It is already that time of year again: time for those who are not yet familiar with bilingual language programs at public schools, to join the Bilingual Fair at Fordham University at 62nd street on November 3.
The Bilingual Fair, first launched by the French community in NYC, has grown a lot since its first edition of 2014, and it now attracts exhibitors throughout the many language and cultural communities across NYC. Visitors arrive from the five boroughs to see what’s happening on the educational field of the bilingual public and private sector.
According to the Department of Education of NYC, there were 215 Dual Language Programs (the number includes pre-k, early childhood and elementary schools) as of 2017. Only one of these programs is an Italian DL, at PS112 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Another school, PS242 located on the Upper West SIde of Manhattan, has been authorized by the DOE to start another one and is actively looking for Italian native speakers to make this happen. For this school year 2018-19, PS242 has started a program of Italian as a L2 (second language) and an Italian DOE-certified teacher is currently teaching PreK and
K classes once a day. In order to become a full fledge DLP, the school needs to have more Italian-native children enrolled in the PreK and K classes.
Dual Language programs, as most of us know, are different from transitional programs because both languages (in our case, Italian and English) are taught throughout grade 5, whilst transitional programs are designed to teach English Language Learners until they become English proficient and English becomes their dominant language. With DL programs, the language learning is instead supported by the introduction of cultural enrichment programs where children learn to switch back and forth the two cultures, be more culturally aware and less isolated.
Many are the benefits and myths around Dual Language programs, and even this year the fair will host several workshops debating these points, one of which will see the Italian community to discuss the past, present and future challenges of introducing such a program.
Please join us from 2:00 until 3:00 to talk more… teachers included!
If you want to book a ticket click here
if you would like to join our free conference, at no additional cost click hereArrivederci a Sabato 3 Novembre !
