Education Week: Dual language programs becoming popular
Districts Diversify Languages Offered in Dual-Immersion
Arabic, Vietnamese are latest offerings
School leaders in New York City, the nation’s largest district, are expanding their dual-language offerings beyond Spanish and Mandarin to include Russian, Hebrew, Japanese, and Haitian Creole.
The Houston school district opened an Arabic-language school this year, in part because the metropolitan region has seen its Arabic-speaking population spike in recent years.
And in the Westminster, Calif., schools, the state’s first Vietnamese dual-language program opened in Little Saigon, a Vietnamese enclave in Orange County.
For decades, a desire to preserve native languages has driven demand for programs. Economics also play a sizable role, with a growing number of states seeing foreign language as the key to accessing the global economy.
Please read more here.
Mandarin Immersion Parents Council 