The Cupertino Courier

Photograph by Gary Nougues

Ben Liao dropped by the meeting to pledge his support for the bilingual immersion program.

Parents request bilingual program

The Mandarin/English immersion program would give parents a choice

By Justin Berton

In the face of what's known as the "Unz initiative"--the state proposition that could virtually eliminate bilingual classrooms--a group of parents and local educators met Feb. 14 to discuss a voluntary Mandarin/English program that could begin in some Cupertino kindergarten classrooms this fall.

Supporters must receive approval from the Cupertino Union School District board of education first, which could come next month after board member Barry Chang puts the alternative teaching program on the agenda.

The dual-immersion program would be offered in addition to the district's four English Language Development centers.

The dual immersion program differs from the ELD centers in that it would use the two languages in one classroom. Fifty percent of the children would have limited or no skills in Mandarin. The other 50 percent would have limited English-speaking skills. Teacher instruction time would be spent 70 percent English to 30 percent Mandarin, according to Lori Tsai, a teacher of an immersion program at Forest Park Elementary in Fremont Unified School District.

"The primary goal is for the students to learn English first," Tsai told parents at the meeting last Saturday, noting that Mandarin will be used to reinforce topics learned first in English.

By joining the two languages in one classroom, supporters of the program believe it gives non-Mandarin speaking children a chance to learn a language spoken by close to one-fifth of the world's population. And, supporters say, the classroom environment lends to cross-culturalism among the students.

Benette Barouch, who attended the meeting with his son Jonathan, a kindergartner at Forest Park, said his son was learning more than a new language.

"He's getting cultural immersion," Barouch said. He wondered, though, if his son--the only non-Asian child in a class of 20--was adding to the cross-cultural experience. "I'm not sure if (cross-cultural learning) is going the other way."

It's still unclear whether the Unz initiative, called Prop. 227, will eliminate bilingual classes which are offered on a voluntary basis, according to Dr. John Erkman, assistant superintendent of instructional services at Cupertino.

According to Erkman, 2,397 students--roughly 16 percent of the entire student population--say Mandarin is spoken in their homes. It is the second most common language in the district after English.

Erkman said the Cupertino district is not currently required to provide bilingual classrooms because the district has met state English language-development requirements.

If the Unz initiative passes, a clause in the law would force any school to offer bilingual instruction if at least 20 parents from the school requested it.

"Parents have the right to have the bilingual education," said San Jose State Professor Marilyn Mei-Ying Chi, an organizer for the immersion proposal in the Cupertino district.

"Don't worry about the Unz initiative," she told the parents, predicting it would fail in the June ballot.

Currently, 728 of the 15,081 students in the district are enrolled in the district's four English Learning Developmental centers.

Erkman said the average student spends 18-24 months in the ELD program before being assimilated into English-only classes. Under the Unz initiative, students could spend no more than one year in English development classes.

Proponents of the voluntary Mandarin/English program say they hope a pilot program can begin as early as this fall and continue with classes up to the fourth or fifth grade. By that time, students would be proficient or fluent in both languages, according to immersion coordinators.

Supporters of the Mandarin/English program say it is needed in kindergarten and elementary schools because children at young ages take on new languages with more ease.

Along with Chang, board member Ben Liao briefly attended the meeting to pledge his support for the program. About 40 parents signed an "intent of registration" form to be presented to the board.

Chang urged the parents in favor of the immersion program to become more vocal.

"I cannot do this alone," he said. "I need you all to come to the board meetings and be heard."

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