Dual-Language Classes for Kids Grow in Popularity

In increasingly global economy, more parents seek leg up for their children through early immersion programs

Kindergartener Leah Grunwell counts items in Spanish on a calendar at Parkview Elementary school in Valparaiso, Ind., which has been awarded a grant for dual-language immersion classes. Photo: Tony V. Martin/The Times of Northwest Indiana/Associated Press

Penelope Spain is desperate to make her 3-year-old son fluent in a second language.

Last year, the Washington, D.C., attorney competed with hundreds of other parents for a spot at several prekindergarten programs that teach lessons partly or mostly in Spanish. She struck out. “I sat on the couch and just cried endlessly,” she recalled. Now she has widened her search to French and Mandarin schools.

Public schools that immerse students in a second language have become hot destinations for parents seeking a leg up for their children in a global economy. New York, Utah, Delaware and other states are adding classrooms where at least half of lessons are taught in a second tongue.

Many of these programs started as a way to ease students from immigrant households into U.S. classrooms. Instead, they are attracting droves of native English-speaking families who bet that top jobs will increasingly demand bilingual skills thanks to foreign trade and a growing Latino population in the U.S. Programs that immerse students in Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic are seeing heavy interest starting in preschool.

“If you have another language, it opens up so many more opportunities for your career,” said Ms. Spain, who is non-Hispanic white.

Delaware’s governor is pouring $1.9 million a year into more than tripling the number of students in dual-language school programs for Spanish and Mandarin, with the goal of having 10,000 students in these classrooms by 2022. Utah’s 138 language immersion programs have seen such high demand that the state surpassed its target of enrolling 30,000 students a year ahead of schedule in 2014.

“In most parts of the county, it’s something parents are demanding,” says Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. She calls people like Ms. Spain “language moms.”

Some programs have sparked a backlash. When Houston’s public school district opened an Arabic dual-language school in August, about 30 protesters camped outside, waving American flags and anti-Muslim signs. “There’s some level of fear about it,” said Kate Adams, principal of the Arabic Immersion Magnet School in Houston.

The school district started the program in part because Houston’s energy industry attracts a sizable number of Middle Eastern workers. Yet in its inaugural class this fall, only about 10% of students came from households that spoke Arabic, Ms. Adams said. Many of the rest—a mix of white, black and Latino pupils—have parents who see broad educational benefits in learning a second language early in life. About three students applied for each open spot at the school, where half of all lessons are taught in Arabic.

Parents are being attracted by research suggesting that students gain mental flexibility when they learn a language early in life instead of waiting until high school. In a multiyear study starting in 2007, George Mason University emeritus professors Wayne Thomas and Virginia Collier looked at native and nonnative English-speaking students mixed together in classrooms where teachers taught in both English and a second language. They found that all students scored higher in reading and math than students in non dual-language classrooms, regardless of their ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

“The way the kids think and analyze is more robust than a monolingual school,” said Melody Meade, primary school principal at the Washington International School, a private D.C. immersion school.

In the District of Columbia, dual-language programs have helped turn some once-struggling public schools into attractive destinations. Tyler Elementary School, located just over a mile east of the U.S. Capitol Building, was placed on the district’s list of its 40 worst-performing schools four years ago.

But its Spanish dual-language program, coupled with a desirable location and overall improvements in district public schools, has created such heavy demand that more than 300 students are on a wait list for spots there this school year.

Spanish instructor Kristin Nguyen teaches a class at Parkview Elementary School. Dual-language classes are attracting native English-speaking families who bet that top jobs will increasingly demand bilingual skills thanks to foreign trade and a growing Latino population in the U.S. Photo: Tony V. Martin/The Times of Northwest Indiana/Associated Press

On a recent afternoon at Tyler, not a word of English was spoken as kindergarten teacher Laura Chapa walked students through a math lesson, counting from one to 11 as she pulled colored chips out of a bag. A sign labeled the class library as a “biblioteca,” including sections for books about “familia” and “animales.”

