic and consistent “language policy” of how, when, and where your children will use Spanish.

On the other hand, Dual Immersion settings promote high levels of proficiency in Spanish throughout the day and also provide many academic enrichment opportunities. Quality Dual Immersion programs will also promote many of same educational philosophies upon which the Waldorf model is based. Students in Dual Immersion settings will achieve proficiency in Spanish at a faster rate than they would in a Waldorf-type setting or a home setting where only one parent is using Spanish.

It’s important that you speak with your husband to decide whether you are both willing to put in the time and effort at home that it will require to achieve high levels of literacy in Spanish, as well as your timeline for proficiency in Spanish.

I’m an advocate for Dual Immersion programs, and therefore would recommend that you place your children in a Dual Immersion setting because of the enrichment, biliteracy and cross-cultural respect that such programs promote. But it has also been my experience that Dual Immersion settings are most successful when both parents are on board with the program. After a discussion with your husband, if there is a chance that your family is unable to make a long-term commitment to stay in the program throughout elementary school then perhaps it would be a better decision to enroll in a Waldorf setting and cultivate Spanish proficiency at home.

Whichever choice you choose, it will always be possible to build proficiency in both languages in any type of setting. While the Dual Immersion program would definitely be an easier option if you are the only Spanish speaker in the house, it can also be done at home with time, resources, dedication and support from communities such as Spanglishbaby. Good luck!

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

Thanks,

Monica Lewis”

Dear Monica,

When learning a second language it takes approximately five to seven years to develop academic proficiency in the language. Native English-speaking students who enter into a Dual Immersion program in the first grade often enter into the program a full year after other English-speaking students enter the program. Due to your son’s later entry, it’s important that the teacher is not instructing and/or grading him in the same way or having the same expectations for Spanish language development that might be expected of a student who entered the program at the beginning of kindergarten.

It’s important to determine if your son does not enjoy learning Spanish because he really is not interested in learning another language, or whether his lack of interest in learning Spanish is due to lack of confidence or feeling either frustrated or unsuccessful. It may be entirely possible that he is not interested in learning Spanish because he is not provided with instruction appropriate to his beginning level of Spanish and as a result he is frustrated or anxious. Or perhaps he is experiencing a sort of culture shock that some language learners initially experience as they are immersed into another language, a stage that students will often move out if given sufficient time, patience and support.

I would recommend visiting his classroom during the Spanish instructional block and looking for the following:

• Considering that you do not speak Spanish, does the teacher utilize a variety of strategies that assist you in understanding what is being taught? Or are you completely unable to understand what is happening in the classroom? If the teacher is not utilizing a variety of strategies that help you understand what is being taught, it may be possible that instruction is not being modified for your son’s Spanish proficiency level.
• Does the room seem inviting to children who are learning Spanish? Can you feel a culture or climate in the room that motivates language learners to take risks with practicing language?
• Speak with your son’s new teacher and remind him/her that your son entered the program in first grade. Ask the teacher what steps that the teacher will take during instruction as well as modifying student assignments in order to meet the needs of your son and develop his Spanish.

It is natural if he is not meeting grade level standards at this point in Spanish because it takes approximately five to seven years to achieve proficiency in a second language. After a full year in the program, students at the beginning stages should be able to recognize and identify letter names and sounds, begin to decode syllables and put two basic syllables into words (ma-má=mamá), and read simple stories or repetitive text after having been exposed to key vocabulary and language patterns in the text. By the end of first grade, he should have begun speaking with simple words and then later progressed to speaking with two words, simple phrases, and simple sentence structures with the support of his teacher. It is also expected that he can copy basic text written collaboratively with the teacher and can write basic, repetitive type sentences after being provided an example by the teacher.

If your son has mastered the expectations noted in the previous paragraph, he is making acceptable progress towards acquiring Spanish. If he continues to struggle with many of the beginning level skills in Spanish, it is recommended that you convene a meeting with the teacher and any other personnel in order to create an action plan for facilitating his Spanish development and motivation. Learning a second language is sometimes a frustrating process, and both teachers and parents must work together to brainstorm strategies and ideas that will assist student learning as well as increase motivation.

