2-Way Language Learning Pays Off : L.A. School District Must Strive to Beef Up Its Spanish Immersion Offerings

We begin this piece with an old joke, which will help in driving home our point. What are you if you speak three languages fluently? You’re multilingual. How about two languages? You’re bilingual. What are you if you can speak only one language? Well, you’re an American. That jest, which has some basis in fact, is being addressed in welcome fashion at the Hamlin Street School language academy in Canoga Park.

There, both Spanish- and English-speaking students are taught with the immersion technique, which means that kindergarten and first-grade classes are conducted almost entirely in Spanish.

That’s because this two-way Spanish immersion program has the additional aim of training young English speakers in Spanish.

It is the first two-way language immersion program in the San Fernando Valley, and one of just four such Spanish programs in the entire Los Angeles Unified School District.

The benefits of these types of language programs are numerous. In this time of global economic competition, for example, fluency in other languages is absolutely essential. Also, given two otherwise equally qualified applicants for certain jobs, foreign language expertise can be the deciding factor. It can also be argued that the challenge of learning a language other than one’s own can foster a greater respect for people of other races and ethnic groups.

Developing proficiency in other languages also helps to develop the kind of higher order thinking and problem-solving skills so much in demand today. But these types of efforts must also be reinforced as students progress through their schooling.

That means that the district must continue, as finances permit, to beef up their foreign language immersion offerings. Student gains and fluency will falter, particularly for the English-speaking students, if similar educational opportunities are lacking in later years.