Spanish Immersion

Parent Handbook

77 Reade Street

New York, New York 10007

(212) 513-PRE-K (7735)

104 Reade Street

New York, New York 10013

(212) 346-PREP (7737)

info@rsprep.com

Table of Contents

Welcome 1

Relevant Research 2 The Bilingual Advantage [The New York Times]

Study Shows Cognitive Benefit of Lifelong Bilingualism [Society for Neuroscience]

Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages [TIME]

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter [The New York Times]

10 Reasons Why You Should Raise Your Kids To Be Bilingual [Thought Catalog]

Pronunciation Guide 8

At Home 9 Library

Kitchen

Media 13 Songs

Apps

Websites

Tips 14

1

Welcome

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Reade Street Prep’s Spanish Immersion

community! You have made an exciting and proactive decision by

enrolling your child in this program. Research demonstrates that

early foreign language acquisition enhances critical thinking skills,

promotes language fluency, and broadens cultural awareness; your

little one is sure to be prepared for a global future.

Throughout the upcoming year, our team of teachers will strive

to facilitate your child’s transition into the 500-million-member club

of Spanish speakers around the world. Although the program’s

success is not dependent on your participation, you may utilize this

handbook to supplement all schoolwork. Consult it often throughout

the year!

As always, feel free to reach out to me or your teachers with

any questions that you may have. I look forward to a most

successful year!

Sincerely,

Natalie

Director, Reade Street Prep

2

Relevant Research

http://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/news/bilingual-kids-get-a-boost-benefits-of-in-home-speech-therapy-for-multiple-languages/

http://www.brainfacts.org/sensing-thinking-behaving/language/articles/2008/the-bilingual-brain/

Brain scans of bilingual individuals found greater gray-matter density (yellow) in

the inferior parietal cortex, an area in the brain’s left hemisphere that controls

most language, communication, and concentration skills. The density was

most pronounced in people who were very proficient in a second language

and in those who learned a second language before the age of five,

suggesting that being bilingual from an early age significantly alters the brain’s

structure.

3

The Bilingual Advantage

The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31conversation.html

A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other

benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science.

Q. How did you begin studying bilingualism? A. You know, I didn’t start trying to find out whether bilingualism was bad or good. I did my doctorate in psychology: on

how children acquire language. When I finished graduate school, in 1976, there was a job shortage in Canada for Ph.D.’s.

The only position I found was with a research project studying second language acquisition in school children. It wasn’t my

area. But it was close enough.

As a psychologist, I brought neuroscience questions to the study, like “How does the acquisition of a second language

change thought?” It was these types of questions that naturally led to the bilingualism research. The way research works is,

it takes you down a road. You then follow that road.

Q. So what exactly did you find on this unexpected road? A. As we did our research, you could see there was a big difference in the way monolingual and bilingual children

processed language. We found that if you gave 5- and 6-year-olds language problems to solve, monolingual and bilingual

children knew, pretty much, the same amount of language.

But on one question, there was a difference. We asked all the children if a certain illogical sentence was grammatically

correct: “Apples grow on noses.” The monolingual children couldn’t answer. They’d say, “That’s silly” and they’d stall.

But the bilingual children would say, in their own words, “It’s silly, but it’s grammatically correct.” The bilinguals, we

found, manifested a cognitive system with the ability to attend to important information and ignore the less important.

Q. How does this work — do you understand it? A. Yes. There’s a system in your brain, the executive control system. It’s a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused

on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your

mind at one time and switch between them.

If you have two languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain’s networks work is that every time you speak,

both languages pop up and the executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to what’s relevant in the

moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that system more, and it’s that regular use that makes that system more efficient.

Q. One of your most startling recent findings is that bilingualism helps forestall the symptoms of Alzheimer’s

disease. How did you come to learn this? A. We did two kinds of studies. In the first, published in 2004, we found that normally aging bilinguals had better cognitive

functioning than normally aging monolinguals. Bilingual older adults performed better than monolingual older adults on

executive control tasks. That was very impressive because it didn’t have to be that way. It could have turned out that

everybody just lost function equally as they got older.

That evidence made us look at people who didn’t have normal cognitive function. In our next studies , we looked at the

medical records of 400 Alzheimer’s patients. On average, the bilinguals showed Alzheimer’s symptoms five or six years

later than those who spoke only one language. This didn’t mean that the bilinguals didn’t have Alzheimer’s. It meant that as

the disease took root in their brains, they were able to continue functioning at a higher level. They could cope with the

disease for longer.

