Dual Language Education of New Mexico continuously responds to administrators and teachers in the field who struggle with new challenges facing their dual language program implementation.

The following is an article that appears in the Summer 09 edition of "Soleado: Promising Practices from the Field", a quarterly newsletter publication from DLeNM - http://www.dlenm.org/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=20

Maintaining an Effective Dual Language Program Implementation - By: David Rogers

Maintaining a strong program implementation is as challenging as the launching of a new program. Once the excitement of a new program implementation has passed (2-3 years), then multiple challenges of maintaining an effective program implementation begins.

Teacher turn over, change in leadership, misdirected educational mandates, and the frequent friction of a growing program within an established school community, are just a few of the challenges that can threaten the mission and fidelity of a dual language enrichment program model.

Remember "The Basics"

Educational mandates and other political pressures often pressure leadership to compromise the program design and implementation of this enrichment model. The dream of dual language education however, requires an unwavering commitment to program fidelity, beginning with the program's non-negotiable components.

To many people, these non-negotiable components may seem counterintuitive to ensuring second language learner success. But there are over four decades of research in second language acquisition, and the use of native language instruction that lays a foundation for the effective implementation of programs that produce bilingual/bi-literate students. The research identifies three non-negotiable program components, that when faithfully realized, ensure academic, linguistic and social success for English Learners and native English speakers in an enrichment program.

Trusting in your program model is paramount in ensuring implementation fidelity and student success. Respect for the three non-negotiable components must be established and maintained by all stakeholders. Reflection, program self-evaluation and action planning is necessary to ensure continuous improvement of both the program's implementation and the instruction in a dual language classroom.

Component One: A minimum of 50% of instruction is delivered in the "target" language.

Precious instructional time is committed to content and literacy instruction in the target language, which does not include lunch, recess and "specialty" classes like library, computer lab, physical education, art, etc. Specialty classes may be considered part of the core instruction only when they focus on curriculum standards and are delivered in the target language by a highly qualified teacher.

Maintaining fidelity to Component One:

1. Recruit specialty teachers with academic target language proficiency.
2. Utilize social and extra curriculum activities to reinforce the use and practice of the target language during lunch, assemblies, clubs, fieldtrips, etc.
3. Establish target language use expectations for support staff and community who interact with students; this raises and sustains the target language's status in the school community.

Component Two: Strict separation of language for instruction (no translation)

In the dual language program, language is the means for teaching and learning, and not the subject of learning in and of itself. For this reason, dual language teachers remain in the language of instruction, do not translate, and provide a "pure" and powerful model when delivering instruction in each program language.

Maintaining fidelity to Component Two:

1. Students commit to becoming bilingual and to helping each other maintain the target language.
2. Set policy for language use amongst parents, visitors and staff participating in the classroom.
3. Self-reflect and self-evaluate the use of the target language.
4. Redirect students who leave the target language, and celebrate second language use.

Translation may be sparingly used as an instructional strategy when there's a natural interference or "disconnect" in how a learner is using one language to learn another. Understanding how languages are developed through comparison is a powerful tool for language learners, so time may be committed to examining interference and/or disconnect in bilingual development with students.

Appropriate times to translate:

1. When teaching about cognates and/or word roots that carry meaning and connect one language to the other.
2. When there's overuse and/or misuse of vocabulary-a spontaneous lesson can strengthen language use.
3. When erroneous L2 use becomes habitual.
4. When comprehension is strong in L2, but ability to demonstrate knowledge in L2 is limited.

Component Three: Commitment to building a kindergarten-12th grade program

Reaping the full benefits of dual language enrichment education comes from participation in a K-12 program. Without K-12 as the focus, most elementary programs implement with little input from their secondary "feeder" schools. Since implementation begins "simply" at kindergarten and first grade, there's a feeling of sufficient time to get the secondary program "on board." The reality however, is that when implementing a new program, the experience is intense, and there is little time to effectively plan for a secondary extension.

Developing a secondary dual language feeder program is often overwhelming. This challenge can be complicated by a lack of ownership on the part of the secondary program; a change of interest and perceived need of students; the complexity of adding a new program strand to a proven master schedule; and/or a lack of qualified staff.

Successful K-12 programs recommend that the secondary personnel participate in initial program planning. This enables the secondary staff to help define k-12 program goals/expectations; commit to the students enrolling in the program; and prepare their contribution to the program's implementation by aligning curriculum, assessment, staffing patterns, etc.

Planning for a K-12 dual language program implementation requires the development of district-wide support systems. Benefitting individual school programs, families, and the community, these systems focus on resource allocation, professional development, human resources/staffing, assessment and public relations/marketing. The policies and procedures developed through these systems facilitate student placement, teacher and principal evaluation, leadership training, special services within a dual language program, and late entry policy for students enrolling after the initial years of the program.

Dual Language Enrichment Programs are the gold standard in English learner and multilingual/multicultural enrichment education. If dual language educators keep their hearts focused on the dream and their work focused on the fidelity of their program's implementation, we will continue to reap the benefits of our dual language enrichment programs.

Organizations like DLeNM, and a growing network of dual language programs across the United States are identifying and/or facing new challenges each day in maintaining fidelity and effectiveness in dual language program implementation.

The identification and documentation of these challenges, and best practice response to overcoming these challenges is a commitment that DLeNM wishes to share with the greater community.

DLeNM encourages you to join a new forum created to collect your stories and successes in implementing your dual language program. Please visit our forum today, and add to our collective knowledge and work. . . .

Forum Questions:

What challenge(s) has your program implementation faced in the past year, and how has your community effectively responded to that challenge? How did you overcome that challenge and maintain your program's fidelity and effectiveness? Visit our forums at http://dlenm.org/community