Do you wish you spoke another language? Do you like travel adventures away from the touristy sites? Would you like your child to have an advantage in the future job market? These are just some of the reasons to apply for entrance into one of the many dual language/immersion (DL/I) programs in Wake County Public Schools.
In 1990, the state of North Carolina opened its first DL/I program. By 2021, there were 225 programs in forty-seven districts. The NC Department of Public Instruction allowed for local decision making, resulting in eight different languages in the DL/I programs: Cherokee, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Spanish and Urdu. Wake County offerings include Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. North Carolina ranks #5 in the U.S. and #1 in the Southeast for the number of DL/I programs offered. Across our state, 339 different languages are spoken, adding up to more than 262,000 K-12 students with a language other than English at home! In Wake County, it is estimated that 30-40% of students speak another language at home. That translates to an enormous benefit to the community at large, as well as to our businesses and schools.
Let’s start with the benefits of learning a second language as a young child. From birth to ages 5 or 6, they are wired to learn language. They will pick up a second language much the same way they learn a first language. Informally, through human interaction and play, children absorb sounds and language patterns. Then, in a formal school setting, skilled teachers create structured, scaffolded activities that build a knowledge base in listening and speaking skills first, followed by reading and writing as it becomes developmentally appropriate. By comparison, teens and adults worry more about grammar rules, perfection, and image. Also, high school foreign language classes have traditionally focused on drills, worksheets, and memorization (not on fun!). These factors combine to make it more difficult, and generally less successful, to begin language learning in these later years.
Learning a second language creates new neural pathways in the brain, similar to the effect of learning to play music. It enhances creativity, flexible thinking, and resiliency. Children build confidence as problem solvers and risk takers. Language learning boosts overall listening skills, memory, concentration, and vocabulary. It also improves your first language, as you become more attuned to nuanced meanings and grammar. Playing with language becomes a game – fun and challenging and ever changing, rather than drill and kill.
On the website America the Bilingual, episode #42 is titled, “North Carolina: A Dual-Language Success Story.” Our state is called a “powerhouse” for DL/I education. A panel of NC educators tracked data to document the many benefits of bilingual education, stating that, “We know that higher academic achievement, and higher scores on standardized tests and reading and math result from students being in a second language program… Creativity, divergent thinking, problem-solving skills: all of those things increase and become better if you have studied a second language.”
Cultural sensitivity and understanding are additional advantages of DL/I programs. Children learn not to fear people who are different; learning with diverse peers and teachers is natural and comfortable. Every day they practice interpreting the world from at least two different perspectives, which increases their curiosity and broadens their understanding of the world. The panel of NC educators quoted above, also noted: “This isn’t just about world languages. This is about immersion into cultures and understanding of people in deep and significant ways.”
Older students who continue in a DL/I program are well prepared to take advanced language and literature classes in high school and college. They are also equipped for study abroad and exchange programs. We all know teens love to connect with peers (digitally and otherwise). This is great motivation for them to use their second language in meaningful and authentic ways.
All around the world, kids learn more than one language simultaneously. It is estimated that more than 50% of the world is bilingual (or multilingual). In the U.S., only about 20% of us speak more than one language. Imagine the advantage in the job market for bilinguals! Other perks for adults are new worlds of art, literature, music, media and entertainment that you experience for yourself, not through someone else’s interpretation or explanation; travel adventures and connections with locals outside the tourist bubble; work and study abroad opportunities; a new perspective on your first language and culture by comparing and contrasting; and it’s easier to learn a third language! New and exciting research is showing that bilingualism helps delay mental aging and decline.
Now that you have a long list of advantages in mind, check out the Wake County Public Schools webpage on magnet schools (https://www.wcpss.net/domain/90) to see which ones are available to you. ¡Buena suerte!
Janet Davis-Castro is a Fuquay-Varina resident and a former teacher and coach in Chapel Hill DL/I programs.
Sources
https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/why-learn-languages/top-ten-reasons-to-learn-languages/ https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/advantages_of_a_bilingual_brain
https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/academic-standards/programs-and- initiatives/dual-language-immersion
42. North Carolina: A Dual-Language Success Story
