15924: Hermantin responds to Vedrine and others about Creole Textbooks (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

I think that a point of clarification is needed with regards to the term
"bilingual education". It has just dawned on me that I should have talked
about "languague immersion programs ' rather than bilingual education to
discuss the programs offered in French, Spanish, Italian, German and
Portuguese in Dade and Broward. It finally occured to me and please  correct
me if I am wrong, that" bilingual education" is a term of art describing
courses  offered to ESOL students in their native languages ,while they are
acquiring english skills.

The programs I was referring to are completly different, they are language
immersion programs. Meaning for example, that a child who speaks both
English and Creole can enroll in a Language Magnet program and study
Japenese ( which is actually one of the languagues offered in a majority
Haitian elementary school).  Children whose home language is English can
also enroll in these language immersion programs. The program is a result of
an agreement between the French, Spanish and German government with Dade
County Public Schools. The textbooks come directly from the home countries
and as far as the French program is concerned students are expected to take
the national exams in 12th grade.

Thus, my question about texbooks and other materials . While I am very
impressed with the list offered by Mr. Vedrine it still does not answer my
question about the availability of texbooks on subjects such as
Histoire-Geo, Physics etc.  in Creole. The books enumerated by Mr. Vedrine
deal mostly with Creole grammar and literature. My question to the experts
still stands, if Broward or Dade County Public schools were to offer Creole
in its roster of language immersion programs, do we have the textbooks
availble in Creole to meet the needs of enrollees from K-12?

Leonie

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