Meeting the Needs of the Community: Bilingual Education in San Diego

Author(s): Mary Farmer

Source: Hispania, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Dec., 1978), pp. 950-952
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/340948
Accessed: 22/06/2010 10:30

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SPANISH AND PORTUGUESEIN THE
ELEMENTARYSCHOOLS
Conducted by LEONOR
A. LAREW*

MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY:

BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN SAN DIEGO
MARY FARMER
University Extension, University of Californa, San Diego
Programs in bilingual and bicultural grant Education Programwas set up there
education in San Diego County are being primarily to provide day care for the chil-
tailored to meet the needs of the com- dren of agriculturalworkers. The program
munity. In 1977 there were some fifty-five now has tutorial aides and resource teach-
elementary schools within the county with ers, in addition to the coordinator,to pro-
state or federally supported bilingual pro- vide academic assistance as well as support
grams. The principal funding for these services. The program operates on a year
programs comes from State Law AB2284 round basis, closing only for legal holidays.
and from Federal Grant Title VII, and to The Head Start Program in Encinitas
a lesser degree from Title I and Title II. providesa bilingual environment for eighty
Within the city AB2284 provided funds three- and four-year-olds of low-income
for fifty-two classrooms in fifteen schools; families. According to Janice Genevro, co-
Title VII supported eighteen classes in five ordinator of the program, sixty percent of
schools. Funding for school districts out- the children are Spanish speaking. Each
side the city limits seemed more equally Head Start classroom has at least one bi-
divided: eleven districts received funds lingual-bicultural adult, and language
from AB2284 and ten received funds from teaching is done as part of the total daily
Title VII. program. The teacher's use of Spanish in-
Educators throughout the county are dicates to the Mexican-American child
taking affirmativesteps to provide adequate that the school accepts his language and
instructional programs for limited and culture and helps to establish stronger
non-English speaking children and to pro- lines of communication between school
vide for early acquisition of Spanish as a and home.
second language for those who desire it. The teaching of English in the Head
The programsare set up not only to teach Start Program is based on the theory that
English and Spanish but to maintain bi- very young children acquire linguistic un-
lingualism. derstanding from basic experience. Thus
Programsvary depending largely on the English is not taught through Spanish, as
percentage of Spanish speakersin the area. it might be with an adult, but rather by
In Encinitas, in the northern part of the establishing a connection between the
county, less than 20 percent of the popu- word and the object or action to which it
lation speaks Spanish, whereas in San relates.
Ysidro, the San Diego community border- A verbal environment is created for the
ing on Mexico, 87 percent is Spanish child in structured learning situations and
speaking. in nonstructuredones, stressing vocabulary
Encinitas, an agricultural area known as in both English and Spanish. For exam-
the "Flower Capital of the World," em- ple, Spanish words for temporaland spatial
ploys numerous Mexicans in the flower- relationships that will help the child to
growing industry. In July of 1975 the Mi- group, compare and differentiate objects
are taught. Both languages are used in this
* Articles for this section may be sent to Prof. general learning process to minimize the
Leonor A. Larew, New York State University disjunction between home and school.
College, Geneseo, N.Y. 144 54. Every effort is made to coordinate the
950
 SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Head Start Program with those of the
public schools to make the transfer to
kindergarten as beneficial as possible.
"In Encinitas the needs of non-English
dominant children are being given special
attention," says Assistant Superintendent
Bob Lee. The basic goal of the bilingual
programis academic achievement. Initially
there is separate instruction in Spanish
and in English in academic subjects. Thus
while the child is learning a second lan-
guage he is acquiring skills and concepts
in his native tongue.
Transferral to the second language is
done as the child gains proficiency and be-
comes familiar with the basic concepts of
the academic subjects. Care is taken to
maintain bilingualism once the non-domi-
nant language is put to use for expansion
of concepts. Both languages may then be
used in all subjects.
Conversational Spanish for English-
dominant children is provided from the
offset. So called "interestcenters" give the
Anglo child an opportunity to use the
Spanish he has learned in a formal setting
in a more casual informal situation. The
social interaction between Spanish and
English speakers in the classroom greatly
enhances the language learning process.
Parent participation in the classroom is
encouraged. There is a parent education
program for limited- and non-English
speaking parents to teach developmental
skills and to provide each home with
books. Every child is given a set of readers
printed by the district. Take-home books
of cultural relevance are available and the
children are encouragedto share them with
their families.
"A basic goal of all of these programsis
to produce coordinate bilingualism," says
bilingual educator Marge Ruzich of nearby
Palomar College. "A coordinate bilingual
can easily switch from one language to the
other. A compound bilingual, however,
translatesin his head and does not-manipu-
late the change easily."
The psychosocial aspect of language
learning has come to the foreground in re-
cent years. The concept of coordinate and
compound bilingualism form an integral
951
part of theories developed by psycholin-
guists Joshua Fishman and Leon Jacob-
vitz.
"The compound bilingual," explains
Linda Northcutt, a former bilingual pro-
gram directorin Encinitas, "is often handi-
capped by diglossia, a phenomenon in
which certain items are associatedwith one
language and others with the other lan-
guage." The length of time required for a
child to overcome this depends on the ex-
tent of exposure to both languages.
While learning the second language
most pass through a period of using code-
switching, where a combination of both
languages is used in a single utterance.
Many Mexican Americans continue to em-
ploy codeswitching long after they have
become bilingual. Several examples of
codeswitching in children are the follow-
ing:
Todas las veces voy a misa pero cuando estoy
sick I don't go. I was sick y luego ya estaba all
better. (Myrna, age 4, Head Start)
I have two toys here-son carritos. Y mis fire
trucks tienen banderas.
(Naomi, age 4, Head Start)
Me gusta su puppy-he's so cute.
(Vanesa, age 4, Head Start)
Ma's tarde, si, after twelve
(Sra. Rosillo, mother of Head Start child)
The frequency and nature of continued
contact with Mexico plays an important
role in the Spanish speaker'sacquisition of
English. Many are in constant contact
with Tijuana for such matters as social
visits, shopping, church, and medical as-
sistance. In border areas it is difficult for
the children to identify with American
culture.
"Here in San Ysidro we try to Ameri-
canize them while still honoring their
culture," says Joan McNally, bilingual
specialist for the district. "It is a huge
task. The non-Mexican population is
made up largely of minority groups. For
most of these children the only place
where English is necessaryis at school."
Spanish is spoken at home and in
churches and in stores. Television and ra-
dio programs are available in Spanish.
Thus for many of these children the only
952 HISPANIA 61 (Dec. 1978)

