NewsLanc has had the opportunity to observe first hand the negative results from a “dual language” program established in a Mayan Village in Guatemala where all the native speaking Mayan students were being taught in both Mayan and Spanish over the early school years rather than experiencing total immersion into Spanish at the first grade level. By fifth grade, students from a total immersion class in the same school were far more proficient in Spanish than those from the fifth grade “dual language” course.
(A draw back from “total immersion” into Spanish at the first grade level was the high Mayan student drop out rate. The problem could have better been addressed by preschool exposure to Spanish cartoons and children programs.)
What is proposed in the School District of Lancaster program is that the group be split about half and half between native Spanish and native English speakers, so they both can learn from one another and progress rapidly. This appears to be a sound approach.
The following is an excerpt from “The Astounding Effectiveness of Dual Language Education for All“ by Virginia P. Collier and Wayne P. Thomas, George Mason University:
Two-way programs have the demographics to invite native-English-speaking students to join their bilingual and [English learner] peers in an integrated bilingual classroom. Two-way classes can and should include all students who wish to enroll, including those who have lost their heritage language and speak only English. These bilingual classes do not need to enroll exactly 50% of each linguistic group to be classified as two-way, but it helps the process of [second language] acquisition to have an approximate balance of students of each language background. For our data analyses, we have chosen a ratio of 70:30 as the minimum balance required to have enough [second language] peers in a class to stimulate the natural second language acquisition process.
