Two-Way Bilingual Immersion

Spanish Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Program

We live in a global society.  Being bilingual gives people a whole other set of language skills that give them a competitive edge when seeking employment or interacting with people of other cultures.  A student who has learned to be biliterate and bilingual in another language has a whole other world opened up for them both in experiences and opportunities.

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion) (TWBI) is an instructional program that develops bilingualism and biliteracy in two languages by integrating native English speakers and native speakers of another language (Spanish).  Students in the Two-Way program receive instruction in two languages, one language at a time.

The TWBI program at Bachrodt has students placed in a classroom that teaches primarily in Spanish in the Kindergarten to 1st grades (90% of the day).  The students are placed in a class where 50% of the students are native Spanish speakers and 50% of the students are native English speakers.  This gives students the opportunity to have language models in both languages to support learning of the respective languages.

The program decreases the percentage of Spanish Language taught in the day and increases the amount of English taught in each grade level after 1st grade until it reaches a 50/50 model in 4th grade.  Because of this fact, it is important that the students who enroll in the program continue it through.  It takes 5-7 years to learn a 2nd language at a proficient, academically-strong level.

There is plenty of research demonstrating that students who remain committed in the TWBI program typically do better than their native-English-speaking counterparts and significantly better than their peers who drop out early of the program.

We applaud you for seeking out information about the possibility of giving your child the wonderful gift of bilingualism!

Learn more at go.sjusd.org/twbi

TWBI Orientation Program English | Spanish