Dual Language Programs in School

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Dual Language Programs in Elementary Schools “A pervasive lack of knowledge about foreign countries and foreign languages threatens the security of the United States as well as its ability to compete in the global marketplace and produce an informed citizenry.” (Benefits 1) Having dual language programs beginning in elementary school is smart for several reasons, one, children learn faster and more efficiently younger, second studies show children perform better academically throughout their school careers and on national standardize tests, third there are many benefits and skills of being bilingual these students will get and use throughout the rest of their adult lives.. There are a variety of dual language programs, most commonly though, it is when students receive instruction in two different languages. The first language being their native language, and the second being a foreign. The foreign language must be present at least fifty percent of the class day. Students are ideally native of both languages and integrated together giving them ample opportunities to practice and learn throughout the day. The goals of the program are to include full biliterate proficiencies¸ content-area achievement at or above grade level, and multicultural competencies. (Rodrigruez) Dual Language programs are more beneficial to start in elementary school because students tend to be able to learn a second language faster at a younger age. They are more capable of learning the phonemes (any of the abstract units of the phonetic system of a language that correspond to a set of similar speech sounds (Merriam), morphemes (a distinctive collocation of phonemes (Merriam)) and the syntax of the languages. They are less absorbed and eager to learn. Exactly how they learn it is not completely clear. Studies show that at first they only imitate and rely on memory triggers, such as

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