OCTOBER 17, 2014 – SALT LAKE CITY

The Bilingual Revolution

Fabrice Jaumont

CONTENT

1 – Why We Need a Bilingual Revolution2 – Grass Root Approach3 – What Parents Want4 – French, Italian, Japanese, Russian5 – Roadmap to Starting a Dual Language Program6 – Needs and Challenges7 – What Success Looks Like8 – Take Home

WHY WE NEED A BILINGUAL REVOLUTION•Because parents can make a difference by starting dual language programs in their communities, no matter where they are located.

•Because these programs can improve schools and empower communities in unprecedented ways.

•Because being educated in two languages at a very young age can give children a head start in their life.

•Because a call for action is needed to bring the advantages of bilingualism to as many children as possible.

•The Bilingual Revolution seeks to help parents organize, propose, and inspire others into becoming bilingual advocates for their community’s sake.

•The Bilingual Revolution offers guidance to parents and details how to put up information sessions, organize volunteer groups, design websites and brochures, canvass the neighborhood and work with school principals to get their project off the ground.

GRASSROOT APPROACH•A bottom-up approach which has emerged from a group of motivated parents, committed educators, and the involvement of multiple actors in the community.

•Inspires and engages parents into creating more bilingual programs in schools and community centers.

•Provide coaching and information for free to parents of young children

•Involve the community at all levels

WHAT PARENTS WANT

•Most recently arrived families in New York want their children to maintain their language skills while adapting to their new environment.

•Non-immigrant families value dual language education particularly in a public school setting

•Two-Way Immersion• Preserve and enrich their knowledge of the heritage language. Keep a connection to their respective cultures and identities

• Develop bilingual skills

5

BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN NEW YORK STATE

•designed to help students acquire English proficiency while they continue to master the content areas appropriate for their age and grade.

•designed to facilitate students' transition into the English language general instructional program.

•prepare students to meet the New York State learning standards by providing the academic, linguistic, cultural, and social experiences that support lifelong learning and effective participation in the life of the community.

•A school district is mandated to implement a Bilingual Education program if it has an enrollment of 20 or more students with limited English proficiency in the same grade assigned to a building, all of whom have the same native language (other than English).

NEW YORK CITY

•In New York City, when 15 students who speak the same language and are in the same grade or two contiguous grades, a bilingual class must be established.

•Office of English Language Learners•Transitional Bilingual Programs: 342• Bengali, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Urdu

•Dual Language Programs: 145• Arabic (1); Chinese (9); French (10); Haitian-Creole (3), Korean (1); Russian (3); Spanish (118)

•Bilingual Charter Schools•Independent Schools

FRENCH

FRENCH-SPEAKING PEOPLE IN NEW YORK CITYFrench spoken at home (5 y & older - American Community Survey, 2011)French including Patois, Cajun 85 911French Creole 23,000 (114 986*)French + French Creole who speak French 108 911Includes French speakers 5 to 17 years (NYC 15.3%)

16 663

Estimated French speakers under 5 years (NYC 6.3%) 6 000Estimated Total French speakers 116 000**

(5th place after English, Spanish, Chinese & Russian)

*Total number of French creole speakers. According to Sociolinguist Flore Zephyr, 20% of Creole speaking people are bilingual in French ** does not include language speakers who declared other language (West Africans, etc)French people registered at New York French Consulate (December 2012)Total 18 055 (31 033*)5 to 17 years 2 541 (5 451*)0 to 4 years 1 366 (1 960*)*Total number of registered French in the tri-state

•22 600 children who have French as heritage in NYC,

•enough to fill 25 schools (NYC average 1/647)

•Time 2 if considering NYC’s TWI model (50% native + 50% non-native)

•BOTTOM LINE: More Schools NEEDED

•Fundraising effort•High School

ITALIAN

JAPANESE

RUSSIAN

ROAD MAP TO CREATING A DUAL LANGUAGE PROGRAM

3 MAJOR PHASES1.Communi

ty Outreach

Create a base of interested families

2. Locating a School

Find a principal interested in opening

a DL program3.

