Hickory Public Schools offers Dual Language Immersion at Southwest Primary School and Viewmont Elementary School. The program currently serves grades Kindergarten through Second grade at Southwest and in Kindergarten at Viewmont. A grade level is added each year as the current students progress through the program. Eventually it will be through Grade 5 at Longview and Viewmont.
Participation in the dual language immersion program is voluntary and seats are limited to 50 per grade level per school. Our programs are two-way programs with approximately half the participants native-English speakers and the remaining half native-Spanish speakers. The goals of the dual language program are:
1. Students will be bilingual and biliterate.
2. Students will reach grade level academic proficiency in both English and Spanish.
3. Students will demonstrate cultural competence
Why would you consider dual language immersion for your student?
Strong research indicates that bilingual students have increased cognitive flexibility. Students in these programs demonstrated increased academic achievement when compared to similar peers who did not participate in the program. You can find links to some research samples below:
Video Description of DL/I
A description of Dual Language Programs from the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Rand Corporation Research Brief on DL/I Programs
What is Dual Language Education
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
Dual Language Immersion Resources from the NC Department of Public Instruction
HPS will be hosting informational meetings about our DL/I programs. Please check the school websites.
If you are interested in learning more about Dual Language Immersion programming please feel free to contact Dr. Timothy Sims at (828) 322-2855.