LEARNING LANGUAGES: Students at Community Park (CP) Elementary School eagerly engage in the Dual Language Immersion Program (DLI), learning in Spanish half the day and in English the other half. DLI Parent Information Sessions will be taking place at CP next week, with the program currently welcoming kindergarten and first grade applicants for 2023. (Photo courtesy of Princeton Public Schools)

By Donald Gilpin

The Princeton Public Schools (PPS) Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Program was labeled by the state as a model program when, after many years of planning and preparation, it was founded in 2015. In the years since, it has evolved, progressed, weathered the pandemic, and continued to expand under the leadership of committed administrators and passionate, capable teachers.

With the first DLI cohort that started in kindergarten and first grade now advancing through Princeton Middle School (PMS), the program, based at Community Park (CP) Elementary School, is announcing information sessions next week at CP on Wednesday, January 18, at 6:30 p.m. and on Thursday, January 19, at 9 a.m., and is accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year.

“We’ve had nonstop visitors from around the state and outside the state coming to see our program,” said Priscilla Russel, district supervisor of world languages, ESL/bilingual, and dual language immersion programs. She has also traveled across the country observing other DLI programs and has led many professional development workshops.

“It’s really a wonderful way for children to acquire a second language,” she added. “One of the beauties of an immersion program is that the children are really acquiring language. It surrounds them. Their teachers are not speaking any English at all, but they are seeing pictures, using manipulatives, and doing math in Spanish.”

At CP most students enter the program in kindergarten or first grade, but it is open to all district students in kindergarten to fifth grade who demonstrate appropriate proficiency in Spanish. Students who enter the program prior to January of first grade do not need any specific language expertise. There are currently 257 students in the DLI program at CP and more than 80 at Princeton Middle School.

PPS provides transportation for students in the Johnson Park, Littlebrook, or Riverside neighborhoods who want to participate in the DLI program. The district wants to ensure that all members of the community, including native Spanish speakers, have an opportunity to apply.

One of the first dual language programs in the area, the CP model teaches the

core content in both languages, about half the day in English, half in Spanish. Every DLI student has two main teachers, one for English instruction, one for Spanish. Students learn math, science, and Spanish language arts in Spanish, and language arts and social studies in English.

This model in operation at CP allows students to maintain and increase proficiency in their native language while adding another language. “When children move to the middle school, we’re sending them on with another language. How impressive their language ability is — it’s incredible,” said second grade Spanish partner teacher Adam Blejwas, who is also the parent of two daughters in grades four and seven who have been enrolled in the DLI program since kindergarten.

“It’s been an amazing journey for our students and staff and for me,” said CP Principal Dineen Gruchacz, founder of the program along with Russel. “I believe very strongly in the power of language and being able to communicate in more than one language.”

She discussed factors that have helped to make the program a success at CP. “It’s a very welcoming school with an extremely dedicated staff,” she said. “Our teachers are passionate about dual language immersion, and I think that’s one reason why the program has been so successful. They share their enthusiasm with our students. I am very proud of what we have accomplished.”

Gruchacz explained that a number of PPS students are already bilingual, not just in English and Spanish, when they come into the program, and those students will be learning a third language. For students who are native Spanish speakers, she says, “a program like this allows them to keep their Spanish language and also to improve and grow in their native language while also learning English. It’s refining both languages and skills and not abandoning their native language.”

She pointed out that exposure to the cultural aspects of the Spanish-speaking countries is incorporated into the program’s instruction. “It’s important to us to be able to protect and preserve the culture of our Hispanic community. It’s sort of a complete package for any child and any family who is interested and believes in bilingualism,” she said.

Russel noted that, along with communication skills and cultural competence, a third goal of the program is to develop confidence. “This is a mantra that we have in world languages and it extends into the DLI program, that we want to develop our children in both communication and cultural competence, and also confidence,” she said.

Russel had a number of stories about students sharing their cultures and finding similarities in different cultures, and about elementary school kids stepping up, and using their Spanish language abilities to communicate outside of school, at the restaurant, at the haircutter, on the athletic field, and beyond.

She went on to cite research that indicates that DLI programs can foster enhanced cognitive skills, including greater intellectual flexibility, increased attention control, better memory, and superior problem-solving skills.

“Dual Language Immersion certainly accelerates the learning and the proficiency in what we call the target language,” said Gruchacz. “If you are an English speaker and your parents choose to place you in an immersion program, your ability to learn language hinges on many things, but one of the important things is exposure. By starting the program at the kindergarten or preschool level we know that everything we can teach our children, they’re less inhibited. When you’re 5, that confidence is there.”

She continued, “I remember when I was in high school having Spanish for maybe one period a day, and that wasn’t nearly enough to learn it, even if I did it for four years. This program is daily repetitive, deep practice.”

There are currently three DLI cohorts at Princeton Middle School (PMS), with a full program including several social studies classes in Spanish. “The competence and confidence are there,” said Russel, and she pointed out that as DLI students start to move on to Princeton High School (PHS) next year there will be plenty of advanced Spanish classes available. 

Offerings in Spanish at PHS will include a new horticulture course, a popular Latin America cinema course, possibly a history course in the future, and much more. “We have 12 levels of Spanish at PHS, so I’m quite confident that we have the appropriate level for our DLI students,” Russel added.

Danny Freund, the parent of two DLI students who both started in the program in kindergarten and now are in third and fifth grade, commented on the program and its impact on his children. 

“Since language shapes the way we see the world, we wanted to give our kids the gift of being able to see the world through more than one lens,” he wrote in an email. “The program challenges them to be creative in finding ways to express themselves and understand others, while gaining the skills at each grade that are expected of them. The teachers, instructional aides, and staff have been so dedicated to the program, and the program continues to expand.”

Freund’s son and daughter, he added, have had teachers or instructional aides from Puerto Rico, Peru, Argentina, and Guatemala and have enjoyed learning about various aspects of culture and heritage in many different Spanish-speaking countries. “Overall, we feel very lucky to be part of this program,” he said.

Gruchacz emphasized the effectiveness of the teaching staff. “We have been blessed with some of the most phenomenal teachers and instructional assistants that you can imagine,” she said. “These are teachers who believe in the power of the program and the power of language. And we have the most amazing cohort of instructional assistants, who are all active Spanish speakers and add a second adult voice to the classroom.”

Describing the DLI program as “the shining star” of the district, Blejwas expressed his enthusiasm for the program as a teacher and a parent. “As someone who sees all sides of the program, I continue to be impressed by all that it has to offer,” he said. “As parents we are thankful to see our children growing up as bilingual, culturally aware global citizens.”