Duel Language

duel = a fight, like a sword fight
dual = two

I think the dual language program is great. I was a bilingual teacher myself, so I taught children who spoke SPanish as their first language. Your child will take all TAKS tests and exams in their stronger language. I think your child will pick up sentences and words in Spanish here and there which would be great, but I doubt it would affect their overall learning. If it does, pull them out of the program. Once you start it, you CAN get out. But you can't start the program in 3rd grade down the road. Another good thing is that they're in the same class with the same kiddos each year, so they build some long-lasting friendships.

my son just did dual language kindergarten last year, so i'm no expert, but i think it's been good for him. we speak a tiny bit of spanish at home. since beginning this program, it has been cool to see his confidence increase when it comes to speaking spanish and communicating with other children, at the park for instance, who he recognizes aren't speaking english. he is more comfortable with the little bits of spanish that my husband speaks to him now and has a more positive attitude when he doesn't understand exactly what is being said to him. he doesn't get frustrated anymore about language, seems open to learning, more willing to try to understand. that was with one-on-one tutoring in kindergarten. first grade will rotate one week of entirely english and one week entirely spanish. i have heard from neighbors that the first month of first grade in this program is really hard on the kids but after that, they do well. my son's english grades were good for kindergarten. any area that he scored lower in for midterms improved with just a little more review at home. this school doesn't grade spanish in kindergarten, just sends a progress report. part of my son's homework was reading word cards. by the end of kindergarten, he was able to read many spanish words, but couldn't remember the meanings of most of them. whereas with the english word cards he could read and understand whole sentences. he could recite spanish songs, and understood the general meaning of the song but not each word. in spanish he improved in counting, letters, colors, manners, etc beyond what we had taught him at home. so i'm excited about what he will learn in the dual immersion first grade. he's already made good progress in my opinion.

My daughter is in the dual language program in White Settlement ISD. She started last year as a kindergartner and will continue this year as a first grader.

It did not affect her learning last year in anything other than a positive way. They are in slightly smaller classes which can be a big beneft in learning. They are also buddied up so that the native English speaking children and the native Spanish speaking children can help each other. Also last year they were learning more of the common words such as hello, good bye, days of the week, months of the year, colors, etc. Most of the kindergartners already know this in English prior to starting school so again no hindrance there. Another advantage is that they will share a classroom with the same children all through Elementary school and will form long lasting and tight bonds with each other.

They way WSISD does it is that approximately 25% of their week is taught 100% in Spanish. That translated for my daughter into Social Studies and Science being taught wholly in Spanish. They do increase the percentage of time that is taught up to 50% as they go thru elementary school and then it drops slightly when the hit middle school.

As another poster said you can always enroll your child in kindergartner and if you feel that it is adversly affecting your child then you can withdraw from the program. However if you don't start him in kindergarten then that option is no longer available.

I personally love the dual language program and have no intentions of pulling my child out. It is a proven fact that children pick up a 2nd language much easier the younger they are. Living in Texas, speaking Spanish is definately in her favor. (BTW- neither her father nor I speak anything but English)

Hope this helps.

McKinney ISD is testing dual language program beginning with the 2010-2011 school year. I'll be interested to see how it goes. Initially I wasn't thrilled because my first thought is that we continue to cater to spanish-speaking immigrants (whether they are legal or not). But upon further consideration and knowing that learning another language is fairly standard practice in other developed countries, I think it is a good idea. Our educational standards lag behind other developed nations and our narrow-mindedness about dual languages is one of the reasons. My 15 year old daughter is thriving on the spanish she just started learning in 9th grade (she initially hated the idea of learning another language!), and she has a 16 year old e-friend in Germany who fluently speaks 5 other languages, and is about to start learning her 6th! I can only imagine the job opportunities that will be available to this girl.

Both of my kids are in a dual-language program in the Irving ISD. My daughter is going into 4th grade and my son, 2nd. Both started in Kinder. My husband speaks some Spanish, but I speak none. They are both doing great in school we've had great teachers as well.

When we were introduced to the program, we were told that their learning progress is about the same during Kinder through 2nd grades then by 3rd grade the students learning skills skyrocket.

At the end of 3rd grade, my daughter was almost fluent in Spanish and was even doing her homework in Spanish. If she needed my help, she had to translate the problem for me to understand enough to help her through. Ha! I have no regrets.

I could fill pages with my experiences of the dual-language program. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Good Luck!
L.

The rest of the world takes dual and multi-lingualism for granted. Look at the list of top-scholars at any given high school and you'll see that the names there aren't usually "white-bread" American. Our narrow-minded "one language view" is putting us behind. Irving has dual language, half-day English and half-day Spanish. HEB has Spanish immersion classes which begin in 1st grade, and add Indian and Chinese in junior high. These kids' will be on those top-student lists in the future!

We have been raising our kids with their native English as well as constant exposure to French. It is not offered in the schools, but it is critical for kids to be exposed to multiple languages from a young age in order to enable their ability to learn. Learning a foreign language should actually help your kids expand their academic abilities in other areas.

S. Bruce
http://igotmompower.com

They say children learn a second language easiest when they are younger. I personally think kindergartners have enough on their plate learning to read, write & hopefully learning to spell correctly and use proper grammar. I would save the DUAL language programs for later. My older children had no problems learning a language in Middle School after they got the basics of our own language down.

Humm. . . the questions I didn't know to ask.

I personally would say it would compliment and benefit any education and social skills. But I would also say it depends on the kid and their own desire, drive and focus.

Our soon to be sophomore in high school started with French in 1st grade when we moved to a new school. Switched to Spanish at some point in middle school and now is truly doing a 'duel' language by taking Honors Spanish 3 AND starting French again. She also is taking honors pre-calculus, honors Asian History and gets all A's and B's.

I'm curious to know if there's a good way to find out where these elementary programs are located? I'm in Keller, but would be willing to move or drive to get my son in a good program.

My home is bilingual, English-Finnish. This is probably the easiest way to teach a child multiple languages, however, it also means that my daughter is likely to start talking later than her peers, because she needs more time to 'organize her thoughts' in each language. Young kids do have a lot on their plates and one area may develop at another one's expense. You should try to figure out what role you want the 'second' language to have: If you really want you son to be bilingual, teaching that skill will take priority. The language development window is most open before age 6, so while it is possible to learn another language later in life, it will be a lot harder and rarely results in fluency.