Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Most bilingual elementary programs start at kingergarten or earlier. I don’t have children who are at that age or will be, but I would like to hear your experiences. Most programs will likely be English/Spanish since those are two most spoken languages in the country, but obviously other programs exist and are as beneficial. How did it affect your child's development? Did they become fluent in the other language? Did they remain fluent?
My child attended a bilingual program, but while proficient, did not gain fluency. We didn't speak that language at home. Although the study of this language was continued in college, after that, a lot was forgotten.
If you are interested in public school bilingual education, you may want to check out the schools here in NYC. Most are at the elementary level, I think. We have a fairly large French population and we have bilingual schools that are administered by NYC department of ed, but also partially funded by the French Ministry of Education with teachers who are licensed and trained in France. They do have to take the exams to get NYS bilingual certification. We also have bilingual Spanish schools, some that also offer bilingual French programs. Also quite a few bilingual Mandarin programs prek-5, as well as bilingual Arabic and Hebrew schools. These are all public schools. Children who attend these programs may speak this language at home, but they are also open to students whose first language or home language is exclusively English. Of course, we have private schools with bilingual programs in other languages too.
The ENL population in NYC is enormous and the schools have support personnel for literally a hundred different languages in order to communicate with the children and the parents. Many of the "mainstream" teachers are also multi-lingual. Bilingual Spanish programs are more popular in the burbs, but in NYC, Spanish is just one of many languages that we encounter or see in print ads.
Send an open letter to Mr. and Mrs. Facebook. Ask them to share ideas for their children's dual language education. Learning Chinese is becoming a new trend. You may also ask Ivanka if you can.
My child attended a bilingual program, but while proficient, did not gain fluency. We didn't speak that language at home. Although the study of this language was continued in college, after that, a lot was forgotten.
.
Yep. That is the key.
Childhood bilingual educations sounds impressive but is only fluff if they don't receive regular reinforcement at home.
We'll be moving to Atlanta from St. Louis this coming summer so it’s not going to be quite the cosmopolitan experience as New York will be. Does it help children get ahead in high school foreign lamguage? I was an international business major and can speak German fluently, and my husband was a aerospace engineering and Spanish major who speaks it fluently. Foreign Language is important to us so we’d like our children to learn one. Of course it’s up to them, but I thought some early exposure would be helpful.
Childhood bilingual educations sounds impressive but is only fluff if they don't receive regular reinforcement at home.
Let's face it, pretty much every subject would be just fluff if there was not a chance to use it. Mind and body both deteriorate without regular workouts.
Dual immersion - I believe in it. Results may vary - I myself am a polyglot and my daughter's father is bilingual; our daughter's third language was English when she started formal education. She favors it now and since it is the only language of instruction in school, I don't push her to speak her first two languages. If there had been a dual immersion program in our school district I would have requested it.
The benefits of learning multiple languages aren't just the knowledge of additional languages - there are many others aside from language skills.
Let's face it, pretty much every subject would be just fluff if there was not a chance to use it. Mind and body both deteriorate without regular workouts.
Yes, and fortunately it doesn't sound like the OP is considering forgoing education altogether if there is no early foreign language study.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soccernerd
I was an international business major and can speak German fluently, and my husband was a aerospace engineering and Spanish major who speaks it fluently. Foreign Language is important to us so we’d like our children to learn one. Of course it’s up to them, but I thought some early exposure would be helpful.
Yes, and fortunately it doesn't sound like the OP is considering forgoing education altogether if there is no early foreign language study.
How did you and your husband become fluent?
We aren’t forgoing education if it isn’t bilingual?? I’m not sure that’s legal considering my children aren’t 16 yet.
I took German for 4 years of high school college and four years of college, and I studied abroad in Germany for a full year. I maintain fluency because I go to Germany on business ~3 times a year, and I have meetings and conference calls with Germans nearly daily.
My husband took Spanish in high school for 4 years and 4 years in college, and he studied abroad in Argentina for a summer and Barcelona for a semester. He goes on business to Mexico several times a year and has friends who are native Spanish speakers.
So obviously bilingual education isn’t 100% necessary to acquire a second language, but it’s easier to master a language with early exposure if not rigorous study. My husband had a huge workload in college, and I had to carefully plan everything out since taking up a full year of college disrupted my coursework. In Germany, just about all primary school students study English and continue it into secondary school. Students in the most rigorous secondary schools (Gymnasium) take a second foreign language, usually French. I definately don't expect or even want my children to take that much foreign language, but starting them out early, I think, has many benefits.
My kids attended a full immersion school. ALL instruction from K-4 was in the target language. Instruction in English started in 5th grade for 20-30 minutes per day and slowly increased through high school. For various reasons, my three kids only attended through elementary. They are now in high school and all taking Chinese. They are picking up Chinese pretty quickly. One is still fluent in that first immersion language, the other two are semi-fluent. We do speak it at home sometimes, but not as much as we should to maintain fluency.
I agree that there are benefits beyond just remembering the language or not.
(and I have learned 3 other languages formally and have some degree of fluency in each... but English and that target language are the most fluent for me)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
