Petition for Language Immersion Program at UNES

I am requesting that UNES offer a two-way language immersion program. Ideally, such a program would consist of a student population with about half native-English speakers and the other half natively-speaks the target language (e.g., Spanish). Class time would be split in half and taught in English and half in the target language. This way students encourage and teach each other, and eventually all become bilingual.


Proven benefits these programs include:
  • Improvement in linguistic and meta linguistic abilities
  • An increase of cognitive ability “such as divergent thinking, concept formation, verbal abilities,listening skills, and general reasoning
  • Improves one's understanding of his/her native language.
  • Opens the door to other cultures and helps a child understand and appreciate people from other countries
  • Increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset
  • Superior SAT scores and standardized testing
  • Enhances Memory

Upper Nyack is a multi-cultural community. 25% of the population has a native language other than English. Offering a two-way language immersion program would greatly help educate our children and improve their understanding of other cultures. This program would offer many benefits to our children and to our community as a whole.

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    Elizabeth Co, United States

    4 years ago Comments: This program would benefit the entire Nyack community as well as the individual students/families who would participate in it. The diversity of our neighborhood school provides an opportunity to integrate various smaller communities within the larger one. A two-way language immersion program would support this coming together of students from different backgrounds, in addition to instilling cognitive, academic, and cultural-literacy skills.
    I pay taxes in Nyack School District: Yes
    I have/will soon have a child in Nyack School District: Yes
  • username

    Heather Cornell, United States

    4 years ago Comments: One of the most powerful tools we can give our children, both culturally and economically, is to speak more than one language. We live in a global community and our "village" is no longer right outside our front door. Many Europeans are fluent in 5 or 6 languages by the time they graduate High School We can do better, and right now is the time.
    I pay taxes in Nyack School District: Yes
    I have/will soon have a child in Nyack School District: Yes

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