Launching the

Program

Provide support to the principal to prepare

for the launch

1. COMMUNITY OUTREACHOBJECTIVES

Identify 30 interested

families, whose children will enter K in

opening year:

15 French speaking families

15 other families

Gather data about French

speaking families in the

community:

Children’s years of birth

School zone & district

Classes need 18 students to be viable, but principals will take the project more seriously with 30 students.

HOW TO IDENTIFY INTERESTED FAMILIES?

Email, post flyers, meet with parents at the following places:

Local Businesses

Newspapers, Blogs, and Radio

Religious InstitutionsParent Associations

Public SchoolsPrivate Schools and Daycare Centers

Playgrounds

2. LOCATING A SCHOOL

Get to know the schools

Collect data about each school’s

mission, potential, and

needs using first wave of interested

parents

Identify motivated families who have connections with principals and/or

parent coordinators

Engage key players

Who?Principals, parent

coordinators, parent advocates, superintendents,

city council members

Where?Office of English Language Learners (DOE), Community

Education Council, Community Boards

Build a rationale and present it to interested principals

Show the benefits for the school and the principal (See

appendix A)

Illustrate the benefits for the community (See Appendix A)

3. LAUNCHING THE PROGRAMKeep

promoting the

programOrganize parent

information meetings (invite

parents and teachers from existing DL

programs to share their experiences)

Encourage parents to visit the new

school and existing DL

schools

Support the

principal Support the securing of materials:

fundraising, grant writing, creating curriculum aligned

book list

Support with hiring of

qualified teachers and teacher

assistants, as needed

Facilitate the sharing of best practices from established DL

programs

RATIONALE FOR A PRINCIPAL

•a DLP is a way to leave one's mark, by adopting the distinctiveness of bilingualism. •DLPs have been running successfully in a number of schools, shaped by a body of seasoned professionals. •DLPs improve test scores in Math and ELA. •DLP can give a new school or an under-utilized school a new identity or a new departure.

•Create the lifelong gift of a second language to all children in the community who enroll.

•A critical number of francophone English as a Second Language Learners (ELLs) need dual language instruction in order to learn to speak English.

•Increase education choice and quality in public school.

•DLP benefits to the whole school community (by gaining some very motivated parents, adding fund-raising capabilities, leveraging the community help build, e.g., better library)

RATIONALE FOR A COMMUNITY

NEEDS & CHALLENGES•Difficulty of recruiting certified bilingual teachers

= incentive + Professional development opportunities

•More appropriate educational materials = translation + book purchase + creation

•Expanding (+ communities, middle/high schools)

= More connectors, mavens and salesmen (Malcom Gladwell)

•GOALS = more schools, better programs, better teachers, greater access & opportunities for all 22

• To succeed, DL programs require a solid tri-partite partnership ––commitment from schools' leadership, qualified, dedicated teachers, & ceaseless involvement from parents at all levels.

• Schools hosting these programs can benefit from diversity of population they serve & diversity of teaching staff, able to incorporate linguistic & cultural differences into pedagogy.

• Parents from diverse backgrounds & ethnic communities can become builders of bilingual education opportunities for their children & children of non-native speakers.

• Heritage communities can strengthen linguistic bond that unite them and reinforcing the sustainability and appropriateness of bilingual programming.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

•The model of early-language acquisition through immersion offers new possibilities for families who seek to learn and master an international language.

•Model is rich in cognitive advancement & beneficial to brain's executive control functions.

•Being bilingual is no longer a taboo, nor the privilege of a happy few.

•Being bilingual is the new norm. Monolingualism is the illiteracy of the 21st Century

•Collaboration of various grass-root and governmental partners creates a rich landscape for bilingual programs.

•A bilingual revolution has started and it is for our common good.

TAKE HOME

THANK YOU

Dr. Fabrice Jaumont nyu.academia.edu/FabriceJaumont

fabrice.jaumont@nyu.edu

Merci!

French Dual Program at PS 84 (Manhattan)