By Daisy Morales, Features Editor
Each August, smiling young faces show up to learn basic skills such as writing and reading. And in some cases, they also show up to learn a new language.
For the past five years, children in Dare County Schools have had the opportunity to enroll in a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program.
According to Mora Newton, DLI coordinator for Dare County Schools, there are currently 741 students enrolled in the program.
Raquel Aguilar, a third-grade teacher at Kitty Hawk Elementary, is one of the many teachers working with DLI students.
“Kids in this program learn all the same standards that children in regular English programs learn, we just teach it in Spanish,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar explained that by third grade, students know basic information like colors, shapes, days of the week, months, and family members. She compared their knowledge to that of taking Spanish I in high school.
“By third grade, we’re getting into more complex grammatical structures like parts of a sentence, verb conjugation,” Aguilar said.
Beyond just having the basic vocabulary to grow each year, Aguilar explained that this program helps children expand their cultural view as well.
“We have an emphasis on culture, tolerance, inclusion, and diversity so it’s not only the language part of things, but they’re also learning how to be more accepting of differences,” Aguilar said. “Someone looks different as me, someone speaks different as me but we’re still accepting and respectful.”
When asked about the feedback from parents regarding this program, Aguilar explained that many parents have praised the program for helping their children grow stronger mentally.
“A lot of parents have mentioned that their children are way more resilient,” Aguilar said. “They tolerate a lot of frustration a little better because it is such a high-paced program.”
This is something that Keith Fanning, a parent of two DLI students at First Flight Elementary agreed with.
“(The program) has set them up for the future to not only be completely bilingual,” Fanning said. “But also lay the foundation for understanding and excelling in any new information or ideas that they need to learn.”
While learning two languages can be challenging, Fanning described his childrens’ emotions as being beyond happy with this program.
“We help her with some English pronunciations, but for the most part she recognizes the word and corrects herself,” Fanning explained. “It’s the simple transition from Spanish to English that the DLI program sets up that makes it very easy for them to learn and retain information regardless of which language is being spoken.”
Students are first introduced to the language in kindergarten. María Sánchez, a DLI kindergarten teacher at Nags Head Elementary, explained that teaching students who are just being introduced to Spanish is special.
“I’m from Colombia and when I talk to them, it’s difficult to pronounce their names with the American accent,” Sánchez said. “I change it to my Spanish accent and they love it.”
Sánchez explained that she introduces the language by teaching a unit about personal attributes.
“We teach vocabulary related to ‘all about me’ – the name and personal information, and that’s how we start the process of Spanish as well,” Sánchez said. “We introduce letters and we introduce high-frequency words.”
Although many parents may not see their children making much progress at first in developing their knowledge of the Spanish language, Newton explained that it’s a more drawn-out process than most believe.
“If you think about how you learn a language as a baby, you’re hearing it all before you’re able to talk,” Newton said. “They know (basic conversation) in English and suddenly they’re getting all of this in Spanish and they have to make those connections.”
With the program hitting its five-year mark, the students who first started back in 2018 when they were in first grade will be moving on to middle school next year.
“We’re considering a couple options on how to grow the program in the middle school,” Newton explained. “We’re looking at it, we’re talking with other DLI programs in the state, and looking at what our schools and our parents want.”
In addition, Newton explained that community involvement has caused the program to grow exponentially. She explained that there were only seven teachers the first year and now there are 28.
Sánchez agrees with this and additionally thinks the program has opened more doors for the Spanish-speaking community who used to believe there was a communication barrier.
“They feel that there is somebody who is able to communicate with them,” Sánchez said. “It’s nice to see the involvement of those families and I feel like there is no more language barrier in our school.”
This program goes beyond just teaching Spanish, according to both Sánchez and Aguilar this program has an emphasis on diversity and learning about different cultures.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for children in this county to be a part of something bigger but also have a big emphasis on being global citizens,” Aguilar said. “It’s a great opportunity for the Latino community and the American community to come together by sharing languages.”
Senior Daisy Morales Bravo can be reached at 23moralesda04@daretolearn.org.