constant example of North American cul-
ture is the school faculty.
Because of the high percentage of Span-
ish speakersSan Ysidrooften needs to seek
waivers for funding laws that require that
classroomsbe made up of certain percent-
ages of English speakers. San Ysidro also
has special problems because of the low
tax base. Though agriculture was strong
some years ago it no longer is, and there
is no major industry. The largest single
employer is the school district.
The schools have developed a new cur-
riculum program under the direction of
Dr. Robert Wilson, Coordinator of Bilin-
gual Education.
"Language must be seen within the
concept of learning,"says Wilson, a former
U.C.L.A. faculty member. The program
thus concentrates on learning problems
rather than on language problems. It is
based on the work of Jean Piaget on child
development, Benjamin Bloom on the
taxonomy of mental process, and Jerome S.
Bruner on the process of learning for trans-
fer. The curriculum design reflects a view
of man as a species that is aware he learns.
"The main issue is.not language," states
Wilson, "but rather how it is taught. We
teach in both languages but our major
concern is teaching the child how to think,
not simply to absorb facts."
Most linguists agree that an optimum
time for bilingualism to occur is between
the ages of five and 11. A toddler learning
two languages at once may easily become
confused and transfer one language incor-
rectly to the other. The monolingual pre-
schooler is likely to absorb the grammar
of his native tongue more readily and
quickly than is the bilingual preschooler
coping with two languages. A child needs
to feel secure in expressive speech, what-
ever the language. By age four or five a
child is ready and capable of handling a
second language.
For the next four or five years a child is
able to learn a second language with na-
tive fluency. His flexibility for making
new sounds and his lack of inhibition en-
able him to establish correct pronuncia-
tion habits in the second language.
Bilingual-bicultural education in San
Diego County is providing children here
with an enriched understanding of the
cultural heritage of the community.
Though it is an enormous undertaking,
educatorsin this area are indeed laying the
foundation for a future bilingual society.

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