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Bilingualism in the Windy City: Universities Aim to Train More Bilingual Teachers

Written by contributing writer Adeshina Emmanuel, a recent ChalkBeat article discusses how five Chicago universities are teaming up to expand bilingual education in their state.

Bilingualism Matters, an international research center, is connecting with local Chicago universities in their endeavor to spread bilingual education. This collaboration involves “scientists and linguists” from Northwestern University, Loyola University Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University and the University of Chicago.

Professor Kim Potowski of the University of Illinois at Chicago, who we’ve written about previously, says “she envisions a Chicago where every child at every school is educated in multiple languages, and where Spanish isn’t the only foreign language taught at district dual-language programs.”

Still, as our blog has indicated before, the nationwide shortage of bilingual educators is felt keenly among communities wishing to initiate or support existing bilingual programs.

Bilingualism Matters specifically aspires to “raise awareness of bilingualism with educators, parents, and community groups [as well as] lobby for an expansion of bilingual education at local schools,” and importantly Bilingual Matters provides “guidance on helping bilingual children deal with pressure to abandon their home language.”

According to the article, it seems that the local universities in conjunction with Bilingualism Matters will “explore ways to help colleges and universities train bilingual teachers,” to counter the national shortage and better support future and established programs.

To conclude, Emmanuel references recent U.S. Census data, stating that approximately 2.5 million residents in the Chicago area “speak a language other than English at home,” illuminating that the potential for bilingual educators and bilingual students is there, merely waiting for the necessary programs to emerge.

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TWIN-CS

TWIN-CS advances the Catholic tradition of academic excellence by empowering Catholic schools to systematically transform from a monolingual to multilingual educational model in the service of vibrant culturally diverse populations.

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