Re: how bilingual do I need to be?

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Hi,
I'm a bilingual teacher in New Jersey and in order to be a
bilingual teacher you need to be completely fluent in English
and the students' native language. That means that you must be
able to speak both languages fluently as well as reading and
writing. I don't know how it works in other states but here you
need to pass written and oral proficiency tests in both
languages before obtaining your license as a bilingual teacher.
Also, let's say you get lucky and pass the tests, it would be
very hard (if not impossible) to perform your job duties as a
bilingual teacher if you're not fluent. I would recommend for
you to go for the ESL certification. You don't need to be
bilingual to teach ESL or obtain certification. I think there's
also a high demand for ESL teachers out there. Hope this helps.

On 9/14/09, East End Long Islander wrote:
> I work as a para in a bilingual class (Spanish-English) and my
> TEACHER is native-Spanish speaking ... she floats in and out
> of it constantly to help the students, and conducts the
> "morning meeting" in Spanish. It helps tremendously when she
> deals with the parents; she writes the weekly newsletter in
> Spanish, and all our worksheets and posters and signs in the
> room are in both languages. I do NOT speak Spanish, other
> than a smattering of words I've picked up since my ONE year
> of freshman Spanish over 35 years ago! I can read it a bit,
> and I know where to translate phrases and words in the 'net
> ...
>
> The ESL teachers do NOT have to speak the language fluently,
> because they are teaching ENGLISH to non-English-speaking
> children.... (they have Spanish, Chinese, etc.) ... but the
> BILINGUAL teachers MUST be able to fluently speak Spanish.
>
> IT may be different elsewhere, but that's how it's done by us
 

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