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[quote=Anonymous]What I have heard, and what I observe with my kid and my kids' classmates at a dual language elementary, is that if you don't speak the target language at home, you have very little hope for long-term native fluency in the target language.  We have had Spanish-speaking nannies and au pairs and my kids speak passable Spanish and (having started at the school last year) are catching up to their grade level, but they are by no means fluent.  I lived in other and had fully bilingual friends with fully bilingual kids, and I'd hear their kids chattering back & forth in both English and the target language, shifting comfortably from one to another.  I NEVER hear this from the English-dominant kids at our elementary school.  The langua franca (sp?) on the playground is English, even amongst those who have been there since PS.

Am I bothered by this?  Not really.  My kids are well above their grade levels in English and Math, and I think they will come out of the elementary school fairly fluent in Spanish.  The dual language program offers a good challenge that keeps their mind busy, and I don't see their other skills suffering.  Will they be fully bilingual?  I doubt it.  Will they survive in a Spanish only country and further develop their language skills?  Absolutely.

But, IMHO, true bilingualism (sp?) starts at home with immersion at home.  It is then reinforced in a school setting.  My friend's daughter is very verbally fluent in French, and they started at Stokes last year.  Since she was in an English-only school to start with, her French reading and writing are behind but she's catching up.  Both pieces of the puzzle need to be there, and it takes a lot of effort.  I honestly don't think it's possible to achieve full bilingualism unless someone in the household speaks it exclusively[/quote]

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