Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century. Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

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By Eleanor Yang Su

At Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School, students are taught lessons every week in a combination of Spanish, English and Mandarin. The public school, which has more than 400 students on its wait list, is hoping to eventually add a fourth language, the principal says, to better prepare pupils for the global economy.

“I think as we become more and more globally aware, we’re realizing that kids need to be prepared to be competitive in world markets,” said Principal Jorge Ramirez. “Kids need to be multilingual and multiliterate.”

From Chula Vista to Laguna Niguel and Sacramento, public schools are creating dual-language immersion programs at a fast pace. The California Department of Education estimates there are 318 bilingual immersion programs in the state, up from 201 in 2006.

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LAFAYETTE — Fifty-eight Paul Breaux Middle School students received special diplomas from the French Ministry of Education on Monday, recognizing their proficiency in writing, speaking, listening and reading in the French language.

“It shows that they have the competencies we have as French speakers,” said Philippe Aldon, attaché of the Cooperation and Cultural Service for the consulate general of France in New Orleans. “It gives value to what they have learned, what they are. It shows that school can enable you to receive fluency in a foreign language.”

For the students, the recognition comes after nine years of French immersion studies in the Lafayette Parish school system. A total of 62 eighth-graders completed French immersion studies and were recognized during a graduation ceremony Monday at the Vermilion Conference Center.

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The Lake Oswego School Board appears ready to commit to an elementary school language immersion program that continues through the fifth grade.

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To the editor:

Thank you, Karin deJonge-Kannan, for your excellent, informative letter (“Monolingualism can be cured,” May 16) about Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in Utah schools, where participating students learn academic content in another language in addition to English. A year ago, I visited Uintah Elementary School in Ogden with a couple of Chinese-American colleagues from Weber State University’s College of Education. We all agreed our visit to a second-grade Mandarin Chinese dual immersion classroom was one of the most exciting experiences of our professional careers. The atmosphere in that room was electric — kids excited and motivated to learn, teacher excited to teach. I don’t speak Mandarin, but my colleagues were astounded at the proficiency of those 7- and 8-year-olds. After hunkering down to talk with a couple of students in the corner of the room, the colleague from Nanjing whispered excitedly to me, “They have no accent!”

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