Workforce Language Services

Some New York schools are expanding their course offerings to give students a competitive edge in an increasingly multinational and technologically advanced world.  These include: Arabic, Mandarin, and nanotechnology. 

In line with the thinking that the earlier the better, the Albany City School District is starting a dual-language immersion class for four-year olds this fall:

There will be nine children whose native language is Spanish and nine whose native language is English in the new dual language pre-K at the Delaware Community School. It had been offered for K through grade 5 students since 1996.

“The parents have been asking for this for years,” said Spanish teacher Melanie Pores, who helped develop the program. The new pre-K teacher will be Ana Banda-Wemple, who had been a bilingual teacher in Peru.

“We’re piloting this approach for pre-K,” said Pores. The students will alternate languages for half of each day. The little tykes will attend a full day of instruction, from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“Our schools are becoming more multi-cultural and bilingual at a fast pace,” Pores said. “Our English speakers and Spanish speakers learn from each other, working in the same classroom.”

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