Meanwhile try to buy books, music, fun games, and other resources in Spanish for your son that will make learning Spanish fun for him. It may be possible that as a result of sending him to tutoring that he now perceives that Spanish is a chore or something that he is being forced to do. It’s important that you find out what is fun and interesting to him, and try to find a way to expose him to it in Spanish.

Take a moment to look over some of the strategies and tips for bringing out the fun in language learning that I have suggested for other parents who have been in your situation. Please hang in there and with appropriate support and resources this is a stage that your son will more than likely move out of. Good luck, and most importantly…continue to also read and engage in literacy experiences in English at home because the stronger he is in English, the more easily he will acquire Spanish!

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

“We recently moved to California from the east coast and took the opportunity to try a Spanish immersion program for our 7 and 4 year old daughters. I went to a bilingual school as a child, learning Spanish, and so wanted them to have that wonderful experience. The problem is our 7 year old, now in 2nd grade, has had only limited Spanish and is playing catch up. She is a fast learner and strong English reader with a good attitude about learning, so we thought even though it would be challenging, she’d be okay. Well, today was the first day (it is a year-round school, so it starts in July) and she has been in tears. I watched the first 5 minutes of class and the teacher did not acknowledge that she was (the only) new (kid) and spoke in a stream of Spanish that only someone fluent would understand. My daughter felt lost all day and was in tears tonight. I don’t see the teacher changing her approach- just the feeling I get – and I don’t see my daughter learning quickly enough to make the first few weeks (months?) anything short of disaster. What do you experts think? What are the best tactics to stick it out and get her up to speed while not making her miserable and hate school? I have scoured the web for resources, ipad games, etc but all are geared at preschoolers and even those I have found, not to be very good. Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks,

Alyse”

Dear Alyse,

Considering the fact that your daughter is strong in her primary language and is an eager learner, she will definitely pick up Spanish if provided assistance and support in the classroom and at home. In many Dual Immersion programs, teachers in second grade and beyond are sometimes not accustomed to having a native English speaker arrive in their classroom with minimal proficiency in Spanish because most students enter in kindergarten or first grade. However if you are dedicated to raising a bilingual daughter, don’t be shy when it comes to advocating for your daughter!

Here are a few recommendations that I hope you find useful:

• It is sometimes common that many students who initially enter into the Dual Immersion program for the first time are overwhelmed, tired or begin to cry when they are placed in a situation in which they do not speak the language. Talk with your child about how she is feeling, so that she understands that frustration is sometimes a common feeling when immersed in a second language. Reinforce at home that with time  she will begin to acquire enough Spanish to begin to understand, and talk to her about what a gift being bilingual will be for her.

• Speak with the teacher and request that she use “comprehensible input strategies”, which include the use of slower and clearly enunciated speech, pictures, gestures, paraphrasing with easier vocabulary, primary language support, and other strategies designed to make instruction comprehensible. Do not hesitate to ask the teacher to change her instructional methods in order to meet the needs of your child!

• Dual Immersion teachers typically practice language separation, where only one language is being used during a certain time. However, some researchers have noted that language separation can sometimes be taken to the extreme and to the detriment of the social/emotional needs of the student. There is little harm in the teacher briefly pulling your daughter to the side in order to provide clarification, pre-teach or review a concept in English as long as your daughter doesn’t become dependent upon it. In addition, ask the teacher to sit your daughter next to a student who is highly proficient in both languages and who is willing to help her with learning Spanish.

• If the teacher is unable or unwilling to utilize strategies that make Spanish more comprehensible to your daughter, speak with the principal and suggest that a meeting is held in order to formally write an individualized plan to meet the needs of your daughter. Ask to include a representative from the school district’s dual language program or an expert in second language acquisition to also be present at the meeting. It would also be helpful if as a parent you suggest to the school and/or district administrators that teachers receive additional training in the area of language acquisition. Parent suggestions are powerful when it comes to improving the quality of our Dual Immersion programs.