Tyler’s mostly black student body has diversified to include more white, Latino and Asian students drawn to the dual-language program. “It’s been a win-win for the school,” says Principal Mitchell Brunson. The district’s public school system plans to add three new dual-language programs this coming school year, and D.C. parents have formed an advocacy group to push for more.

“They’re not schools that middle-class people would be attracted to if you just looked at test scores and demographics and condition of the building,” said E.V. Downey, a Washington educational consultant. “They would generally speaking be a no-go, and yet they’re of great interest because of the immersion programs.”

Repost WSJ

Mandarin Vs. English: The Language of the Future

Repost from Hotair.com

“Some may protest that it is not English but Mandarin Chinese that will eventually become the world’s language, because of the size of the Chinese population and the increasing economic might of their nation,” McWhorter wrote. “But that’s unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort… Also, the tones of Chinese are extremely difficult to learn beyond childhood, and truly mastering the writing system virtually requires having been born to it.”

While Chinese may remain the most spoken language on account of the large and growing native population that speaks it, English certainly isn’t going anywhere. One of the chief reasons is that it has cemented itself as the defining cosmopolitan language of our time. In a 2010 study, Gary Lupyan of the University of Pennsylvania and Rick Dale of the University of Memphis found data to suggest that as more and more non-native speakers learn a language, they inadvertently hack away at the extraneous edges. Over time, the language grows more streamlined and simple to learn. There’s no question that English has evolved considerably over the years. Just compare the flowing prose of John Adams and Abraham Lincoln to the simplified of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

President Of 100,000 Strong Foundation Carola McGiffert Explains How Teachers Will Get 1 Million U.S. Students Learning Mandarin By 2020

Can 1 million American schoolchildren learn Mandarin over the next five years? Carola McGiffert, the woman charged with the task, is betting on it.

In late September, President Barack Obama unveiled the 1 Million Strong initiative, which aims to increase the number of U.S. children learning Mandarin in school from 200,000 to 1 million by 2020. The announcement follows the launch of the 100,000 Strong Initiative in 2009, which successfully increased the number of Americans studying abroad in China to 100,000 since the program began — up from just 13,000 during the 2007-2008 school year.

McGiffert, president of the 100,000 Strong Foundation, which was formed in 2013 to oversee the eponymous initiative, is also leading the new 1 Million Strong push. The goal is to get 1 million children in grades K-12 on the path to learning Mandarin so they’ll gain an understanding of both the language and Chinese culture. We sat down with McGiffert to learn more about how she plans to take on this ambitious goal.

Give us a broad overview of this new initiative.

Last fall, President Obama announced that the 100,000 Strong student goal had been reached, but obviously, there’s much more work to do. When we learned that Chinese President Xi Jinping was coming for a state visit in September, we started working with the White House to figure out the next big goal, one that is ambitious but reachable and worthy of presidential attention.

Whether you’re a journalist, or a diplomat or a business person, we want to make sure that our young people in all of these fields have the ability to work with Chinese counterparts and competitors.

Why Mandarin? What’s the point?

The view right now is that the China-U.S. relationship is in a really tough place, and will be marked by contention for the foreseeable future. That means we need to learn how to manage it, collaborate where possible, and manage that discussion so that it does not spiral in a negative direction when our interests are different. Contention and competition is one thing, conflict is another, and we can’t go down that road.

The goal is to make sure there are young people who understand the strategic importance of this relationship and can work on those issues and understand the huge role that China plays in our economy.

When I heard about this initiative, the first question that popped into my mind was: Who is going to teach these Mandarin classes?

We rely heavily on the generous support of the Chinese government, which sends us hundreds of teachers every year. While we are deeply appreciative of this and want it to continue, it’s not enough. It’s never going to scale to be able to meet the demand. We will be working with organizations like ACTFL, the American Council On The Teaching Of Foreign Languages. This is what they do — they train and support the training of foreign language teachers.

I learned that you don’t have to be fluent in a language to be an effective language teacher.

Is that a good thing?

