Jefferson

The goal of Jefferson’sDual Immersion Program is to promote native like bilingualism and bi-literacy, achieve grade level academic achievement or higher, and encourage positive cross-cultural attitudes and behaviors in all students.

Extensive research both in the United States and other countries shows that students who participate in programs that allow them to add a second language to their first–whether they are language minority (i.e. Spanish) or language majority (i.e. English) students, “demonstrate higher levels of language proficiency, achievement and self-concept.”

Furthermore, the immersion of English speakers into the minority language promotes “higher levels of second language proficiency.”While the immersion of Spanish speakers in their native language produces “not only higher levels of their native language but also higher levels of English proficiency.”

According to Bi-literacy for a Global Society, a publication by NCELA (the national clearinghouse for English language acquisition and instruction), dual language education models are different from other forms of instructing English language learners in that:

• Language minority students are integrated with native English speakers in an environment that explicitly values the language and culture of the language minority student and that treats all students, regardless of language or ethnic background, in an equitable fashion.

• At the kindergarten and first grade levels, the target language is the status language for a significant portion of the instructional day and English speakers look up to and are helped by the target language speakers, because of their knowledge of the target language. During English time, the situation is reversed.

• Both groups of speakers are highly valued, not only the English speakers, as is the norm in most classrooms.

• Teachers are trained to treat all students equitably and to have high academic expectations of all students. Teachers are expected to communicate this equity to students in the classroom so that all students value each other, regardless of their language, ethnic, or social background.