Dual Language

GLENDALE — Each year, the Foreign Language Academy of Glendale continues to expand its global reach. Glendale Unified's dual-language immersion program will reach middle schools next year. It will reach new destinations at new elementary schools, and it has transformed Franklin Elementary School. English-only instruction will be phased out at the west Glendale school during the next few years, officials said. "Every year it grows another grade level at each of the sites," said Joanna Junge, the district's director of special projects, intercultural education and professional development.

Kindergarten through second-grade students in the Korean dual-language immersion program at Keppel Elementary School performed traditional Korean children’s stories Wednesday. Kindergartners sang about tadpoles, and first-graders starred in a play about two stepsisters, Kongjwee and Patjwee. Second-graders performed a Korean mask dance. Because students are learning a new alphabet, instruction is half in Korean and half in English. The Korean program is one of six languages in the Foreign Language Academy of Glendale.

Glendale Unified School District Board of Education President Mary Boger and her board colleague, Joylene Wagner, unveiled the California Assn. for Bilingual Education award Thursday. Glendale Unified was chosen as bilingual school district of the year in large part for its successful dual-language programs. The ceremony at Jefferson Elementary School coincided with the school’s monthly flag ceremony in which students are recognized as students of the month and for good behavior.

GLENDALE — Scores of parents are recruiting more families to support adding Japanese to the Glendale Unified School District’s popular slate of elementary school dual-language programs. Organizers said they want to replicate the success of other dual-language programs offered in Italian, German, Armenian, Spanish and Korean. The Foreign Language Academy of Glendale, or FLAG, has been widely lauded for boosting campus enrollment and academic achievement. In September, the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education accepted two grants totaling $2.4 million for expanding the Spanish and Korean programs.

Federal grants worth $2.4 million will expand successful dual-language programs at Glendale Unified School District to more campuses, officials said Wednesday. The Foreign Language Academy of Glendale, known as FLAG, was awarded two grants by the U.S. Department of Education, a rare funding boost that administrators said would allow Spanish-language programming at Toll Middle School and Korean at another middle school campus by 2013. FLAG began a few years ago and offers bilingual education in Spanish, Armenian, Korean, German and, most recently, Italian.

GLENDALE — Giggles started to spread through a Franklin Elementary School classroom Tuesday as students tried to count in Italian. The students called out the single-digit numbers with ease, but began stumbling through the teens and eventually fell behind teacher Daniela Pino, laughing and mumbling their way to 20. “Dodici, tredici, quattordici, quin...tor...dici...” the students called out, trailing off in uncertainty. Students at Franklin Elementary School began new after-school Italian classes last week, in sessions that started with instructions in the foreign tongue.

Regarding Glendale Unified School District’s dual-language program and the comment by Carlos Mejia of Glendale in his letter “English should be the only language taught” (Mailbag, Friday): The notion that a child will be confused and unable to be proficient in any language if that child is taught a foreign language alongside English is, and has been shown in numerous studies, wrong. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, learning a second language at an early age has a positive effect on intellectual growth and mental development leaves a child with more flexibility in thinking and improves a child’s understanding of his own native language.

Students in the Korean Dual Language Program at Mark Keppel Elementary School welcomed the start of the Lunar New Year in Korean fashion on Thursday, with food, games and expressions of respect for their elders. Thursday was the first day of the Year of the Rat according to the lunar calendar, which is celebrated in many east Asian countries, including China and Korea. In Korea, children frequently celebrate the start of the new year by dressing up in traditional clothes and visiting extended family members.

Bowing and speaking in Korean, kindergartners in the Korean Dual Language Program at Mark Keppel Elementary School told their parents on Monday they were thankful for family, friends, food and the opportunity to learn Korean. Parents of the 31 students in the dual-language program gathered at the school for a Thanksgiving food festival to hear how their children were progressing in learning English and Korean, and to sample traditional Korean fare like kimbap — a rice and seaweed roll — and kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish.