FACTS/FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. Why should children learn a second language?

• Children who learn a second language early in life will most often speak with native pronunciation.

• Research has shown that second language study offers many benefits to students in terms of improved communicative ability, cognitive development, cultural awareness and job opportunities.

• A study found that bilingual children understood better than monolingual children the general symbolic representation of print -- meaning that bilingual children learn to read sooner than monolingual children (Bialystok, 1997).

• A recent study out of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (the nation's 4th largest school district and one of the leaders in bilingual education) shows that bilingual children perform much better in the math and verbal sections of standardized tests than their monolingual classmates.

• A study conducted in Louisiana showed that regardless of race, sex or academic level, students who received daily instruction in a second language out-performed those who did not receive such instruction on the third-, fourth- and fifth- grade language arts sections of Louisiana's Basic Skills Tests.

• The College Entrance Examination Board reports that students who had averaged four or more years of second language study scored higher on the math and verbal sections of the SAT than those who had studied four or more years of any other subject.

Q. Why should Spanish be the language of choice?

• Over 28 million homes in the United States have Spanish as their first language.

• There are currently over 44 million Latino people living the United States.

• Spanish is the most requested language program in the United States.

• Learning Spanish as a second language allows a child to be able to communicate with over 300 million more people worldwide.

Q. What is the best way to introduce second language instruction?

• Bilingual education provides continuing education of the child’s native language while acquiring skills in the new one.

• Bilingual education gives children a sense of pride to speak both their native language and the new one.

• Retention over the long run is best with the bilingual method of instruction being used (vs. immersion).

Q. Why should you start so young?

• If a young child has a number of positive experiences with another language, he or she can become quite receptive to learning other languages (Kathleen Marcos, 1999).

• Time magazine reported "The ability to learn a second language is highest between birth and the age of six, then undergoes a steady and inexorable decline." (Nash, 1997)