DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION 'PROGRAM
OF THE FUTURE'
Dual-language immersion "is the program of the future"
for more than just language training, says Dr. Richard Gomez, director of the
state's migrant and bilingual education programs. "Academically, it is far
superior to anything else we have out there."
Dual language immersion, also known as 2-way bilingual,
involves teaching native English- and Spanish-speaking children in both
languages. It is now being implemented in Manson, Grandview, Shelton, and
Seattle School Districts. Eastmont School District will launch next year, and
others are examining the option.
Children don't just become bilingual, they actually
appear to do better in all their basic skills -- even math. 
In South Texas, where Dr. Gomez worked prior to joining
Washington's OSPI, there are already 40 dual-language programs -- and the
participants are passing that state's standardized test in both reading and math
at nearly double the rate of other students (99 percent in reading, 98 percent
in math).
The success of such programs in California has caused the
number of schools using dual-language immersion to jump from 1,000 to 2,000 in
just two years.
It is Dr. Gomez' goal to phase out the remedial
"pull-out" programs that take migrant students out of other classes to learn
English one hour a day. Even though 52 percent of Washington's school use this
system, research shows it to be the least-effective program for migrant
students, he says.
As part of the dual-language immersion program, children
are paired up -- one native English-speaking student with one native
Spanish-speaking student -- to mentor one another.
Numerous studies over the years have shown that when
children tutor other children, the tutored student benefits a lot, but the
tutoring student benefits even more. In studies that had fifth-graders with poor
reading skills tutor struggling second-graders in reading, the second-graders
advanced a full year in their reading ability in just a few months, but the
fifth-graders advanced 3.5 years.
The tutoring involved in the dual-language educational
program appears to accomplish similar results.
"Students who mentor one another find they need to learn
something themselves before they can teach it to someone else," says Dr. Gomez.
Researchers in other children-tutoring-children research
have suggested that the very effort of manipulating information in one's mind in
order to re-express it to someone else engrains it in a child's brain, forcing
the child to integrate key concepts with other related concepts to gain greater
comprehension.
Dr. Gomez
says dual-language training provides students with a "whole new language to draw
from" in understanding key concepts. "If it doesn't make sense to you in one
language, maybe it will in the other."
The program also encourages students to get more involved
in the educational process. Consequently, says Dr. Gomez, "teachers are
reporting far fewer discipline problems. The students take ownership. The
teachers allow the kids to take over."
Dr. Gomez says two-way immersion also becomes a very
positive and enriching activity for all the students. Instead of the
Spanish-speaking children feeling inferior because they don't speak English
well, all the children feel very positive about themselves. Most of them are
achieving something that even their parents have not achieved -- becoming fully
bilingual.
The dual-language program also provides other
multi-cultural benefits, bringing the parents of the bilingual children together
on a regular basis and creating a kind of partnership between them.
And the program changes public perception of the Hispanic
community from being a burden to society to being a valuable resource. Where the
two-way bilingual program has been in place three to four years, there are not
enough Hispanic students to go around, and there is a waiting list of Anglo
parents wanting to enroll their children.
"Teachers who get involved in the dual-language program
over and over again say they would not teach any other way," says Dr. Gomez.
