U.S. Students May Neglect Native Language

By Gustavo Reveles Acosta
El Paso Times

Nelly Dominguez is proud of how much English her two sons have learned in the year and a half since the family moved from Juárez into a South Side home.

But as time passes and she notices the two boys talking to each other in English more, she wonders what will happen to their Spanish.

"I wanted them to learn English because I know it would be hard for them if they didn't know that language," Dominguez said in Spanish. "I didn't think that eventually I wouldn't be able to understand them."

As school districts in El Paso struggle to educate about 50,000 students who are limited in their English skills -- more than 30 percent of the student population -- bilingual education advocates say there isn't enough being done to help children retain and expand their Spanish skills.

An overwhelming majority of the bilingual education classrooms in El Paso are considered transitional, meaning that the goal of the instruction is to move the student from learning in Spanish to learning in English.

Elena Izquierdo, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and board member of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education, said more school districts in the city should foster an environment in which children can learn in both English and their native language.

She said programs such as the two-way dual-language system -- which takes monolingual English and Spanish children and teaches them most subjects in both languages -- is the best way to do that.

"In dual-language classes, if students start early in kinder, by the time they are third-graders they are speaking in both languages," Izquierdo said. "This program is bilingual, biliterate and teaches academic Spanish, which is not normally taught at home."

There are fewer than 1,000 students -- both Hispanic and non-Hispanic -- in El Paso enrolled in dual-language programs. Some have been learning in English and Spanish from kindergarten and are now in high school.

The goal of those programs is to produce high-school graduates who can read, speak and write high-level English and Spanish.

"There aren't enough of these programs, and that's a shame, because they really are a win-win scenario for everyone," Izquierdo said. Dual-language classrooms "produce kids who are not only bilingual, but are respectful of their own culture and that of others."

Advocates point to the results of studies on dual-language programs such as the one conducted in 2002 by researchers at San Jose State University, in California.

The study found that Hispanic children learning in both languages outscored Hispanic students in traditional bilingual education classrooms.

Researchers also found that dual-language students tend to take tougher classes and are more likely to attend college.

Valeria Alvarez, 9, is a fourth-grader at Desert Hills Elementary School and is in her first year of learning English in a traditional bilingual education classroom.

Her teachers and parents believe she is college-bound, but although Valeria is proud of her English acquisition so far, she is already worried about losing the language her parents speak.

"My mom and dad tell me that it's important to speak both English and Spanish, but I don't know if I'm going to speak Spanish very well when I'm older," she said.

Desert Hills and several other Clint Independent School District schools had dual-language classrooms until about three years ago, when budget cuts forced administrators to resort to the traditional, transitional method of bilingual education.

Dual-language programs can be more costly to school districts because they may require the hiring of two teachers for the class -- one who can teach in English and one in Spanish. Most of the programs with two teachers, though, had twice the number of students the state allows.

UTEP's Izquierdo down-played cost as a reason not to have more dual-language classes.

"There are many schools throughout the country who are doing this with limited resources," she said.

"When you want to do it, you can do it," Izquierdo said. "Bring in the teachers, the parents, the administrators and the community, and let's get this started."

Schools in the El Paso, Ysleta, Socorro and Canutillo school districts have dual-language programs.

Although bilingual educators -- especially those just leaving graduate school -- advocate more dual-language programs, they are also aware that districts may not be inclined to create them anytime soon.

But they encourage parents to help their children learn well in both English and Spanish, even if they are in a transitional program and not a dual-language one.

"There isn't an appreciation for bilingualism in this country, and the lack of dual-language programs is proof of that," said Emilie Miller, who earlier this month received a master's degree in bilingual education from UTEP. "And although there is a resistance to assimilate, there are many parents who push for their children's right to retain their language."

Miller, who in January will open a dual-language program in her native Kentucky, said she encourages parents to nourish their children's Spanish skills at home, even when students are in the early stages of learning English.

"They will learn English at school no matter what," Miller said. "The Spanish they have and hopefully develop will have to come from home."