LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JANUARY 2016 | Page 35

D

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE

...IS FOR DUAL LANGUAGE

Walk across the Bayou City and you might find yourself wondering
if you’ve maybe wandered into Europe or Asia or South America,
possibly even Africa. According to some estimates, more than 100
languages are spoken here – a stunning testament to the city’s
diversity and as a magnet for drawing a global workforce.
In schools throughout the region, language immersion, dual language programs and foreign language magnet programs exist to
help students learn the finer points of speaking multiple languages.
For the upcoming citizens of Houston, being a polyglot may be
commonplace.

One much-loved program is at HISD’s Kolter Elementary School. The
school is a foreign language magnet school, offering opportunities
for K-5th graders to learn Spanish, Chinese and French.“I love the
way my daughter and her friends at Kolter, a Global Passport
School, mirror the diversity of the Houston community,” says mother
of a fifth-grader Mary Lowery. “Learning multiple languages in
school deepens their understanding of how the United States fits
into the world. It's definitely a ‘big picture’ experience.”
In other HISD classrooms, at both the primary and secondary level,
dual language classes provide a 50/50 split in instruction – half in
English and half in Spanish. The district believes the model allows
students to not only build proficiency in both languages, but also
exposes them to multicultural issues. Fifty-six HISD campus are listed
as “dual language” schools; the district also has immersion campuses, providing instruction in Arabic and Mandarin. The Pearland
Independent School District expanded its dual language program at
the start of this academic year, adding two elementary schools to
the list of campuses where English/Spanish instruction is offered,
designed to help non-native English speakers improve their aptitude
and expose English speakers to develop their Spanish skills. Over [