It is a typical day at Davis Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona.
As you walk around the school appears to be just like any other elementary
school in the United States. That is until you enter into a classroom
to observe a lesson. You witness a teacher in the front of the classroom
who appears to be teaching fractions in Spanish! As you stand there,
you also witness students participating in the lesson and they are speaking
Spanish as well. What you have just walked in on is one of a good
number of dual-language immersion programs that we have in the United States
today. The purpose of dual-language immersion programs are to "integrate
native English speakers and language-minority students for academic instruction
and aim to promote bilingual proficiency, high academic achievement, and
cross-cultural awareness" (Howard and Loeb 1). These programs have
been increasing in the United States in the past twenty-five years.
The majority of dual-language immersion programs are Spanish and English
programs due to the high number of Spanish speaking immigrants amongst
other things. Despite the many years that these programs have been
in educational system, there are still a few issues that need to be resolved
to allow these programs to work at their maximum ability. Issues
continue to plague the very innovative and useful dual-language immersion
education program, but if the educational community works together many
of these issues can be resolved.
One issue that must be taken into consideration when creating
a dual-language immersion program and when managing one is the type of
program that will be implemented. There are two major models in dual-language
schooling. The first model is the 50-50 model. In this model
teaching time is equally distributed between the minority language and
the majority language. The other approach is the 90-10 model.
The 90-10 model is when students start at kindergarten with 90% of the
minority language and 10% of the majority language. As students progress
through elementary school, they begin using the minority language a little
less and the majority language more until they reach the fifth grade level
and they are aligned with the 50-50 model. The program that is used
is dependent on one major fact, which is the number of language-minority
students in a particular school. For example, if you are teaching
in an area where 70% of the students are bilingual and the remaining 30%
are monolingual the focus of the school may be for the minority-language
students to attain proficiency in English and they may go with the 50-50
model because the minority language would not need to be stressed as much.
That is just one example (Smith 264).
The choice of a particular model brings up other issues within
each individual program. One issue is the question of how to deal
with students who move into the area and have to start in the program,
let us say in the third grade. If a student enters into a 50-50 program
in the third grade there will be the same type of instruction that was
going on in the previous grades and the student will have the same type
of instruction in the grades that follow. However, if this same student
were to enter into a 90-10 program in the third grade he/she would be taught
70% of the time in the minority language and the other 30% of the time
in the majority language. In this type of situation the student would
be in a class with students who began this program since kindergarten and
therefore have a more likely chance of succeeding in the program than the
new student would (Christian 73).
Teaching in a classroom where Spanish and English are spoken
makes it difficult to attain necessary and sometimes even acceptable materials
to use. According to Patrick Smith, "Because teachers use the minority
language across the curriculum, it has been important for the school to
be able to purchase Spanish materials for all subject areas" (266).
When teaching in a 90-10 model program the ordering of materials often
times becomes a very difficult task. In this model kindergarten and
first grade teachers tend to purchase books that are only in Spanish since
that is the language that is taught most of the time. As you get
farther into the grades, third and fourth grade teachers purchase text
in both Spanish and English while fifth grade teachers purchase whole subjects
in English or Spanish. This becomes very difficult in the process
of ordering textbooks primarily because a first grade teacher may need
a math book that is entirely in Spanish but may not be able to find one.
This occurs all too often. Therefore, despite the availability of
the few materials that dual-immersion teachers do have available to them
many of them end up just creating their own materials (Smith 266).
In an interview with teachers in dual-immersion education programs,
one issue that continuously came up was the lack of teachers to teach in
these types of programs and the lack of proper training for teachers who
want to come into this field. According to Elizabeth Howard and Michael
Loeb, "The expanded popularity of these programs has meant a surge in the
demand for and recruitment of two-way immersion teachers" (1). Dual-language
immersion programs rely heavily on the ability to team-teach. Through
this method of teaching, teachers have more ideas on how to teach material
and have someone with whom they can share the workload. Due to this
recent increase in demand and decrease in teachers, it is making it extremely
difficult for these essential programs to run.
After discussing teachers this brings the discussion to the most
important issues effecting dual-language immersion programs, administration.