• Provide a variety of books in Spanish for your daughter to read at home that first includes predictable books, or books with repetitive phrases and language structures. A great online resource for schools and parents is Reading A-Z, which has downloadable nonfiction and fiction books in both English and Spanish from grades kindergarten to sixth grade levels. Software, books, and music for children can also be purchased from online stores such as Amazon. I recommend introducing books with Science and Social Studies themes, because nonfiction books with lower readability are often highly engaging to children. Another excellent resource is Scholastic news for children, which also comes in Spanish for a reasonable price.

Good luck and hang in there! In the long run your daughter will have the beautiful gift of biliteracy and it will all be worth it!

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

Dear Dina,

The research base on second language acquisition demonstrates that it takes approximately five to seven years to be fully proficient in a second language, so it is to be expected that your son is not meeting grade level standards in Spanish at the third grade level. If he is meeting grade level standards in English reading, he will more than likely be able to master grade level standards in Spanish given a few more years and extensive exposure to grade level text and academic language in Spanish.

The first thing that I recommend is to determine the exact area of concern in his Spanish reading. Some questions that you might want to find out are: Is he unable to decode, or accurately read words? (If he is at or above grade level in English reading, it is probably more than likely that he is not having difficulty with decoding in Spanish). Does he have difficulty with reading narrative/fictional text and summarizing or retelling what he read?
Does he have difficulty with higher order and critical thinking skills? Is it a challenge for him to identify main ideas and details in expository or nonfiction text? Does he need to increase his academic language in Spanish?

The best thing that English-speaking parents in dual language programs can do is to work on reading comprehension and literacy at home in English with students who are experiencing difficulties. Considering that your son is making appropriate progress in English, you should continue to focus on improving his reading comprehension at a more advanced level in English, which will eventually assist him with reading comprehension in Spanish. In addition, you should focus on increasing the amount of reading material that he has at home in Spanish so that he is able to increase his academic language in Spanish. One of the best things to improve reading comprehension in any language is to read, read, and read more!

Find out the topics that interest your son and purchase materials in the form of books and computer software in both languages for him to use at home. Some children in dual language programs tend to gravitate towards English reading as the grade levels increase, so it is important for parents to ensure that children have plenty of engaging materials to read at home in Spanish. Nonfiction texts about real life topics (i.e., animals, biographies, science, etc) tend to have highly complex vocabulary and sentence structure so it is also important to ensure that he has plenty of nonfiction materials in Spanish. If there is a particular topic that he is highly interested in, you might want to purchase books about that topic exclusively in Spanish.

The most important thing to take into consideration when trying to improve his reading comprehension in Spanish is that he needs extensive exposure to interesting reading materials. It’s therefore important to find out what topics motivate him and purchase materials in Spanish about that topic. If it’s not fun for him, he won’t want to read! Take a step back from the formal reading comprehension activities in Spanish at home and just try to show him that reading about topics that interest us can be fun!

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

The following question was sent by Ellen, a teacher who’s concerned her student is refusing to speak Spanish.

“A Spanish-speaking native second grade child doesn’t want to speak Spanish anymore. His mom speaks very little English and wants Carlos to preserve his first language. The child is speaking only English and is refusing to speak Spanish anymore. What can the mother do?”

Dear Ellen,

In your question you did not specify whether the child is in a bilingual or an English-only program. It might be possible that at some point your student has learned the perception that he should not be speaking in Spanish, or that English is more important than Spanish. Having an authority figure such as a teacher validate students’ primary language goes a long way in motivating students to feel proud about speaking their primary language. Your efforts towards elevating the status of Spanish while he is at school will also assist the mother’s efforts to maintain Spanish at home.

If you are teaching in an English program, there are many steps that you can take as a teacher in order to elevate the status of Spanish in your classroom. One strategy that you can employ is to introduce literature, poetry, and songs that include words in Spanish or characters that speak Spanish. Another useful strategy would be to make a big deal when you encounter Spanish-English cognates (i.e., words that are similar in both languages) as well as latin-based prefixes and root words, asking students to use what they know about Spanish to identify the meaning of words in English.

