Candice Lin spent several years working as a Mandarin immersion teacher in public elementary schools in Washington, Utah and Minnesota. Full  immersion, where the teacher speaks only in the language of instruction, worked for some children, she said, but it did not work for all of her students.

“You can always see some kids left behind,” she said.

Lin then went to the International Montessori School in Hong Kong, where she learned to teach language in a way that allows children to develop fluency at their own pace. She has brought the model to Jordan Montessori School in Northwest Austin.

The school is now one of several private options for parents in Northwest Austin who want to expose their children to a second language. Public school systems are also latching on to the idea of offering dual-language instruction—most often in English and Spanish—to students in the same classroom.

In Texas public schools are required to provide English instruction to non- native speakers, but two-way bilingual programs are also gaining popularity, said Barbara Kennedy, a dual-language specialist at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Applied Linguistics.

“Community members are saying, ‘If English learners are going to have the benefits, then I want my child to have the benefits.’ So there is a lot of interest and in some places a lot of pressure for [school districts] to offer these programs,” Kennedy said.

Dual-language programs teach students content in two languages simultaneously using two instructors. During the past six years, Pflugerville ISD extended its dual-language program to the middle school level, and Austin ISD has grown its dual-language programs to include 57 elementary schools and three middle schools.

Kennedy said researchers have found slightly enhanced academic benefits for students involved in two-way bilingual programs compared with other types of language programs. Mixed-language classrooms also increase cultural awareness and appreciation, she said.

Meeting the demand

Because of the state’s mandated English-language services for non-native speakers and the special certifications needed to teach dual-language classes, bilingual teachers are in high demand in Texas, Kennedy said.

Many school districts are recruiting teachers from countries such as Mexico or Spain or are relying on alternative certification programs that fast-track teacher training, she said.

“We don’t have enough bilingual teachers,” said Maria Arreguin-Anderson, president of advocacy group Texas Association for Bilingual Education. “We’re not graduating enough, and proof of that is that districts continue to [recruit internationally].”

In 2013, Round Rock ISD was unable to fill duallanguage teacher positions at two elementary schools because of a lack of qualified applicants. RRISD began a recruitment program and was able to fill all positions in 2014, according to ISD documents.

RRISD, PfISD and AISD all offer stipends for bilingual teachers.

In 2011, PfISD launched a bilingual educator certification program to recruit and train bilingual instructors in-house, said Kennedy, who formerly worked for PfISD and helped create the program.

Kennedy said even with a district-based certification program, recruiting quality international bilingual teachers can be challenging because foreign education regulations may not correspond to American standards.

“These are highly educated people from around the world, but there are huge challenges because they need to acquire a Texas teaching certification, which is not easy in many cases,” she said.

Preparing for the future

Arreguin-Anderson said parents have been some of the strongest advocates for two-way dual-language classes.

“We have seen an increase in the number of parents from non-Spanish-speaking populations who now want their children to not only become bilingual but biliterate because they are looking at the future, not only of their children, but the future of the country,” she said.

Olivia Hernández, bilingual director for AISD’s Department of English Language Learners, said bilingual education better prepares students for future career challenges.

“These future employers will expect our students to be equipped with problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, cultural and linguistic diversity, and team-collaboration skills—all of these are at the heart and core of our dual-language programs,” she said.

At Jordan Montessori School, which opened in September, native Mandarin speakers learn from an English-speaking teacher, and native English speakers learn from Lin, who teaches much of the lessons in Mandarin.

The school day includes group story time and sing-alongs, so the English- and Mandarin-speaking students can learn together.

By the third year of the school’s three-year program, students are able to read, write and speak Chinese, Lin said.

Lin said the Montessori program teaches basic pre-K lessons to prepare students entering a traditional first-grade classroom, but it also fully prepares students enrolling in AISD’s only full Chinese immersion school, Doss Elementary.

Immersion programs

At Jordan Montessori School on Anderson Mill Road, native English and Mandarin speakers learn fluency in one another’s languages side by side.[/caption]

Despite the growth of dual-language learning, full immersion in a single language remains a popular method of teaching at several schools located throughout Austin.

Young Peoples Workshops is a Spanish-language immersion school that offers day care, preschool, kindergarten and after-school Spanish-immersion programs for children ages 6 weeks to 12 years.

Originally located only on Bee Caves Road, YPW opened a second location on Mesa Drive in May after receiving numerous requests to open a facility in Northwest Austin, Operations Manager Ramon Aguirre said.

“The Texas Hispanic heritage makes learning Spanish a natural desire for the children, many of whom have relatives who speak this language,” Aguirre said. “Also, we think the highly educated population of Austin recognizes the value of knowing [and] speaking a second language.”