Hi Everyone,
I apologize if this is drawn out. I have a question that I'll eventually get to but will give the long story first. Our DD6 is in a dual language immersion (DLI) program and will be entering 2nd grade in the fall. The program starts as 90%/10% (Spanish/English) and progressively includes more English as the child progresses so that by 5th and 6th grades students are 50/50 with the goal of biliteracy.
DD6 has struggled with reading (Spanish) and received reading intervention for most of the year plus once a week private tutor in spring semester. Her confidence and motivation in Spanish reading/writing is pretty low. In January she expressed frustration at not reading/writing in English and we decided to help her (we're discouraged from teaching English skills because it may affect Spanish acquisition). She is motivated to read in English and has, in a few months, reached grade level for English but is still a little below for Spanish.
She has been asking to go into the all-English program. She says she wants to because it's her native language and she's better at it. We want to support the DLI program and would love for her to be biliterate. My question is: Should we keep a child in 1)a DLI program where she doesn't seem very motivated (maybe this will change with time) but will be biliterate or 2) a program where she seems motivated but will not develop biliteracy skills? It's a tough decision because we feel there are many benefits of being bilingual. However, we have this feeling that school may become a much more positive experience if she's in an English program.
I would appreciate any thoughts/experiences you all may have.
