Plymouth Elementary School’s Mandarin Dual Immersion Program Helps Parents Too

November 17th, 2015 by Monrovia Weekly

By Terry Miller
Plymouth School in Monrovia has implemented a first of its kind in the district – a dual immersion program for students to learn Mandarin. In fact the school is on the cusp of what will, perhaps, become a trend in all public schools in California with the general uptick in Asian-American population in Los Angeles County.

The program is taught by Mrs. Miki Boyle (Mandarin Teacher) and Mr. Steve Cook (Mandarin/English teacher.)
Dual immersion programs include native English-speaking students and native speakers of a foreign language. The goals of dual immersion programs are to develop bilingualism/biliteracy, academic achievement, and cross-cultural competencies for all students. Dr. Katheryn Lindholm-Leary, one of the country’s leading experts on dual immersion programs defines them said: “[In dual immersion programs] English-dominant and target-language-dominant students are purposefully integrated with the goals of developing bilingual skills, academic excellence, and positive cross-cultural and personal competency attitudes for both groups of students.”

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