Philly.com – Samantha Melamed
“Last Wednesday night, beneath colorful Mexican cut-paper banners and decorative sombreros, toddlers clambered past one another to grab maracas as children’s music performer Andres Salguero began a bilingual serenade, inviting his new amigos to sing along. It was the grand opening of Mi Casita, the first full-day, Spanish-language-immersion preschool and day-care center in Philadelphia…Foreign-language immersion in early childhood appears to be on the rise, said Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Nationwide, the number of public-school immersion programs grew from three in 1971 to 448 by 2011…proactive parents are seeking ways to start educating kids younger than ever, spurring a small but growing number of foreign-language programs in this region starting at the preschool level and even earlier, in day care…”Parents see knowing other languages as important for the future of their children,” Abbott said. “They understand that the children are already living in a global environment and they want to make sure their child is prepared.””(more)