An estimated 44 children will participate in Stafford Primary School’s first classes of English-paired Vietnamese and Chinese instruction, according to Stafford educators.
The programs, designed to promote fluency in both languages, have generated a positive response, they say.
Program just approved this week
The foreign language academy programs, approved by Stafford Municipal School District trustees on March 8, will open to kindergartners at the campus at the start of the 2010-11 school year.
The school, at 1625 Staffordshire Road in Stafford, serves pupils in pre-K through first grade, and has at least 15 languages spoken among its 560 pupils.
“A lot of students, even Hispanic students who come to us speaking Spanish, go through the school system and by the time they get to high school, they’re no longer speaking (their native language),” said Kim Vu, principal at Stafford Primary School.
“That can be very unfortunate when we have a program like this to assist those students in retaining their mother language and then also learn the English language at the same time.”
Vu, who is fluent in both English and Vietnamese, moved to the United States from Saigon at the age of 6 knowing very little English.
While she mastered the English language through immersion in the public school system, Vu said she struggled to retain her fluency in Vietnamese, despite taking weekend classes throughout much of her childhood.
Only school offering it in county
Vu said that Stafford Primary School is the only school in Fort Bend County to offer a dual language program in the Chinese and Vietnamese languages, though she is aware of similar programs offered for English and Spanish instruction in other areas of the state. The idea to implement a dual language program at Stafford Primary School has brought inquiries from families living as far away as Florida.
The program differs from traditional bilingual instruction in that it allows English speakers to participate in the program alongside students whose first language is another language.
Vu said that her vision is to have the program sustained by promoting students and adding a grade level each year until the end of elementary school.
“Because we’re a Chapter 41 school, we’re hoping to attract students that live outside the district to help fund this program,” said Vu, adding that SMSD accepts students living outside district boundaries through a limited open enrollment program.
Better to start at younger age
Vu said that close to 70 people within the local Vietnamese community have expressed interest in participating in the dual language program and adds that the reception has been positive from families with Chinese and English-speaking backgrounds as well.
She said that while foreign languages are typically offered to students at the secondary level, research has shown that at the early ages is when the acquisition of language is most successful.
“It’s important that we have (this) in the public schools where students are exposed to it on a daily basis versus some of our Chinese and Vietnamese parents who are taking their kids only on weekends,” Vu said.
“We’re here to teach our kids the English language and they have to master that, but to equip our students for the real world, I think that having that extra language that they can converse and be fluent in, they’re going to be just that much more ahead of the game.”
Asian community big in Stafford
Alice Chen, outreach liaison for U.S. Congressman Al Green, said that the Asian community, including families from Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian backgrounds, makes up approximately 20 percent of the population living within the city of Stafford.
Chen, 55, began learning the English language at the age of 23, yet said mastering the idiosyncrasies of English while maintaining fluency in her native Chinese dialect presented a continuous battle that she still struggles to grasp.
To encourage the use of the Chinese language in her children, Chen, who was born in Hunan, China and raised in Taiwan, enrolled her children in the Evergreen Chinese School in Houston and required them to attend every weekend from the ages of 5 to 14.
Chen said her children, now ages 26 and 29, found it difficult to focus on learning the Chinese language while carrying a full load of courses at school and feels the program offered through SPS provides an affordable way for families to learn not only language, but also culture.
“It’s vital for kids to have this opportunity so after 20 years when they compete in the global market they have more opportunity to succeed,” Chen said.
“In China, all the kids at age 5 years are learning English. We want to be very competitive so we have to start young.”