Page 28 - North State Parent March 2022

EDUCATION NORTH STATE PARENT FAMILY RESOURCE GUIDE SPRING/SUMMER 2022
Dual language learning helps build “empathy, community, kindness and a greater world perspective. Photo by Amber Thompson.
Dual Language Learning in the North State
By Jenna Christophersen
Because English is the common language throughout most of the US, becoming fluent in another language may seem superfluous. How-
ever, according to Data USA, approximately 45% of Cal- ifornians speak a language other than English at home, including 10,683,661 Spanish speakers (almost 29% of the state’s population) and 1,273,978 Mandarin speakers (almost 4% of the state’s population). Early Edge Califor- nia states that nearly 60% of California’s children younger than five are in dual-language homes.
Clearly, knowing multiple languages is becoming more common and more useful; even though the Nation- al K-12 Language Enrollment Survey, released in 2017, found that only about 14% of California students were enrolled in language-learning courses.
Bilingual programs in Siskiyou, Shasta and Butte Counties
As bilingualism grows in California, North State ed- ucators from bilingual programs in Siskiyou, Shasta, and Butte Counties explain how learning a new language car- ries benefits beyond the immediately evident practicali- ties.
Golden Eagle Charter School – Mount Shasta
“Learning another language makes us more human, in a way,” says Phoebe Sanders, Mandarin teacher at Gold- en Eagle Charter school in Mount Shasta, CA.
“It’s not just a matter of learning new sounds or sen- tences,” she explains. “It’s about being more socially and culturally aware, learning tolerance and appreciating something different in their lives, being more empathetic and understanding.”
Phoebe has personally experienced her students’
growing empathy. When a couple of new students en- tered the class partway through the year, Phoebe strug- gled to pronounce one of the new names. While the new students laughed at her mispronunciation, Phoebe’s oth- er students quickly came to her aid. “Miss Phoebe is Chi- nese,” they explained to the new students, and patiently helped Phoebe practice the correct pronunciation.
Golden Eagle’s Mandarin program reaches K-4 stu- dents in Siskiyou County, and hopes to expand.
Program Manager Anna Phelps, who always keeps her eyes open for new opportunities to enrich Golden Eagle’s course offerings, invited Phoebe in 2021 to bring Mandarin to the school twice a week. Anna says Phoebe’s students enthusiastically engage in the games, crafts and traditions that accompany their language learning.
“Our program is brand new,” Anna says, “and it’s been a privilege to see Phoebe connect with these kiddos. I can’t wait to see what they do; they are really building community, empathy, kindness, and a greater world per- spective.”
Bilingual students build future opportunities
Bilingual students are also building future opportu- nities for themselves. “Without learning English, I would not have moved to this country or experienced a com- pletely new world,” Phoebe says. “I would like my students to have the same opportunity.”
Although Mandarin is notoriously difficult to learn, young students readily wrap their tongues around the unfamiliar sounds and their fingers around the Chinese characters. “I learned English in my late teens, so I will have my accent with me forever, but these younger kids learning Mandarin don’t have any accent,” Phoebe mar- vels. “When kids learn young, it is very beneficial.” Outside
of class, Phoebe urges her students and her 7-year-old daughter to learn just one written character a day. “Then you’ll know at least 300 in a year!”
Redding School of Arts – Redding, CA
As Golden Eagle’s Mandarin program begins to take flight, Redding School of the Arts (RSA) offers a ful- ly fledged Mandarin immersion program. Established in 1999, RSA’s Mandarin program supports nearly 400 stu- dents learning Mandarin from six Chinese teachers. Us- ing the 50-50 immersion model, students in grades K-5 spend half of their day receiving math, language arts and science instruction in Mandarin.
“Because they start in kindergarten, it just becomes part of their learning,” says Margaret Johnson, RSA’s co-founder and retiring executive director. “They don’t realize it’s a challenge.”
Immersion students tend to score highter
Because the school offers a Mandarin track and an English-only track, RSA has a unique opportunity to compare the effects of immersion language learning. “Our immersion students tend to score higher than our English-only track students,” Carol Wahl, RSA’s K-8 princi- pal, says. Margaret notes that students in the immersion program often struggle or seem less proficient in their first years of school, but usually end up surpassing their English-only peers by third or fourth grade. “Learning a second language gives you a lot more brain power — the ability to think and learn and reason in ways you wouldn’t normally if you weren’t bilingual,” Carol explains.
By the time they get to junior high, where they have a single period dedicated to Mandarin, students have gained a fair degree of fluency. The school’s upcoming
28 North State Parent Family Resource Guide Spring/Summer 2022 • www.northstateparent.com