Q. One would think bilingualism might help with multitasking — does it? A. Yes, multitasking is one of the things the executive control system handles. We wondered, “Are bilinguals better at

multitasking?” So we put monolinguals and bilinguals into a driving simulator. Through headphones, we gave them extra

tasks to do — as if they were driving and talking on cellphones. We then measured how much worse their driving got.

Now, everybody’s driving got worse. But the bilinguals, their driving didn’t drop as much. Because adding on another task

while trying to concentrate on a driving problem, that’s what bilingualism gives you — though I wouldn’t advise doing

this.

Q. Bilingualism used to be considered a negative thing — at least in the United States. Is it still? A. Until about the 1960s, the conventional wisdom was that bilingualism was a disadvantage. Some of this was

xenophobia. Thanks to science, we now know that the opposite is true.

Q. Many immigrants choose not to teach their children their native language. Is this a good thing? A. I’m asked about this all the time. People e-mail me and say, “I’m getting married to someone from another culture, what

should we do with the children?” I always say, “You’re sitting on a potential gift.”

There are two major reasons people should pass their heritage language onto children. First, it connects children to their

ancestors. The second is my research: Bilingualism is good for you. It makes brains stronger. It is brain exercise.

4

Study Shows Cognitive Benefit of Lifelong Bilingualism

Society for Neuroscience http://www.sfn.org/Press-Room/News-Release-Archives/2013/Study-Shows-Cognitive-Benefit-of-Lifelong-Bilingualism

Seniors who have spoken two languages since childhood are faster than single-language speakers at

switching from one task to another, according to a study published in the January 9 issue of The

Journal of Neuroscience. Compared to their monolingual peers, lifelong bilinguals also show different

patterns of brain activity when making the switch, the study found.

The findings suggest the value of regular stimulating mental activity across the lifetime. As people age,

cognitive flexibility — the ability to adapt to unfamiliar or unexpected circumstances — and related

“executive” functions decline. Recent studies suggest lifelong bilingualism may reduce this decline —

a boost that may stem from the experience of constantly switching between languages. However, how

brain activity differs between older bilinguals and monolinguals was previously unclear.

In the current study, Brian T. Gold, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Kentucky College of

Medicine, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the brain activity of healthy

bilingual seniors (ages 60-68) with that of healthy monolingual seniors as they completed a task that

tested their cognitive flexibility. The researchers found that both groups performed the task accurately.

However, bilingual seniors were faster at completing the task than their monolingual peers despite

expending less energy in the frontal cortex — an area known to be involved in task switching.

“This study provides some of the first evidence of an association between a particular cognitively

stimulating activity — in this case, speaking multiple languages on a daily basis — and brain

function,” said John L. Woodard, PhD, an aging expert from Wayne State University, who was not

involved with the study. “The authors provide clear evidence of a different pattern of neural

functioning in bilingual versus monolingual individuals.”

The researchers also measured the brain activity of younger bilingual and monolingual adults while

they performed the cognitive flexibility task.

Overall, the young adults were faster than the seniors at performing the task. Being bilingual did not

affect task performance or brain activity in the young participants. In contrast, older bilinguals

performed the task faster than their monolingual peers and expended less energy in the frontal parts of

their brain.

“This suggests that bilingual seniors use their brains more efficiently than monolingual seniors,” Gold

said. “Together, these results suggest that lifelong bilingualism may exert its strongest benefits on the

functioning of frontal brain regions in aging.”

This research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Science

Foundation.

The Journal of Neuroscience is published by the Society for Neuroscience, an organization nearly

42,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and nervous system. More information on

aging, bilingualism, and the brain can be found on BrainFacts.org.

5

Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages

TIME http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/23/bilingualism/

Learning to speak was the most remarkable thing you ever did. It wasn’t just the 50,000 words you had to

master to become fluent or the fact that for the first six years of your life you learned about three new words per day.

It was the tenses and the syntax and the entire scaffolding of grammar, not to mention the metaphors and allusions

and the almost-but-not-quite synonyms.

