Utah trying out dual-language immersion classes

WEST JORDAN — Ten minutes into her kindergarten teacher's math lesson, 6-year-old Kari Thompson has figured out she is supposed to make a picture book. She knows she should use the book to demonstrate her understanding of "growing patterns," and she knows she should use her crayons to make it colorful. She doesn't, however, have a clue what her kindergarten teacher just said.

"I can't really understand her," says the little brunette with a matter-of-fact shrug. "I don't speak Spanish."

Thompson is one of thousands of Utah elementary school students enrolled in a foreign language immersion program. For half the day, when working on reading and writing, these students study in English. For the other half, when studying math, science and social studies, they take class in Chinese, French or Spanish. In theory, students should be fluent in a foreign language by the time they graduate high school.

It has been only two years since Utah legislators secured funding to experiment with immersion education, but already the state has 51 programs up and running. Fourteen more are set to take off this fall. By 2014, educators hope to have 30,000 of Utah's students signed up.

"Our main goal is to mainstream immersion," said Gregg Roberts, the world language specialist at the Utah State Office of Education. "In the past, it has been a boutique program for elite private schools. We want to make that option available to all parents."

In the meantime, other states are taking note. Utah is the first in the nation to develop standardized immersion curriculum. In June, representatives from Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and North and South Carolina dropped in to take a peek at the state's program.

"Utah is leading the nation in immersion education," said Myriam Met, deputy director of the National Foreign Language Center in Maryland. "I'm in awe of what you're doing for your children and your communities."

State leaders Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, and Superintendent Larry Shumway pushed to bring immersion education to Utah to prepare students to be "global citizens."

"We've got to catch up," Stephenson said. "We've got to start teaching our students not only the language of our history, but also the language of our future."

Educators also believe the immersion programs will help students who are learning English as a second language. At Riverside Elementary, where Kari Thompson attends kindergarten, 5 percent of the students enrolled in the Spanish immersion program are native Spanish speakers. Principal William Hanvey said he hopes the class will boost the school's test scores.