Yaritza stands at the front of the classroom, her hair held in pigtails by two white scrunchies, blue-sequined sneakers on her feet. She tells her classmates what she would order off the menu in her hands.
“Spaghetti and meatballs,” she says proudly. “And fried bananas.”
Her teacher, Cecilia Chavarin, asks the class how much Yaritza’s order will cost and receives a chorus of correct responses: $10.
Chavarin’s Specialized English Instruction (SEI) classes, although beneficial, impact a small number of students at Davis Bilingual Magnet School. A majority of the students at Davis are considered English proficient by the state proficiency examination. Chavarin’s classes emphasize reading, writing and speaking in English, as well as provide preparation for Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards. According to Chavarin, however, her classes are “an aberration” at Davis— every other class in the school is taught in Spanish.
Down the hall in Julián Barceló’s kindergarten class, students are split into groups around the room. Three students sit with a teaching aide repeating las sílabas, while another group sits with third-graders reading Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop in English. At a different table, one child sticks his tongue between his teeth as he tries to figure out how to spell pepe. An additional group of kids sit listening with headphones, reading along or fighting over the volume control.
“It’s bilingualism for free,” Chavarin says of the public school’s Spanish immersion program. “We want our students to become culturally proficient. All backgrounds will not be tolerated, but appreciated.”
Despite the seemingly overwhelming task of teaching another language to children as young as five, the teachers are positive.
“They immediately start absorbing the second language,” said Barceló. “[We have] a lot of conversations, positive reinforcement, and obviously, parental support of this program.”
A student pushes his math assignment under Barceló’s nose. The teacher stops and asks the student if he is proud to speak Spanish and the student shyly nods yes.
Davis Bilingual is unique in Tucson because it provides the only public Spanish immersion option in the city. Tucson Unified School District has watched the demand for this program increase since it was classified as a “magnet school” so that any student, regardless of where he or she lives, could apply to attend. Administrators also answered the demand in another way.
Grijalva, Hollinger, Mission View, Roskruge and Van Buskirk elementary schools all offer dual-language programs, which permits nearly an equal mix of both English and Spanish speakers, allowing the students to learn from each other.
“Students who are learning the other group’s language have proficient peers as models to emulate,” said Salvador Gabaldón, TUSD’s language acquisition specialist.
Generally, schools have English-only instruction in regular classrooms and then a separate SEI course for non-native speakers.
TUSD, in an effort to compete for students has diversified its educational approaches, embracing traditional and new methods, allowing parents to choose how they want their child to be educated.
Ms. Bea Lineiro-Lopez, a counselor at Gallego Basic Elementary in the Sunnyside Unified School District, says that speaking Spanish in the classroom is an offense that could result in legal proceedings.
“Teachers now are having to be more accountable,” Lineiro-Lopez said. “They have to show growth, have data, follow the curriculum. There’s fear … [but] there’s a lot being done to improve the system.”
In November 2000, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203, which limited the language of instruction teachers can use in the classroom.
“Young immigrant children can easily acquire full fluency in a new language, such as English, if they are heavily exposed to that language in the classroom at an early age,” reads the amendment. It goes on to further state that “teachers may use a minimal amount of the child’s native language when necessary” but that no subject matter will be taught in any language other than English.
All students who are enrolled in non-traditional language acquisition such as the dual-language program or the Spanish immersion program must have a waiver on file that allows teachers to freely speak Spanish and English in the classroom.
But at Gallego, and in all of SUSD, teachers are not allowed to use Spanish in classroom until students reach high school. This effectively shuts the door on Spanish education in elementary and middle schools in the district.
“Every time you shut the door on a language, you are shutting the door to an entire culture,” Barceló said.
Students from different cultures tend to remain more segregated in classes that emphasize English, he added. Some students will even become ashamed of the fact that they do not speak English.
“There is no shame here,” Barceló said.
“We never really had bilingual classes at all,” Lineiro-Lopez said of Gallego. “The only kids who get bilingual education are kids with that on their IEP [Individualized Education Plan] for special education.”
This not only affects English-speaking students who are denied the opportunity to connect with their fellow students, Tucson’s heritage and much of its population, but also Spanish speakers who are left without the peer models that prove so helpful in the language acquisition process.
Back in Barceló’s kindergarten class, none of the kids are too concerned with such ideas. For now, they’re just excited to learn.
