MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — Within the Waco Independent School District, there are 31 different languages spoken, and more than 60 percent of students are Hispanic.
To help make young students' lives easier, Waco ISD held an emergent bilingual program for students who have trouble speaking English.
- The district has held a summer emergent bilingual program for the past five years.
- The program has educators teach Pre-K and Kindergarteners English before the school year.
- It’s a program that gives bilingual students the opportunity to slow down and learn more English during the summer.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Waco ISD Pre-K and Kindergarteners are spending the month of June learning a new language.
Within the Waco Independent School district, there are 31 different languages spoken, and more than 60 percent of students are Hispanic.
“The house rules for Hispanics is always you speak Spanish at home and at school is where you speak English,” Sarah Barahona Gomez said.
Barahona Gomez is an Emergent Bilingual Tutor — when she was younger she partook in English language learning classes at Waco ISD, and now’s she’s a pivotal part of the school emergent bilingual program.
“This is a program for them to grow and to be the sponges that they are and more, not just in school, but also throughout the summer, so they can continue growing and learning more things,” Barahona Gomez said.
It’s a program that gives bilingual students the opportunity to slow down and learn more English.
Barahona Gomez says the extra summer help gives the children more confidence in school, and prepares them for their future.
“At the beginning, maybe they speak a lick of English or from what they’ve learned during the school year, then at the end of the summer, they’re telling you like, full on sentences,” she said.
