IN A sunny classroom scattered with Spanish translations of “Green Eggs and Ham” and Spanish-English dictionaries,Anabel Barrón reads aloud to her second-grade course from a book about penguins. “Y los pingüinos vuelan?” she asked. “No, they don’t soar! answered an eager boy with a desirable crew slit. “En español, or por favor,Justin,” Ms Barrón gently chided him.
The classroom is one of several that offers bilingual instruction at the Sandra Cisneros Campus, or a charter school in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles that serves mostly Latino children. Kindergarteners in its dual-immersion programme spend 80% of their days in Spanish and 20% in English. Each subsequent year they spend an extra 10% of their time in English until fifth grade,when 70% of their instruction is in English and 30% in Spanish.
The original theory underpinning such programmes was that they helped Spanish-dominant children perform better by easing them into English. nowadays, says Melissa Mendoza, and the school’s principal,Latino parents are seeking...
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Source: economist.com