Thursday, August 10, 2017 7
Coastal View News • Tel: (805) 684-4428
Dual Language Immersion launches at Canalino School
By Christian Beamish
The first two Dual Language Immersion classes in the Carpinteria Unified School District will begin with 48 kindergarteners at Canalino School on Aug. 22. Comprised of eight native Spanishspeaking students, eight bilingual students and eight native English-speaking students each, the two classes will be conducted 90 percent in Spanish the first year and decrease annually by 10 percent Spanish until it’s 50/50 in the fifth grade. The benefits of DLI have been amply demonstrated in studies and outcomes in school districts across California, particularly in regard to an academic “plateau” that many native Spanishspeaking students reach early in high school. The resulting achievement gap between English-learners and native English-speaking students, in terms of graduation rates and college attendance, is greatly reduced among students who participate in DLI programs starting in elementary school. With 61 percent of kindergartners designated as English Learners in CUSD, DLI is a way to gain academic proficiency not only in English, but in Spanish as well. “The default setting in California schools is all-English instruction,” said Dr. Carlos Pagan, director of literacy and language support for the Santa Barbara County Education Office. And while native Spanish-speaking students acquire English very rapidly, “they don’t get the cognitive development to deeply understand content,” Pagan added. Statistics show, Pagan said, that native Spanish-speaking students “go farther (academically) in DLI, and in other bilingual programs they fall behind.” Additionally, native English speakers, as well as students with a Spanishspeaking background, will benefit from DLI as the “mental discipline of learning a second-language system increases intellectual flexibility and translates into higher achievement in all subject areas,” according to a 2009 study in the Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education. Another study combining data from researchers James Cumins and Michael Ager noted, “Knowledge of more than one language enables people to communicate in a variety of cultures and settings. A heightened level of multicultural awareness and communication skills foster intergroup contact and appreciation.”
A majority of students currently begin elementary school in CUSD having to “immerse” in English, and Canalino School Principal Jamie Persoon sees no difference in the ability of native Englishspeaking children to adapt to a setting of 90 percent Spanish instruction. “When a child has a strong foundation in literacy in their native language (often read to, large vocabulary, strong background knowledge and experiences),” Persoon said, “they are much more likely to acquire a second language quickly and masterfully.” But a “weaker foundation in native language is not linked to any specific language or culture or ethnicity,” Persoon noted. “Rather, it is a byproduct of poverty when students have a lessdeveloped native language.” Some parents are hopeful that the DLI program at Canalino School will lead to a stronger, cross-cultural community in Carpinteria between native English and native Spanish-speaking families. In his experience as the principal of a 100 percent DLI school in Northern California, Pagan said those interactions definitely happened, almost immediately. People of different backgrounds mixed “outside of school in ways that wouldn’t have happened if they were in their own groups,” Pagan said. Leanne Patterson, whose son will begin the DLI program this year at Canalino School, was heavily involved in efforts to bring the program to CUSD. Patterson wrote her master’s thesis on inter-cultural competence and dual-language education immersion, and she worked hard to bring DLI to Carpinteria. The resistance that she and other DLI supporters have encountered has run the gamut from misunderstandings about the benefits of dual immersion to lingering racist attitudes. But far and away the concern most people have had, including some school board members, is the impact DLI will have on native Spanish-speaking students who are at the greatest risk of falling behind academically. Many Spanish-speaking families want their
“When a child has a strong foundation in literacy in their native language (often read to, large vocabulary, strong background knowledge and experiences),they are much more likely to acquire a second language quickly and masterfully.” But a “weaker foundation in native language is not linked to any specific language or culture or ethnicity.”
–– Canalino School Principal Jamie Persoon ficient in his native language. Perhaps echoing the hopes of all the parents of students who have committed to the six-year DLI track through elementary school and eventual seal of bi-literacy on a high school diploma, Torres said (translated from Spanish), “I think there will be more opportunities for those who are bilingual.”
children to learn English to succeed, and “immersing” them in Spanish is a counter-intuitive route to English proficiency. Hortencia Torres shared that her husband was initially hesitant about enrolling their son in DLI because he wanted the boy to learn English. Yet Torres noted that it was important for her that her son also learn Spanish and become academically pro-
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