If you are in a bilingual program, all of the previously mentioned activities can be used to elevate the status of the Spanish language. In addition, it might help to place your student’s desk next to other students who are motivated to read, speak and write Spanish. Another recommendation is to find ways for students to use Spanish outside of the classroom for extra-curricular or community-based activities in order for students to find value in speaking Spanish outside of the classroom.

At home, your student’s mother should learn about her son’s interests in order to engage him in speaking Spanish about topics that he is passionate about. Many children with older siblings who speak English sometimes tend to gravitate towards English, so the mother should also engage her older children in activities where everyone exclusively speaks in Spanish. She should talk to him, sing to him, tell him stories, talk about the importance of bilingualism and engage in nurturing activities with him in Spanish so that he will associate the Spanish language with love, pride, and family. If there are family members in another country, they can write letters together as a family and send cards to their loved ones in Spanish. Another excellent way to have children practice Spanish can also be to invite other families with children over to the house, while everyone works on a project, plays games or participates in an activity together where they are having fun and practicing Spanish.

The most important thing is that they have fun as a family–most students will be motivated to practice the language if they are having fun while doing so!

Melanie McGrath.-- is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania. Click here to read her answers.

This week’s Ask an Expert is a very special one since we are welcoming a new expert to our wonderful panel.  Her name is Melanie McGrath and her expertise is on bilingual education.  Read more about her below and click  here to send her your questions.

Today´s question was sent by Chris Cannon:

“What are the advantages/disadvantages of full immersion school versus half-immersion school? Background: We have boy/girl twins who have attended (full) Spanish immersion preschool for the last two years (totalling 4-7 hours/week of exposure). Neither my husband nor I are bilingual, though I do know some Spanish and have been improving on it and using it more with the kids the last couple of years. For kindergarten next year I have to make a choice between 5 mornings a week of full-immersion or half-immersion and am wondering which would be more beneficial for language and all-around learning?”

Dear Chris:

If your long-term goal is that you would like your children to be highly proficient in both languages, then a full immersion program would be more beneficial in kindergarten. Research has demonstrated that students in both types of programs will score comparably in English by the end of elementary school, but students who receive more instruction in the target language (i.e., Spanish, French, German, etc) over the course of the program will attain higher levels of second language proficiency than students who are only immersed in the target language for half of the day.

You mentioned that your children have been in a full immersion preschool for two years and have spent approximately four to seven hours a week learning Spanish. In many states children attend kindergarten classes for only half the day, which consist of no more than three hours of total classroom instruction per day. If your children will only attend a half-day program, this would mean that your children would only receive about five to seven hours of instruction in Spanish per week, which might not be sufficient exposure to develop high levels of proficiency in Spanish if they only receive exposure during the school day.

On the other hand, you also mentioned that your children have attended an immersion preschool for two years and that you are also beginning to incorporate Spanish literacy into the home. Have your children already developed a basic understanding of Spanish? If your children have a basic understanding of Spanish, have opportunities to practice Spanish outside of the school day, or will be enrolling in a full-day kindergarten program, then a half immersion program will be sufficient to develop high levels of literacy in both languages.

What is more important than the “time spent in Spanish or English” dilemma is the quality of the instructional approach you choose. We know from research which instructional components are necessary in order to have high-quality bilingual programs. When enrolling your children in either a total or partial immersion program, you will want to compare the programs in terms of the critical components that make bilingual programs successful. You can consult my “A Parent’s Guide to the Critical Components of Effective Bilingual Programs” as a starting point.

I wish you luck in choosing the instructional program that best suits your particular situation. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section and I will do my best to assist you.

Melanie McGrath is a coordinator of Dual Immersion and transitional bilingual education programs in Southern California. She provides professional development training and assistance to parents, bilingual teachers and administrators in the areas of biliteracy development, bilingual program design and English language development. Melanie can also be found blogging on Multilingual Mania.

Do you have a question for our experts? Remember no question is too big or too simple. So, to send us your question, please click here or leave a comment below. Thank you!