But you accomplished it, and good for you. Now imagine doing it 2 or 3 times over — becoming bilingual,

trilingual or more. The mind of the polyglot is a very particular thing, and scientists are only beginning to look

closely at how acquiring a second language influences learning, behavior and the very structure of the brainitself. At a

bilingualism conference last weekend convened by the Lycée Français de New York, where all students learn in both

English and French, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, language experts gathered to explore where the

science stands so far and where it’s heading next (disclosure: my children are LFNY students).

Humans are crude linguists from the moment of birth — and perhaps even in the womb — to the extent at

least that we can hear spoken sounds and begin to recognize different combinations language sounds. At first, we

don’t much care which of these phonemes from which languages we absorb, which makes sense since the brain has to

be ready to learn any of the world’s thousands of languages depending on where we’re born.

“Before 9 months of age, a baby produces a babble made up of hundreds of phonemes from hundreds of

languages,” said Elisabeth Cros, a speech therapist with the Ecole Internationale de New York. “Parents will react to

the phonemes they recognize from their native tongues, which reinforces the baby’s use of those selected ones.”

Doubling down on a pair of languages rather than just one does take extra work, but it’s work young children

are generally not aware they’re doing. Bilingual people of all ages are continually addressing what research

psychologist Ellen Bialystok of Toronto’s York University calls the dog-chien dilemma, encountering an object,

action or concept and instantaneously toggling between two different words to describe it. Such nimble

decisionmaking ought to improve on-the-fly problem solving, and studies show that it does.

Language researchers often point to the famed Stroop test, which asks subjects to look at the word red, for example,

which is presented in an ink of a different color, say blue. Then they are required to say aloud or identify on a

computer the ink color. That requires an additional fraction of a second to accomplish than if both the word and ink

color were the same. Everyone experiences that lag, but for bilinguals it’s measurably shorter. “Monolinguals always

need more time,” Bialystok says. “It’s a lifelong advantage for bilinguals.”

Excelling on the Stroop test is hardly a marketable skill, but what it suggests about the brain is something

else. Sean Lynch, headmaster of the LFNY, previously worked in a multilingual school in France in which all of the

students spoke French and at least one of 12 other languages, including Japanese, Russian, Italian and Spanish. As is

often the case with well-endowed schools, the students, on average, outperformed their age peers academically, and

it’s impossible to determine how much of that is due to native skill and how much to the fact that they simply have

access to better teachers, books and other resources. Still, Lynch observed that these students seemed to show a

greater facility with skills that relied on interpreting symbolic representations, such as math or music.

Lynch also believes — albeit based primarily on his own observations — that multilingual kids may exhibit

social empathy sooner than children who grow up speaking only one language, which makes developmental sense.

The theory of mind — understanding that what’s in your head is not the same as what’s in other people’s heads —

does not emerge in children until they’re about 3 years old. Prior to that, they assume that if, say, they know a secret

you probably do too. There’s a kind of primal narcissism in this — a belief that their worldview is the universal one.

Once they learn that’s not the case, self-centeredness falls away — at least a little — and the long process of true

socialization begins. There’s nothing that accelerates the acquisition of that kind of other-awareness like the

realization that even the very words you use to label the things in your world — dog, tree, banana — are not the same

ones everyone uses.

Preliminary imaging work suggests that the roots of this behavior may even be visible in the brain. Some

studies, for example, have shown a thickening of the cortex in two brain regions — most importantly the left inferior

parietal, which helps code for language and gesturing. Bialystok is not entirely sold on these studies, since she would

expect the greatest differences to be in the frontal lobes, where higher functions such as planning, decision-making

and other aspects of what’s known as executive control take place. Some of her own work has found an increase in

white matter — the fatty sheathing that insulates nerves and improves their ability to communicate — in the frontal

regions of bilinguals, suggesting denser signaling and complexity of functions in these areas. “Structural differences

are where the new science is really unfolding,” she says. “That work will reveal a lot.”

6

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

Sunday Review: The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?_r=0

SPEAKING two languages rather than just one has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world.

But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than

being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a

profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old

age.

This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the understanding of bilingualism through much of the 20th century.

Researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking,

that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.

They were not wrong about the interference: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual’s brain both language

systems are active even when he is using only one language, thus creating situations in which one system obstructs the

other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn’t so much a handicap as a blessing in disguise. It forces the

brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a

2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were

asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue

square and the other marked with a red circle.

