Dual language learning benefits students

These schools have found that teaching all the children in the dual language class means that the students are teaching each other too. DP

By Holly Wagner, Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Whig.com: While lawmakers grapple with the long-range problems of immigration, schools face the immediate challenges of educating the non-English speakers in their classrooms.

Some are finding that the best programs to help children learn English also benefit the native English speakers.

Illinois schools are required to teach immigrant students, regardless of their parents' citizenship status, and to report these students' progress under No Child Left Behind.

West-Central Illinois' mostly rural districts face two extremes. Quincy Public Schools usually registers only a handful of English-language learners, but their native tongues have ranged the gamut: Chinese, Korean, Indian, Romanian, Spanish, French.

In Beardstown, 60 miles east, 50 percent of the students are Hispanic.

"Ten years ago, Beardstown had one Spanish-speaking family," said Debra Cole. "Immigration is a global reality. It's not likely to slow down."

Cole, who formerly taught German and Spanish in Quincy schools, is director of the Dual-Language Enrichment Program at Beardstown and regional coordinator for English language learners (ELL).

As regional coordinator, she leads workshops for teachers and administrators on meeting these students' needs. As director of Beardstown's dual-language program, she helped create a curriculum for the elementary grades where English-speakers and English-learners are taught together in both languages.

Teachers and students benefit from both approaches.
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