Spanish Immersion

During the preschool years students are learning a tremendous amount of vocabulary. During Kindergarten, students begin to speak with increasing fluency as they also learn to read, write, work math problems, and study science all in Spanish. In third grade, students begin English instruction through the designated content area, typically History.  The Language Arts curriculum is different for Spanish immersion. Since literacy is taught in the immersion language, students receive explicit grammar instruction. The frameworks we use for our explicit grammar instruction come from add.a.lingua. The experts at add.a.lingua provide professional development and support and assistance with implementation of their research-based immersion model. The three-fold goal of the immersion program is to: Expect language, Empower students, and Embrace culture.  Although immersion models differ, Legacy’s early total one-way immersion model is the most effective for developing high levels of proficiency in both Spanish and English. 

While immersion is natural for children, parents are amazed when they see what their child can do.  Parents of Spanish immersion students often comment on the ease with which their children switch in and out of both English and Spanish.  The students are comfortable with studying in Spanish, comfortable with their Spanish and English speaking friends, and comfortable with their teacher.

Additionally, reading skills such as learning to scan sentences from left to right, decoding or deciphering meaning from context or pictures, looking for semantic clues, are all transferable between many languages. Students who learn to read first in Spanish transfer those same skills to English and are ultimately able to then attain grade-level reading competency in two languages rather than just one. Students are formally taught to read in Spanish in the immersion program. Because English and Spanish share similar features (reading from left to right, many letters share sounds, the alphabet is similar, etc.) some students will learn to read in both languages simultaneously. Other students might be reading in English before stepping foot in their classroom or might begin reading in English first, even though they are in an immersion setting. Either way, the transition between reading in one language or another is smooth.  Many parents worry about their children’s ability to read in English. In immersion programs children learn to read in both languages without direct English instruction. Test scores in both languages are good—in fact, at schools who use add.a.lingua’s Spanish immersion model, when immersion students take the third grade ISTEP and IREAD in English, their scores often beat their mono-lingual peers!

Beyond the practical aspect of speaking multiple languages, bilingual education improves key elements of brain performance. Learning a second language at a young age changes the development of a child’s brain, particularly in the areas of right-brain/left-brain integration and executive function, which includes working memory, mental flexibility and self-control.  Students in language immersion programs demonstrate higher levels of resilience and perseverance then their peers in monolingual classes. They also demonstrate greater creativity in problem solving, which makes sense when we consider how they’ve learned. On a daily basis, students in language immersion programs have to find creative ways to make themselves understood in a new linguistic and cultural context. And, unsurprisingly, students in immersion programs tend to be more flexible and culturally sensitive.

• A positive effect on intellectual growth.
• Flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a better ear for listening.
• Enhancement in understanding native language.
• Greater ability to learn additional languages.
• Appreciation of other cultures and global perspective.
• Increased career opportunities.