I think it’s a good thing, because it opens the door for more young Americans who are highly proficient. It creates opportunities for them to enter the teaching field in Mandarin. Perhaps they’re not teaching the most advanced classes. I think that’s one way to get a lot of young people right out of college and graduate school to be excited about becoming a teacher and using their Mandarin skills.

How are you going to decide where these teachers are placed?

A critical component of this is our network on the state and local level. We’re going to start with a handful of partner states where we can pilot this effort, both in terms of testing and implementing curriculum as well as teacher placement. We will be coming out with those states soon, but they’re geographically diverse, led by both Republicans and Democrats, often where the Mandarin language has already been noted as a priority in the school system.

How will you make sure these classes are equitably distributed among rich and poor school districts?

From the outset of this initiative, diversity has been a top priority. It has always been about not only increasing the number, but diversity, of young Americans who study abroad in China, and it’s the same for the language component — if not even more so. Frankly, the more affluent districts, particularly in suburban areas, they already have Chinese language classes, so the need is less there. I really do think that where we are value added is in underserved and underrepresented communities.

You’re trying to get 800,000 more K-12 students in Mandarin classes. Does that sound crazy to you?

It sounds ambitious. It does not sound crazy to me. Any goal that’s worth having has to be big. We didn’t go into this sort of just picking a number out of thin air, even though 1 million sounds nice. We really did work with experts in the field in terms of K-12 Mandarin language learning, and feel very confident that if you bring all the right players and pieces together, we could make this happen.

(repost from Huffington Post)

6 Benefits of Raising a Bilingual Child

There are many benefits to raising a bilingual child. This video highlights six critical benefits that your child will receive from being exposed to a bilingual education early in life.

Children Learn Language Without an Accent: Neither my husband or myself speak any level of Mandarin. One of the best compliments that we receive when native Mandarin speakers communicate with our children is “their accent is perfect.” Our daughters truly love speaking Mandarin and despite our household’s fluency in the language the fact that our daughters were introduced to Mandarin at such an early age native speakers continuously acknowledge that their Mandarin is void of any English accent that is often found in native English speakers learning Mandarin.
Language Exposes Children to Different Cultures: I have to admit that sometimes this is a mixed bag as it relates to raising bilingual Mandarin speakers as an African American family. There are so many connections between the Chinese and African American community. But the Chinese culture has an open door policy around criticism and accountability that is very different than the “American way” of parenting. On one occasion a Mandarin speaking parent shared that a teacher informed a kindergartner “if you don’t pick up your back pack off the floor I will never be your friend again.” The native English speaking parents were shocked and offended by the comment. The parents that were raised by Chinese speaking parents laughed it off stating “that sounds just like my mom.” We have struggled with the fact that our children are exposed to a level of engagement that we view as harsh and at times inappropriate. I have had many discussions with Black parents that are deeply troubled with this level of engagement. We have not identified that our children have internalized any negative issues regarding self-image regarding these statements and continue to move forward. Additionally, the Chinese culture is deeply embedded with fables and folklore surrounding the Monkey King and stories that are inclusive of subtle issues around skin complexion, stereotypical gender roles and death and dying. We have embraced this process to discuss the parallel process in American and African American history but many families are unable to connect with these fables and cultural depictions. The novel Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes is an example of the literature that we expose our daughters to in order to explore a shared and parallel experience between the Chinese American and African American experience.
Children Learn Through Play: Our daughters have been completely immersed in the Chinese language experience because we have had a series of excellent teachers. Initially, our daughters were in a preschool that provided a 100% Mandarin Immersion experience where the entire classroom instruction was in Mandarin – from drop off at 8am until pick up at 6pm. The teachers have been so kind, caring and nurturing that our daughters’ experience, engagement and introduction to the language was enjoyed with an incredible amount of fun that made it easy to digest. They are currently in a program that is 50% Mandarin and 50% English. The girls continue to enjoy the hands on activities that assist them in learning a new language and exploring the world around them.
Caretakers Who Speak a Foreign Language: Due to cost and accessibility this is not always an available option to monolingual parents. We have been lucky that we live in Berkeley and that there is a large community of Mandarin speakers at the local university. While we do have to pay more for college student babysitters that are Mandarin speakers than we do for our English speaking sitters it has been a great opportunity for our children. Additionally, we have noticed that the Mandarin speaking sitters have truly enjoyed the relationship that they have developed with our children. They have consistently been impressed with our daughters’ language skills and enjoy the opportunity to further their contact with Mandarin speakers in the US. Bringing native speakers into the home has also encouraged the girls to speak more Mandarin with each other outside of school. I have noticed that when the girls are about to get in trouble – yelling at each other or refusing to share – they have opted to speak to one another in Mandarin in an effort to avoid mommies consequences. Albeit it is funny I find ways to encourage engaging in Mandarin at home without using it to share secrets from mommy!
Children Learn When They Are Emotionally Engaged: Our daughters also benefit from their language learning experience through their exposure to PAASSC (Parents of African American Students Studying Chinese). For the first few years we never explicitly explained to our girls what PAASSC was. But the connection to other African American students provided them with an opportunity to consistently engage with a larger community of sutdents of African descent that are also learning Chinese. While my daughters were young I believe that they thought most Black children spoke Chinese because such a significant amount of non-relatives that they were meeting also spoke Chinese. This was a great way to normalize their process and help them to feel confident in their skills and experience as a bilingual youth being raised in a monolingual household.
Learn At Home with Language DVDs and CDs: We have two amazing Chinatown communities available to us here in the Bay Area (San Francisco & Oakland). There is a plethora of DVDs that we have been able to purchase for our daughters (some that we like more than others). Additionally, we have enjoyed the range of videos available on YesAsia.com. We will be purchasing a Universal DVD player in the near future to obtain a larger selection of Mandarin films.

