Education Week – Corey Mitchell
“As demand for dual-language-programs surges around the country, school districts are beginning to offer students a broader array of target languages to learn…For decades, a desire to preserve native languages has driven demand for programs. Economics also play a sizable role, with a growing number of states seeing foreign language as the key to accessing the global economy. There’s also a growing recognition among educators that dual-language learning has shown great promise for increasing achievement for students who are English-learners. Government and industry leaders in Utah and Delaware have ramped up resources and funding in recent years, offering languages ranging from Portuguese to Mandarin, with the goal of developing a multilingual work force to lure international companies to their states in an increasingly global job market. Such efforts have triggered substantial growth in the number of Mandarin dual-language programs. Roughly 10 Mandarin dual-language programs existed in the United States before 2009. That number has now swelled to nearly 200.”(more)