DLI is available to students in grades K-3. 

For three important reasons:

• Intellectual: Bilingual students show a greater cognitive flexibility that transfers into academic success.
• Social: Our diverse world represents many languages and cultures.
• Economic: Increased demand for bilingual employees throughout the world.

There are many benefits of language immersion programs. Some include:

• Ability to speak, read, and write fluently in English and Spanish.
• Increased level of cognitive capacity and critical thinking.
• Increased level of academic achievement for students enrolled in the program long-term.
• Improved cultural awareness and appreciation of our diverse community.
• Boosted social and emotional well-being in and out of the classroom.

Children in our dual language program often go through the following phases: 

• Preproduction (starting phase): This stage is also called “the silent period,” when the students listen and watch others; they take in the new language but do not speak it yet. During this period, children often communicate through gestures, actions and small words. 
• Early Production (emerging phase): This stage begins with student speaking using short words and sentences and assimilating basic vocabulary. The emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. 
• Speech Emergence (developing phase): Students participate in small group discussions and use the new language more frequently and for a purpose (to ask, to refuse, to interrupt). They start accessing key concepts and produce complete sentences. 
• Beginning and Intermediate Fluency (expanding phase):
  • In the Beginning Fluency phase, students engage in conversation and use reading and writing to process new information. They also write answers to higher-level questions. 
  • In Intermediate Fluency, the communication in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations and students speak almost fluently in academic areas.
• Advanced Fluency (bridging phase): During this phase, students communicate fluently in all contexts and can maneuver successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but is essentially fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language. 

In our two-way model program, instruction looks different at each grade level. Instruction is provided in Spanish and English. This graph shows the language allocation by grade level:

Yes. The standards and curriculum used in the Dual Language Immersion Program are the same as for all students in the School City of Hammond. The only difference is the language of instruction. Our teachers also support English Language Learners with WIDA English Proficiency standards.

Contact Dual Language Program Coordinator Cristina Sanchez at 219-933-2467, Ext. 5633. You can also visit the Washington Irving School Facebook page.