For several decades now, the education curriculum in America has struggled to create equal opportunities for students in a highly multicultural environment. This is because in the recent past, the number of students who don’t speak English as their first language has been on the rise. In such instances, such students might not achieve the same level of academic success as their peers due to this knowledge gap. Whereas this gap still persist, the world had a single approach while analyzing the knowledge gap for student’s whose first language is not English. However, recent studies have established some very interesting findings that could see a paradigm shift on bilingualism. Students who can speak more than one language have been found to be more cognitively advanced than their peers who can only speak a single language. Whereas it was thought that non-English speaking students were disadvantaged in a classroom environment. Learning English in addition to their native language somehow enhances their cognitive abilities. This is the reason why schools have introduced dual language immersion programs.
Cognitive advantages
From a psychological perspective, dual language immersion programs allow children to become more flexible in terms of mental skills compared to monolingual studies. Some of the areas that have been found to improve significantly are visual skills, pattern recognition and problem solving skills. Logical and abstract thinking have also been cited as some of the areas that experience improvement in a child’s development. Today, more and more parents are enrolling their children for dual language immersion programs. This time, the children are taught a different language apart from English to improve their cognitive abilities. Beginning spanish curriculum is not easy and will depend on the child’s interest with the language. One of the common approaches that parents are implementing is childrens homeschool spanish curriculum. Whereas Spanish can be taught in a school set up, institutionalization of the learning process can make the Spanish classes boring and less interesting. Through the dual language immersion programs, there are ways to make homeschool spanish curriculum more interesting though the use of visuals. Children also tend to feel more comfortable in a home environment.
Social advantages
A general perspective with regards to dual language immersion programs is that children will be more culturally integrated and feel as being part of a wider community. This tends to strengthen a sense of belonging in the long run. It is no secret that different institutions of learning are culturally diverse. This means that multilingual students might experience difficulties interacting with their peers from a different cultural background. However, dual language immersion programs have eliminated this challenge by helping children relate with other cultures, learn to adapt in different social settings and become more open minded. One example is that if a child is interested in learning the Spanish language, spanish curriculum lessons alone might not work effectively to teach he child about the Spanish culture. In order to improve the learning process with regards to spanish curriculum lessons for preschoolers, young children can be given spanish story books to assist them paint a picture about the Spanish cultural practices and way of life. This approach would work in a much better way in spanish curriculum for children compared to the conventional spanish curriculum lessons in schools.
