Workforce Language Services

The governor of the Peruvian province Callao announced that in 2010, all preschools in this district will be bilingual:

To carry out this project, the governor explained that 5,000 pre-school, elementary and high school teachers would be taught a second language.

Among the languages teachers can choose to learn are English, French, Portuguese, Italian and German.

Despite the variety of languages teachers can choose to learn, Governor Kouri affirmed 85 percent of them would want to command the English language.

It’s an exciting move that government has recognized the importance of targeting this age group which is most able to acquire a second language and not wait until the children are older.  My concern, however, about this move: will the teachers be able to learn the chosen second language to the degree that they will then be able to teach it? 

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