Tenth Heritage Language Research Institute

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Dual language education: Promoting heritage Spanish proficiency and academic achievement for K-8 students

Public school programs called dual language use Spanish between 50% to 90% of the school day with the goal of promoting bilingualism and biliteracy. I examined the Spanish speaking, reading, writing, and listening comprehension of two groups of bilingual Latino children in Chicago: one attending a dual language program, and one in an English-medium program in the same building. Spanish proficiency declined considerably among the English-schooled students, but not among the dual language students. In addition, both English proficiency and overall academic achievement as measured by standardized exams are equally strong among dual language students as among all-English students once they reach 5th grade. These findings suggest that Spanish-medium education can help close the national Latino achievement gap while promoting strong levels of heritage language proficiency.