“I only speak English. How can I support my child in a Two-Way Immersion program?”

We get this question all the time. Both our monolingual English-speaking and monolingual Spanish-speaking families are nervous about providing their children support in the other language.   Because I am a monolingual English speaker, many of the monolingual English speaking parents have felt comfortable sharing their concerns and questions with me.  My partner, a native Spanish speaker, often gets very similar concerns and questions from Spanish speaking families. Because I don’t speak Spanish and and for the sake of this blog, I will write as if I were sharing these ideas with monolingual English-speaking families.  Your Spanish speaking-families may appreciate this is a link to FAQs about Two-Way Immersion for parents in Spanish.

Ways to Support Your Child in a Two-Way Immersion Program:

READ with your child every day. Regardless of the language, genre, or even variety of text (You want to read Curious George AGAIN??), reading to and with your child is the single most influential predictor of reading success… And if your child can read in one language, learning to read in a second language is that much easier.

TALK with your child every day. Regardless of the language, topic, or setting (in the car, on a walk, at the dinner table), talking with your child in your family’s home language(s) will help build vocabulary, provide a model for speaking, and build the confidence and performance of your child’s speaking and listening skills. Plus, fully present conversations about topics your child is interested in (PUT THE PHONE AWAY) will strengthen your relationship with your child!

CELEBRATE and APPRECIATE the language your child is learning at school. Provide opportunities for your child to experience the second language outside of school. For our English speaking families, we suggest:

• Listening to the local Spanish radio station in the car.
• Watching the Spanish television station or setting the language preference to Spanish on a favorite movie.
• Pointing out when you hear Spanish being spoken around town: “Oh listen! That family is using Spanish! I wonder if they are bilingual like you!”
• Encouraging your child to invite over a friend from class whose family speaks Spanish at home.
• And of course, TRAVELING to Spanish-speaking countries whenever possible!

SEEK OUT opportunities for your child to learn the second language:

• Check the local library to see if they have a bilingual story time and attend together.
• Check out bilingual books or Spanish books to read together.
• Embrace the challenge of completing homework in the language it was taught (Spanish math homework, reading a social studies text in Spanish; have your child teach you or work it out together rather than asking for the English translation).
• Check for district supports in the second language – Our district (Washoe County School District) has a great Parent University with Literacy Tip Sheets and accompanying videos in both English and Spanish for families to practice literacy skills with their children. We encourage our monolingual English-speaking families to try out the activities in Spanish! Check out the activities at our district Parent University website.

UNDERSTAND, SUPPORT, AND APPRECIATE the fact that your child is a developing bilingual and will learn differently than his/her monolingual peers. Don’t get caught up in comparing test scores, classroom activities, etc., with parents of monolingual students. If you have questions, ask your child’s teacher.  For example, I found this note on my son’s stuffed animals when he was tired of his sister playing with them without his permission…

Note the upside-down exclamation point at the beginning of the sentence. My son REALLY wanted his sister to stop playing with his stuffed animals, so his mind thought the front punctuation (found in Spanish) would be a stronger emphasis. I saw this and was proud of my son – who was in second grade Two-Way Immersion at the time – for using his knowledge of language to communicate in the way he thought was most effective!

We also remind our families that our students are learning two alphabetic sets, each with their own sound system and rules. It often takes our students a little longer than their monolingual peers to master emerging literacy skills (letter name and letter sound,  for example), but with time the students in our Two-Way Immersion program end up performing as well or even better than their monolingual peers in these areas.

One of my first graders recently wrote, “Je ate and ate.” He was using the /j/ sound from Spanish (which sounds much like /h/ in English) to help him with his English writing. This was not something I, as a teacher for biliteracy, was concerned about. Instead, I celebrated the fact that he is bilingual! Then I gently reminded him that we were writing in English and to think about the sound the letter h makes in English. He was able to change the spelling to reflect English sounds!

Hopefully our tips will shed some light on the importance of family support in a TWI program – and how to get them on board with you! If you would like a copy of the paper we hand out to families, you can find it in the link below. Feel free to copy and paste it to your own document so you can edit it to fit your school/district.

Ways to Support your Child in a TWI Program Dana Hardt Washoe County School District

We appreciate all that our families do to help our students on their path to bilingualism and biliteracy. Please share other tips you may have for supporting your monolingual families in a dual language program by commenting. We’d love to add to our resource list!

Make sure to read my mid-November blog, where I will share tips on how I support the Bridge as the English teacher in a Two-Way Immersion Program.  If you will be at La Cosecha Dual Language Conference in Albuquerque on November 1-4, please come to my presentation on Implementing the Bridge as a Monolingual English Speaker on Friday, November 3! I’d love to meet you and build more Dual Language connections across the country. See you then!