HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A new group of kindergarten students at Woodbridge Elementary School was welcomed into Hillsborough County’s Dual Language Immersion Program this week.
“It is absolutely essential. It is a program that is very different, innovative,” said Melissa Morgado, Supervisor of the World Languages Program.
Hillsborough County’s Dual Language Immersion Program began in 2017.
“We started with two schools and 72 students and four teachers. We are now up to 13 schools, servicing more than 1,600 students and we have close to 100 teachers,” said Morgado.
It continues to grow rapidly.
“There has been an incredible influx of students from all over the world, primarily from Hispanic countries,” said Morgado.
It’s a rigorous program for any student where academics are taught in two languages, in this case, Spanish and English.
“It's helping increase cognitive skills. It definitely improves their communication skills, and research has shown that it also improves test scores because we’re not just translating. It’s promising that higher-order thinking. There’s also the cultural awareness, and the students learn from the beginning that we have different kinds of people, different languages in this world,” said Jessica Chang, third-grade Spanish Language teacher at Deer Park Elementary.
The program is designed to develop bilingual students with an appreciation and understanding of diverse cultures.
“I’m preparing them for the future. I think we are surrounded with a lot of different cultures, and helping them to understand the culture and keeping the culture will help to succeed in life,” said Zachaira Franco Morales, dual language teacher at Woodbridge Elementary.
“Growing up, I was that ELL where I was learning the English. Seeing that they get to experience school in a more positive light, it’s amazing. What it does is it levels the playing field really for all students because everybody is learning a language. It’s not just a select group of students in this classroom that are maybe struggling or need a little bit of support. Everybody is learning one language or another depending on the part of the day. So it really does promote that teamwork,” said Chang.
Teachers said they see it benefiting students academically, socially, and culturally in real-time.
“It gives me goosebumps. It’s very exciting. To me, it’s the best feedback seeing them successful at what I’m doing, what I’m teaching them,” said Franco Morales.
It’s a program that welcomes all kinds of learners from all kinds of places.
“My favorite part is being in the classroom all day long. I think I can wake up and be here all day long with them,” said Franco Morales.