In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by color, placing blue circles in the bin marked with the blue

square and red squares in the bin marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with comparable ease. Next, the children

were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a bin marked with a

conflicting color. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s

so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving

problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay

focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a

sequence of directions while driving.

Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition?

Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed

by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to

ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown

that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an

ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.

The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the

environment. “Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often — you may talk to your father in one language and to your

mother in another language,” says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. “It requires

keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.” In a study

comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found

that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in

monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that

it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).

In a 2009 study led by Agnes Kovacs of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 7-month-old babies

exposed to two languages from birth were compared with peers raised with one language. In an initial set of trials, the

infants were presented with an audio cue and then shown a puppet on one side of a screen. Both infant groups learned to

look at that side of the screen in anticipation of the puppet. But in a later set of trials, when the puppet began appearing on

the opposite side of the screen, the babies exposed to a bilingual environment quickly learned to switch their anticipatory

gaze in the new direction while the other babies did not.

Bilingualism’s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English

bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that

individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism — measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each

language — were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease: the

higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset.

Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who would have imagined that the words we hear and the

sentences we speak might be leaving such a deep imprint?

7

10 Reasons Why You Should Raise Your Kids To Be Bilingual

Thought Catalog http://thoughtcatalog.com/christina-craver/2013/12/10-reasons-why-you-should-raise-your-kids-bilingual/

I grew up in a multicultural household. My Mom is Thai and my Dad’s American. Like so many kids of

“immigrant” parents, my mom wanted to assimilate into American society. Translation: speaking English. Sure, growing

up we went to Thai school and mouthed words for a few years, but with no practice at home we fell behind - and ultimately

broke our Mom with our shrill pleas not to have to go anymore.

Today, I still don’t speak Thai - beyond “hi,” “thank you,” and “I need to go to the bathroom,” that is. I instead

took up Italian as both as an undergraduate and graduate student; I now live and work in Italy. I speak Italian in my day-

to-day life as a way to assimilate into the local culture…how ironic!

If there’s one thing I wish I had understood from a young age, it is the importance of multilingualism. As a way of

rectifying this grave oversight, I’ve made a promise to myself that my kids, regardless of when I have them, where I live, if

I’m a single, if I adopt, and so on and so forth, will grow up bilingual. Here’s why:

1. Opportunity.

Knowing a second language can open up the world to you – for work, for friendship, even for love. Life is about

connecting with people, and knowing another language sure does facilitate that.

2. Creativity.

Once upon a time, people thought bilingual kids were disadvantaged. You’d ask them to name all words starting

with “p” in one language and they’d be slower than monolingual kids in responding. But, if you tell them to

name all words with “p” in any language – they began spouting out words, left and right. This ability to unlock

parts of the brain exemplifies the creativity from inner corners of the brain that may otherwise fill with cobwebs.

3. Expression.

Sometimes, there’s just no way to articulate yourself – other than in a specific language. Saying “pig dog” in

English sounds just ridiculous but if you yell “porco cane” in Italian it takes on a whole different meaning.

4. Ability.

Learning a second language from the cradle makes it that much easier to add more languages. I’ve made friends

who grew up in bilingual households, then added 1, 2, 3 or more languages in school and college. I can’t even

begin to describe the burning jealousy I have when I see them spin around in a circle speaking a different

language to everyone around them.

5. Flexibility.

It’s difficult to be perfectly fluent in two languages. Usually, people are more dominant in one or the other. This

means you have to improvise, or even find a work-around, in order to get your point across. These are skills that

are very handy for all aspects of life.

6. Heritage.

One day, my mom said, “If you don’t learn Thai, that part of your culture will end with you.” This left me

floored. It’s true. Unless I learn Thai or pass it onto my kids, that part of my lineage will become family legend.

7. Multiculturalism.

Even if you’re not ethnically mixed, knowing another language gives you access to other cultures and

perspectives through books, television, film and travel.

8. Growth.

When you do and see things differently, it’s impossible not to grow as a person. We never stop learning.

Another language exponentially increases your ability to grow as a person.

9. Travel.

Of course, this is subjective on where you want to travel and what languages you learn. Knowing common

languages like Mandarin, English, French, or Spanish simply makes it easier to get around.

10. Music.

Music is life. It’s emotion. It’s expression. The ability to enjoy music in various languages AND understand

what in the world they’re saying is a true gift.