Monolingual parents do not have to miss out on the opportunity to raise bilingual children. There are many resources to help monolingual families raise bilingual children that love and grow from the experience – no matter how foreign it may feel to us.

Are Two Languages Better than One?

Bilingual vs. Monolingual

Find more great infographics on NerdGraph Infographics

Great African American Chef In Berkeley

Banks White, executive chef at FIVE at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Berkeley, who is leaving to helm the kitchen in a new restaurant in New York City. Photo: Emilie Raguso

(As a Berkeley resident I couldn’t help but repost this Berkeleyside article).

Banks White remembers vividly the summer just over four years ago when he took up his post as executive chef at FIVE, the Hotel Shattuck Plaza’s restaurant on Allston Way in downtown Berkeley.American Idiot was playing at the Berkeley Rep, Barack Obama was not long installed as president — “there was a real buzz in the city,” he said last week, after it was revealed White would be leaving the restaurant and Berkeley.

The Texan — whose resumé includes stints at the Auberge du Soleil and étoile at Domaine Chandon in Napa, and Leftbank Brasserie in Larkspur — is heading to Harlem where he will helm the kitchen of an as-yet-to-be named restaurant. Berkeleyside chatted with White on Friday about his time in the city and his plans going forward.

Tell us about opening FIVE in Berkeley
It’s been a great journey. I’ve called Berkeley my home for six years now. But when FIVE opened in the summer of ’09 downtown Berkeley was very different. We were pretty much the only kids on the block [for casual style fine dining]. Venus was there, but Downtown had just closed, and it was pre-Gather and Comal. (Hotel Shattuck’s Scott Howard, whom White at met at Leftbank, invited White to help launch the restaurant and oversee menu design, as well as kitchen installation and recipe testing.)

FIVE is known for its “American classics with a modern twist” and your Southern roots also show up on the menu. Talk about how the food at FIVE evolved in your time there.
The menu evolved a great deal over the years. My trips abroad, particularly to South-East Asia, really influenced the dishes we serve. It’s a mash up — take our Southern Fried Chicken with Ghanaian peanut sauce. Barbecue is a personal story for me and that comes through in the cured and smoked meats on the menu. In that respect, the restaurant reflects Berkeley which is a huge melting pot of different cultures. The dining room also dictates what you eat. For the past six months we have been focusing on intricate plating — really finding a purpose on the plate.

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