This week, C&I Associate Professor Diane Tedick, Second Languages and Cultures, was featured in a Voice of OC article on a proposal for a new Vietnamese language immersion program.
A 2006 study found that the local Vietnamese community in Southern California may be losing its language. The study showed that this language loss is occurring in one to two generations, among the shortest in time frame of all the groups studied. That is why a group of Vietnamese parents are petitioning for the state’s first Vietnamese-English dual immersion program.
Tedick weighed in on the benefits of bi-literacy citing five decades of research. From the article:
“Consider,” Tedick said, “that while nationwide the dropout rates for Latino students are higher than for other ethnic groups, studies show that Latinos in two-way programs have more positive attitudes toward school, say good grades are important, want to go to college and believe a good education will lead to a better life.”
Read the full article on voiceofoc.org.