Dual Immersion / Doble Inmersión

Dual Immersion Program

Mission Statement

The mission of Banning Unified School District’s Dual Immersion Program is for all students to reach high levels of academic achievement, develop biliteracy and bilingualism, and cultivate cross-cultural competencies needed to succeed in a multicultural society and global economy.

Overview

The Banning Unified School District’s Dual Immersion Program offers English speaking and Spanish speaking students an exciting, enriching and challenging educational opportunity. The Dual Immersion Program housed at Florida Street Discovery Center and Central Elementary School is an instructional model that provides content-based instruction to students in two languages where the goal is for the students, over a number of years of participation in the program, to become proficient and literate in both languages, while also meeting high academic standards. Our Dual Immersion students will excel in reading, writing, and communicating effectively in Spanish and English while achieving high levels of academic success. The Dual Immersion students will also gain the bilingual skills and cross-cultural competencies needed to succeed in our multicultural society and global economy.

Model

The Dual Immersion program is set up to serve as a bilingual education model with about 50% of the students native/heritage speakers of each language (e.g., Spanish and English). This type of Dual Immersion is called "two-way" as in Two-Way Dual Language or Two-Way Dual Language Immersion.

The method of instruction is the 90:10 model of Two-Way Immersion in which a majority of the school curriculum is taught in a second language. Students in kindergarten and first grades will receive 90% of their daily instruction in Spanish and 10% in English. Each year, students will receive more instruction in English as the percentage of Spanish instruction time begins to decrease. This means that in Second Grade it is 80:20, Third Grade is 70:30, Fourth Grade is 60:40 and from Fifth to Eighth grade, students will receive 50% of their daily instruction in Spanish and 50% in English.

The Two-Way Dual Language Immersion model succeeds by enrolling students with backgrounds in both languages and giving them the opportunity to help each other learn. Spanish speakers help non-Spanish speaking students learn Spanish while English speakers help other students learn English. Both groups learn all of their traditional subjects – literacy, math, science, social studies – in both languages, becoming fully functioning in both languages.

Program Goals

The Ultimate Goal For Banning USD's DI Students: The California Seal Of Biliteracy!

All students will develop high levels of proficiency and fluency in their first language.
All students will develop high levels of proficiency and fluency in a second language.
All students will perform and achieve academically in all core content areas according to district and state guidelines.
All students will demonstrate positive cross-cultural attitudes, inspire self-efficacy and strengthen positive attitudes and behaviors among students, their families, and the community.

Research and Rationale

Research has shown that multiple beneﬁts exist for young students who acquire a second language, including:

Children more easily learn a second language than adults and typically end up with a better understanding of their native language.
English learners have an opportunity to make more progress on grade-level instruction — reducing the number who fall behind.
Research shows that early second language learning increases achievement as measured by standardized testing (Armstrong & Rogers, 1997).
Young bilingual children show more critical thinking skills, greater sensitivity to language and stronger communication and listening skills.
Children develop a sense of appreciation for other cultures.
Proﬁciency in a second language gives students a head start in language requirements for college.
Proﬁciency in a second language also gives students a head start in language requirements for college and career.