Administration includes the principals and committees at the school level,
district level administrators, and state level administrators. In
many cases, the following issues are results of ignorance in the way that
dual-language programs should be run (Valverde and Armendárez 1).
In an interview with ten immersion education instructors the teachers stated
that there is frequently tension between teachers in the dual-language
programs and teachers in the general education programs. This may
be because the general education teachers truly do not understand what
the dual-language instructors' purpose and goals are as teachers in these
programs (Howard and Loeb 5).
Policy makers at the school board level are guilty of trying
to solve to language issues with one solution and that cannot work with
this program. There is a possibility that dual-language immersion
programs can solve the problem of not having enough second language acquisition
and helping students trying to learn English as a second language.
This program can only work effectively to solve these problems if administrators
and creators of the curriculums work hard to create a curriculum that which
the teachers and administrators can agree will benefit the students the
most (Valdés 413).
Dual-language instructors feel that their programs do not have
a place in the traditional school systems and this could be detrimental
to these programs. One group of teacher mentioned while discussing
their relationship with administration, "immersion education is so unusual
in terms of traditional American school culture that most school districts
do not know what to do with it" (Walker and Tedick 13). Dual-language
programs not having a place in school districts is painfully noticeable
in the terms of where these programs get their funding, and that is if
they do get funding. These programs are often regarded in terms of
taking up useful resources or resources that could go towards the general
education programs. These resources include active parents who cannot
be involved in other school programs because of their involvement in this
particular program. Teachers in these programs have had to go in
front of the school board and ask for "funding or waivers of district requirements
that do not apply to immersion sites" (Walker and Tedick 13).
Dual-language immersion programs are a great benefit to not only
students but also communities as a whole and it is necessary to understand
and work out some of the issues that could cause the break down of such
a good program. I feel that all of the work has to begin with the
administration because they seem to be the root of all of these issues.
One thread that I found throughout my sources was that teachers feel that
if administrators simply take the time, sit down, and learn about dual-language
programs. Administrators need to actually work with the teachers
to create a sufficient program and make sure that everyone has a mutual
understanding of the purposes and goals of the program. If this occurs
than many of their problems would be solved. Some teachers mentioned
the implementation of bilingual education coordinator at the school or
district level. They feel that this would give them representation
at the district level and also give them a voice in the school system and
maybe even in the entire state (Howard and Loeb 5).
Despite some of the issues that dual-language immersion programs
are facing in this country, today they have come a long way and the majority
of the programs are working. Teachers are finding that monolingual
students are becoming bilingual and bilingual students are coming increasingly
efficient in the majority language, which allows teachers to reach the
overall goal of the program. As with any program that is a drastic
change from how it was always done in the past, issues arise. Issues
arise in programs that have been around for a long time. The challenge
is for these programs to be able to endure during these times of trouble
and come out on top. I am anxiously awaiting my entrance into the
dual-language education community so that I can leave an unmistakable mark
on a program that has changed the way we look at education. A program
that I am sure will continue to thrive for many years to come.
Bibliography
Christian, Donna. "Two-Way Immersion Education: Students
Learning Through Two
Languages." Modern Language Journal 80 (Spring 1996):
66-76.
Howard, Elizabeth and Michael Loeb. "In Their Own Words:
Two-Way Immersion Teachers
Talk About Their Professional Experiences." ERIC Digest
30 Oct. 2000.
Smith, Patrick. "Exito Bilingüe: Promoting Spanish
Literacy in a Dual Language Immersion
Program." Bilingual Research Journal 22 (Spring 1998):
261-77.
Valdés, Guadalupe. "Dual-Language Immersion Programs:
A Cautionary Note Concerning the
Education of Language-Minority Students." Harvard Educational
Review 67 (Fall 1997):
391-429.
Valverde, Leonard, and Gloria Armendáriz. "Important Administrative
Tasks Resulting From
From Understanding Bilingual Program Designs." Bilingual
Research Journal 23
(Winter 1999): 1-10.
Walker, Constance, and Diane Tedick. "The Complexity of Immersion
Education: Teachers
Address the Issues." Modern Language Journal 84 (Spring
2000): 5-27.