Utah State University adopts Language Immersion prep

By Kayla A. Swenson

Twenty-five thousand students are currently enrolled in dual language immersion programs across Utah. They have become accustomed to spending half of their school day speaking a target language and the other speaking English. 

Schools and universities across the state are adjusting to the change. This year marks the first year of Linguistics 4700 for Utah State University. The class was created with the intention of training students to be dual immersion teachers. 

Since the beginning of the dual immersion program in 2008, school districts have struggled to find Utah teachers with the language proficiency to teach in the program. 

“We are importing teachers from abroad, and I would prefer native teachers from Utah,” said Sue Kasun, an assistant professor of cultural studies in education at USU.

School districts cannot find the language fluency in Utah native teachers and in turn have hired foreign teachers. For example, in Cache County School District alone, five elementary schools are in need of third and fourth grade teachers for next year in Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

“We are very behind,” said Maria Luisa Spicer-Escalante, an associate professor of Spanish and linguistics at USU. “We can not supply all the teachers that the dual immersion needs.”

Kasun is concerned that the foreign teachers are not here to stay.

“My concern is their level of commitment to be lifelong teachers,” Kasun said. “It would be helpful to have local Utah teachers doing the dual language immersion.”

To enroll in the new linguistics class students must first take an oral proficiency interview. This exam is a phone conversation in the target language. The proctor will ask a series of questions prompting the student to use a wide range of vocabulary and conjugations.

Escalante said that most students receive an advanced low score, meaning that the speaker can communicate but lacks a sufficient amount of vocabulary. But an advanced mid score, meaning the speaker can manage a large number of communicative tasks, is required to receive a dual language teaching endorsement.

“They should give the students time,” said Kali Searle, an Elementary Education student who is considering going into the dual language immersion program. “If I had the time and the opportunity to learn a new language, I would.”

The demand for dual immersion teachers is high and offers very little time for students to learn a language.

Utah State University has addressed this issue by sending students abroad to obtain language fluency as well as giving them experience in student teaching immersion classes, but the school has limited funds for these international programs.

However state dual language immersion coordinators are developing programs that will help train immersion teachers starting freshman year of high school. New linguistics programs are also developing in universities.  

“Students need to know that teaching dual language immersion is an option for them,” Escalante said. “The future of education, from my perspective, is dual language immersion.”