Language Immersion Services for Students in Alexandria, VA: Unlocking the Benefits of Multilingualism

The Alexandria Public Schools (APS) program is designed to provide students with an enriched educational experience, enabling them to reach high levels of proficiency in both English and Spanish.

Dual language immersion

is an educational model that focuses on developing students' oral expression, reading, writing, and listening comprehension skills in both languages. Teachers provide the same basic APS content and curriculum standards as traditional classrooms, while also providing instruction in two languages. AP's Chinese language and culture program focuses on perfecting reading, writing, and listening skills in Chinese. Students can apply for the program after kindergarten, but they must demonstrate that they have participated in a similar immersion program in another school division or that they are fluent in Spanish.

Siblings of students currently enrolled in an elementary immersion program have priority so that they can attend the same school. As students review key concepts, they focus on developing communicative competence when writing and speaking. Primary dual language immersion is offered at Claremont Immersion Elementary School and Francis Scott Key Elementary School. In addition to learning more complex grammatical structures, students will also increase their vocabulary to enrich and improve their communication skills in Spanish. Students develop a solid and comprehensive foundation in the target language in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

At AP Spanish Language and Culture, students hone their language skills with an emphasis on improving their oral expression. In the French III course, students continue to focus on developing communicative competence in the target language while improving their productive and receptive skills. In a FLES class, the language itself is the subject of instruction and the focus is on basic oral communication skills in Spanish. At FCPS, students spend half the day learning math, science, and health in French, German, Japanese, Korean, or Spanish. Mount Vernon Community School's Mount Vernon Dual Language Program website at 2601 Commonwealth Avenue Alexandria, VA 22305 703-706-4460 provides further information about the program. In line with the vision of Alexandria's public schools, the Dual Language Program strives to empower all students to thrive in a diverse and ever-changing world by promoting racial equity, multiculturalism, and multilingualism.