I’ve taught transitional bilingual education (TBE) for the past 15 years. But at the end of last school year the bilingual teachers in our district were informed that our TBE program was being eliminated, and all of our Emergent Bilingual learners would now be part of the Dual Language (DL) program. For the first time in my career, I would be a DL teacher. My first reaction was- wait, what? I thought of all the recent arrivals to the country in my classroom who understood virtually no English. I wondered how they’d fare in a DL classroom.
First, let me clarify the difference. A transitional bilingual program is a program for students who are native speakers of a language besides English. In the case of my students, this would be Spanish. The purpose of the program is to give them support in their native language, while developing their proficiency in English. Studies have shown that students who develop proficiency in their Language 1 are better able to transfer those skills to their Language 2. On the other hand, the purpose of a DL program is to immerse students in two languages. Students in DL classroom are a mixture of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers.
There are two teachers in the DL program – one who teachers completely in English and the other completely in Spanish. ELA is taught in both languages, but Math is taught in English, while Social Studies and Science are taught in Spanish.
Of course, the native English speakers in the DL program are already being immersed in Spanish, so there shouldn’t be a problem with the native Spanish speakers being immersed in English, right? The difference is that in our district students start the DL program in Kindergarten. By the time they reach 4th grade, they have already had four years of immersion in Spanish.
I spent 16 months teaching conversational English in Japan, so I do have experience teaching in an immersion program. However, I was teaching conversational English – not Math, Reading and Writing, while expected to make sure the students are able to pass the national tests. This year is going to be an adventure and a challenge.
I am excited that I will be teaching my favorite subject – Math. It will be an interesting ride and I am looking forward to chronicling my journey.
