Over the past few years, biliteracy and student diversity have become staples of many MCPS schools. With this multicultural perspective in mind, the Board of Education has recently expanded its search for bilingual teachers to an international scale, with representatives traveling to Puerto Rico during the last two years. According to Bethesda Magazine, these teachers would be a vital part of MCPS’ two-way language immersion programs.
The two-way language immersion programs are special elementary school programs and are currently offered at five schools. The program follows a 50/50 model, where 50 percent of classroom instruction is given in English and 50 percent in a different language. Currently, the program is only offered in Spanish, so each class is evenly split into native Spanish-speakers and native English-speakers.
The program aims to promote biliteracy skills in reading, writing and listening at an early age, a contrast to how most MCPS students start foreign language classes in middle school. Students like Richard Montgomery sophomore Grace Burwell, who first learned Spanish at a private Montessori elementary school, agree that early exposure to a language benefits the learning process.
“I do think it was helpful. I really started learning Spanish in seventh grade, but I did learn a little more before that in fifth and sixth grade. It definitely was helpful,” Burwell said. “I didn’t think there was much of a gap transitioning from eighth grade to ninth grade.”
To sustain and potentially expand the program, MCPS looks to recruit more bilingual teachers. As stated by Bethesda Magazine, MCPS representatives made their first recruiting trip to Puerto Rico in 2018, where they hired around 10 new teachers. Representatives traveled there again in late January this year and have since made offers to some candidates.
While bilingual teachers are mainly targeted for the language immersion programs, the increasing diversity of Montgomery County opens up a need for more bilingual teachers in the future. According to MCPS data, over 30 percent of MCPS students are Hispanic or Latina, 27 percent are white, 21 percent are black and 14 percent are Asian.
The MCPS job offering for bilingual teachers did not limit the position to language or ESOL in particular but rather sought teachers for all subjects. Many MCPS students feel that having more bilingual teachers, in general, could especially benefit students who do not speak English as their first language.
“There are a lot of bilingual students, and sometimes students are proficient in a language that’s not English. There’s a lot of students with English not as their first language,” Richard Montgomery junior Eujin Lee said. “So I feel like it would be a good idea to get teachers who could communicate more effectively with students even if English isn’t their first language.”
Other students also felt that bilingual teachers would provide a better support and learning network for ESOL students. “I can’t see how it wouldn’t help them. If they have someone who’s teaching them a subject who knows both English and Spanish, so the teacher would know the English conventions and be able to translate them to Spanish or other languages; that would be really helpful,” Richard Montgomery junior Ayesha Khawaja said.
However, MCPS’ goals with two-language immersion programs and ESOL are still fundamentally different, with ESOL meant to teach English proficiency rather than biliteracy. MCPS currently does not require ESOL teachers to know any language other than English.
Nonetheless, students still feel that MCPS’ goals of cultural and language diversity are worth pursuing further. “It wouldn’t have an impact on me, but I think the idea of getting more bilingual teachers is definitely a step forward in the right direction,” Lee said.
The Maryland school system and MCPS first offered the Seal of Biliteracy in 2011. The Seal is an award for students who are proficient in two or more languages by the end of high school. Likewise, individual schools also have their own biliteracy programs, such as Richard Montgomery High School offers a biliteracy diploma for completing seven years of a language course.
“I think it’s really important to know many languages, and I had the opportunity to take Spanish all these years, so I probably should again to get the diploma, but I don’t have room in my schedule,” Khawaja said.
Although MCPS’ recruitment of more bilingual teachers is still in its early phases, many believe that the effort is a great stride forward. Both the teachers and the immersion programs alike give students the opportunity to live as true global citizens.
Article written by MoCo Student staff writer Helen Qian of Richard Montgomery High School
Graphic designed by MoCo Student graphic artist Caroline Dinh of Richard Montgomery High School