Dual-language program proposed
Livingston, SLU hope to host English and Spanish class
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WALKER — Sayuri Flores, whose husband does drywall installation, and her family recently moved to Livingston Parish from Phoenix to pursue construction work based on the word of family living here.
New opportunities also mean new challenges, though, and Flores took steps earlier this month to ensure her 4-year-old, Vanessa, is not impeded. She was one of several parents at Walker Elementary School who recently signed up students for a proposed dual-language pre-kindergarten program.
Livingston Parish school system officials, Head Start officials and Southeastern Louisiana University education researchers are hoping to pilot the program next year through Walker Elementary. Class would be held at the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center down U.S. 190.
Speaking through a translator as she signed up her daughter on May 8, Flores said it is important for her child to learn English and be able adapt to her environment by interacting with English-speaking children.
“If you don’t speak English, you don’t get to benefit from things you could possibly do here,” Flores said. She is from Mexico, but has been in the United States several years, mostly in Arizona.
The pre-K class of 20 4-year-olds would comprise English speakers and Spanish speakers. Half of the day’s class would be in English and other half in Spanish, said Cynthia Elliott, an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at SLU.
Elliott said it’s important for students to learn languages other than their native language when they are young and receptive.
The program is one of 15 new pre-K classes school officials hope to add to seven schools next year through a proposed one-year $1 million LA 4 grant, Benton said. The other proposed pre-K classes would have English-only classes, adding to the 12 already in public schools.
The Legislature is still debating how much money it will allocate to fund the LA 4 program for next fiscal year, which puts Louisiana’s many students from low-income and poor families in pre-K classes.
The total number of Hispanic students in Livingston Parish schools is small, less than 2 percent out of more than 23,500. But their numbers have increased dramatically since 2004 — the year before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana. The number of Hispanic students increased from 181 in the 2004-2005 school year to 414 this year.
The number of students taking English as a second language in Livingston Parish is also on the rise: up from 37 in 2001 to more than 200 this year, school system officials said. Recent U.S. Census Bureau reports show the number of Hispanic residents in Louisiana is increasing.
SLU’s Elliott said research shows that students who learn to read and write in their native language have an easier time with a second language. Ideally, Elliott said she would like to see the program extend through the fourth grade because research shows it takes about six to seven years for children to speak and be literate in a second language. School officials are planning to try only pre-K next year.
Rosa Molina, assistant superintendent of instructional services at the San José, Calif., Unified School District, said it takes that much time in her state, but some students have to catch up a little academically, usually by the fifth grade. The upside is that students gain native-like quality in a second language with enough time, she said.
“That’s a huge difference as compared to children who are just in foreign language classes, because in foreign language classes they have one person for a language model and that is the teacher,” she said.
California currently has 100 schools with so-called “two-way programs” and there about 330 schools nationwide with programs using Spanish and other languages, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that studies language education.
New opportunities also mean new challenges, though, and Flores took steps earlier this month to ensure her 4-year-old, Vanessa, is not impeded. She was one of several parents at Walker Elementary School who recently signed up students for a proposed dual-language pre-kindergarten program.
Livingston Parish school system officials, Head Start officials and Southeastern Louisiana University education researchers are hoping to pilot the program next year through Walker Elementary. Class would be held at the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center down U.S. 190.
Speaking through a translator as she signed up her daughter on May 8, Flores said it is important for her child to learn English and be able adapt to her environment by interacting with English-speaking children.
“If you don’t speak English, you don’t get to benefit from things you could possibly do here,” Flores said. She is from Mexico, but has been in the United States several years, mostly in Arizona.
The pre-K class of 20 4-year-olds would comprise English speakers and Spanish speakers. Half of the day’s class would be in English and other half in Spanish, said Cynthia Elliott, an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at SLU.
Elliott said it’s important for students to learn languages other than their native language when they are young and receptive.
The program is one of 15 new pre-K classes school officials hope to add to seven schools next year through a proposed one-year $1 million LA 4 grant, Benton said. The other proposed pre-K classes would have English-only classes, adding to the 12 already in public schools.
The Legislature is still debating how much money it will allocate to fund the LA 4 program for next fiscal year, which puts Louisiana’s many students from low-income and poor families in pre-K classes.
The total number of Hispanic students in Livingston Parish schools is small, less than 2 percent out of more than 23,500. But their numbers have increased dramatically since 2004 — the year before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana. The number of Hispanic students increased from 181 in the 2004-2005 school year to 414 this year.
The number of students taking English as a second language in Livingston Parish is also on the rise: up from 37 in 2001 to more than 200 this year, school system officials said. Recent U.S. Census Bureau reports show the number of Hispanic residents in Louisiana is increasing.
SLU’s Elliott said research shows that students who learn to read and write in their native language have an easier time with a second language. Ideally, Elliott said she would like to see the program extend through the fourth grade because research shows it takes about six to seven years for children to speak and be literate in a second language. School officials are planning to try only pre-K next year.
Rosa Molina, assistant superintendent of instructional services at the San José, Calif., Unified School District, said it takes that much time in her state, but some students have to catch up a little academically, usually by the fifth grade. The upside is that students gain native-like quality in a second language with enough time, she said.
“That’s a huge difference as compared to children who are just in foreign language classes, because in foreign language classes they have one person for a language model and that is the teacher,” she said.
California currently has 100 schools with so-called “two-way programs” and there about 330 schools nationwide with programs using Spanish and other languages, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that studies language education.
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