8

Pronunciation Guide

The decoding of Spanish words is relatively simple and predictable.

With few exceptions, each letter in the Spanish alphabet represents a

single sound; even when there are several possible sounds, simple rules

can reliably dictate which one is appropriate.

See below for details on the pronunciation of vowels and

diphthongs in the Spanish language; consonants remain fairly

straightforward.

A

/a/ in father

Ex: adelante, madre, gracias, hola

E

/e/ in ten

Ex: emociones, madre

I

/ee/ in feet

Ex: amigo, amiga

/y/ in you, when immediately followed by another vowel

Ex: familia

O

/o/ in more, without the /r/ sound

Ex: comunidad, hola

U

/oo/ in pool

Ex: unidos, uno

/w/ in water, when immediately followed by another vowel

Ex: abuela, cuerpo, cuaderno

Y

/ee/ in feet, when:

a word by itself

Ex: y

at the end of a word

Ex: rey, soy

in the middle of a compound word

Ex: solymar

/ ʝ /

Although there is no English equivalent for this voiced palatal

fricative, it somewhat resembles a vibrating /y/ sound. Visit

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_palatal fricative for a soundbyte.

Ex: reyes, ayudar, yeso

9

At Home

Library

In the interest of precluding an association between Spanish and

English, Reade Street Prep does not allow bilingual books in the

classroom. Nevertheless, the following list of books may be wonderful

contributions to your home libraries; use them to not only reinforce, but

also participate in, the linguistic progress that your child is making at

school.

A is for Airplane / A es Para Avion By Theresa Howell

The Cat in the Hat: In English and Spanish By Dr. Seuss and Carlos Rivera

10

Jorge El Curioso Visita El Acuario / Curious George at the Aquarium By H. A. Rey

La Oruga Muy Hambrienta / The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle

Mi Primer Libro Bilingue: La Comida / My First Bilingual Book: Food By Mar Andres Thomas

11

Perro Grande…Perro Pequeno / Big Dog…Little Dog By P.D. Eastman

Pocoyó: Primeras Palabras By Zinkia

Quiero a Mi Papa Porque / I Love My Daddy Because By Laurel Porter

12

Rainbow Fish Colors / Colores By Marcus Pfister

Kitchen

You may also want to infuse your home kitchen with elements of

the cuisine that is enjoyed in Spanish-speaking countries. By creating

authentic dishes with your children, you will further instill an appreciation

for the culture in their minds – and their bellies!

A Taste of Latino Cultures: Un Toque de Sabor Latino By George Kunzel

Secrets of Salsa: A Bilingual Cookbook By Kira Brennan and Julia Alvarez

13

Media

Songs

Listen to music in Spanish while working out, commuting, or relaxing

around the house. Regular activities can soon become multi-tasking

opportunities for language development!

Download TuneIn Radio to access over 100,000 real radio

stations from around the world. You can even browse by location!

Cha, Cha, Cha [Canciones Infantiles]

Fiesta! [Sesame Street]

Latin Playground [Putamayo Presents]

Spanish for Kids: Sabor [Jorge Anaya]

Apps

Quit Candy Crush and open up one of these apps! Each time you

or your little one taps that iPad screen, you’ll be taking a step towards

language proficiency.

Cute Baby Flash Cards: Spanish [United Worx, Ltd.]

Duolingo Spanish

MindSnacks

Spanish Baby Flash Cards: Kids Learn Spanish [eFlash Educational]

Websites

Consult the following websites for general information on Spanish

pronunciation, resources, and culture.

www.wordreference.com

www.studyspanish.com

http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/resources/spanish/articles/hist

ory-of-spanish-language/

www.rosettastone.com

14

Tips

Master a few simple words or phrases, then use them during daily

routines or errands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsJaUXProD4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5N_j1KEkHg

Watching movies in Spanish with English subtitles can help you

become more familiar with not only the language, but also the

culture.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Moles

The Motorcycle Diaries

Planes

Spanish is widely spoken in New York City; visit local businesses to

practice conversational skills with native speakers.

Listen to music in Spanish while working out, commuting, or relaxing

around the house. Regular activities can soon become multi-tasking

opportunities for language development!

Practice, practice, practice! Even one mispronounced word is a step

towards partnering with your child as language learners.