By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

Father of the modern dictionary, Noah Webster is credited with saying, “Language, as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God.”

Members of Jacksonville High School’s class of 2008 — both Spanish- and English-speakers — got to fortify that gift at an early age, thanks to the Lord and JISD’s Dual Language program. Forty-four Jacksonville students started the program in Kindergarten. Twenty-seven of them graduated on Friday.

But proper verb usage wasn’t the only thing students in the program ended up learning.

“When I got to the first grade I never read one book,” JHS Dual Language student Juan Ornelas said. “I was just bad at it. But I worked at it as I went through the program and by the second grade, I was reading all kinds of things and acing all my AR tests.

“I was truly amazed — it was, like, wow, I can do this, especially when I graduated to the more grown-up, thicker books.”

Ornelas admits he doesn’t have much time to do a lot of extra-curricular reading, but, he said he’s really glad he mastered the skill in both Spanish and English.

“It’s interesting to think I can express myself in two languages,” he said. “A lot of people can’t say that.”

As a graduate of the Dual Language program, Rosalio Alvarez said he came away with not just a deeper understanding of the English language, but also with a deeper love for his first language.

“I kept up with my Spanish at home,” Alvarez said. “A lot of my friends didn’t. I wanted to keep my first language because it makes me feel closer to my family’s heritage.”

Alvarez’s parents both hailed from Mexico before immigrating to the U.S., and didn’t know any English at all when they got here, he said.

“It was hard for them, so I understood the importance of learning English better, but I also feel like my roots are important, too,” he said.

Both students are eager about the possibilities becoming bilingual will open for them in the future. Both aim to enter the business field after college, and both expressed an interest in learning more languages as they continue their educations.

“I’ve actually started learning French,” Alvarez said. “I’ve always wanted to visit France.”

Ornelas confessed an interest in learning Japanese.

“There’s not a lot of opportunity for that in this area, but hopefully, in the future, I’ll get the chance,” he said.

Since its inception in 1995, the Dual Language program has become the model for similar programs all over the nation, according to school officials, and is still offered at Fred Douglass Elementary School in Jacksonville.

The program centers around the total immersion in both languages — into English for the Spanish-speakers and into Spanish for the English-speakers.

“The expectations for students were high, but this was a most challenging class,” the program’s original Spanish-speaking teacher, Maria Sheffield said. “They required lots of enrichment, extension and kept me on my toes.

“It was a wonderful experience, one in which I have fond memories of both students and coworkers.”

Sheffield is now teaching at the Fort Worth school district.

Shelia Harvey, the program’s original English-speaking teacher, added, “There was no model to follow — we followed the regular curriculum and made modifications to fit the needs of our students.”

Each teacher had 22 students that concentrated on one language for two days a week, and then the other for two days a week. Fridays, both groups got together to do a half-day of each language.

Harvey remembers how the classes used centers and stations and focused on how the students interacted with one another while they learned not only their primary language skills, but also the secondary language, as it was added.

“It was a lot,” Harvey said, “but the students were just great. They were so excited about learning.”

The students enrolled in the program weren’t the only ones to gain and grow from the experience.

Terry Orr, a parent of one of the program’s students, has been involved in the program since day one.

“The concept was good,” Orr said. “Learning another language helps keep kids well-rounded, and it promotes thinking in different ways — to think more outside the box.

“Because I was involved in this with my child, I learned more too,” Orr said. “In fact, it inspired me to go back to college and get my teaching certificate, and now I’m teaching at the high school.”