SPRINGFIELD – In many ways, Izabella and Carson are just a couple of typical fifth-graders.
In other ways, though, they’re a couple of quite extraordinary students in a dual-immersion (half-English, half-Spanish) program at Guy Lee Elementary School – and loving every minute of it!
“It makes the day full, and we have a lot of activities, but I enjoy it a lot,” Izabella said. “I enjoy speaking Spanish, my dad is from Mexico, and most of my family is from Mexico, so I speak about half-Spanish, half-English when I’m at home. Same with my friends, we also speak a mix.”
“I love math,” Carson said as both fifth-graders sat down for a recent interview. “I like all the things we do in math. I love decimals, I love dividing.”
Izabella and Carson both live in Springfield, and each started at Guy Lee six years ago, during kindergarten.
Dual-language immersion programs are catching on across the country, and they’re becoming more popular every year. In a 2021 report, there were 3,600 programs in 44 states. The Eugene School District 4J currently offers dual-language programs in Spanish, French, Japanese, and Mandarin.
While the program kicked off in 1962, this is the 11th year that Guy Lee Elementary has been involved. The school’s dual-language track now runs through 10th grade, so students continue in the program through Hamlin Middle School and Springfield High School.
“A lot of people work hard to make the program possible. I’ve been working in dual language before – it’s a model not just about adding a language,” said Armando Garcia, assistant principal and dual language coordinator. “We have the opportunity to have the Spanish and English speakers work in unison and support each other so they can be successful in their lessons. They gain an appreciation of what they go through with their circumstances, with their lives and cultures and their families.
“Another benefit of the dual-language program is the brain plasticity and being more aware of how the language works. They’re making more connections because they’re more aware of how it works.”
Nothing comes easy, though. It’s a challenging program.
“I always tell parents, it’s like football or any other sport,” Garcia said. “It’s a family commitment. It takes a lot of work.”
He gets no argument from the kids.
“Math is still hard, but we’re getting there,” said Izabella, who said writing is her favorite subject.
“Yeah, It’s getting easier to learn Spanish, and we’re getting more chances to learn stuff,” Carson said.
For the most part, students spend half of their day learning in English, the other half in Spanish.
“We have a dual-language track that’s taught in both languages, but we have another track that is only English,” Garcia explained. “There’s basically one class in every grade level that gets a dual language. But we have another track that has one or two classes that is only English.”
Daniela Franco Flores loves her job as the kindergarten dual teacher at Guy Lee.
“I’m very similar to my students,” Flores said. “I’m a bilingual, I’m Mexican, and it’s important to me to have two languages targeted together so that students can learn them equally together and have more options in their future.”
Multiple studies have shown that dual-immersion students achieve higher levels of proficiency across virtually all subjects, while also developing better self-esteem and gaining an appreciation for other cultures. It broadens their horizons in many ways.
Flores says she’s constantly amazed by her young students’ achievements.
“When I teach both languages I have the fear that it’s not clicking and days go by and I see them practicing vocabulary words right at the beginning and I see these 5-year-olds and I think we’re not going to see a lot of growth until the end of the school year, but seeing it right at the beginning how they’re able to connect both languages is amazing to me.
“This program goes all the way to high school now, starting at the age of 5, where they learn phonics, they learn to decode, they learn to put their ‘selves’ together and make words and make sentences, and know the meaning of the vocabulary words.
“We have 150 students in the program,” Garcia said. “It’s a community within a community, and the way the parents tell us about the way the kids understand what the waiter is saying in Spanish and they order in Spanish at restaurants … it’s really exciting to get that kind of feedback from parents.
“We’re interested in recruiting kids every year, mostly in kindergarten. We saw record numbers of people in the community interested in the program last year. We have a long waiting list. We usually accept 28 students every year.”
Garcia added that January is the best time to apply each year. Families who apply during the month of January receive the highest priority for the program.
“I would love to become part of that growth (of Dual Immersion),” Flores said. “I became a Dual specialist for that reason.”
“I’ve been here 10 years, and one parent always asks if I’ll be teaching. It always feels good when you see friends in the community. … I saw a kid who’s now in middle school who said he wants to keep pursuing his Spanish.”
