LOS ANGELES – The Valencia-Fragas household is a mix of cultures and languages embodied in 3-year-old Adan Fragas.

"How do you say blue in Spanish?" Adan's mother, Edith Valencia, asks him, pointing to a bright blue train in a picture book.

"Azul," he answers quickly. Then, he looks around the room, waves and says, "Hi."

Adan speaks English with his father, who is of Hawaiian descent, and Spanish with his mother, whose heritage is Mexican.

That ease with both languages pleases Valencia. When Adan is ready for kindergarten, she wants him to attend one of the first dual language immersion campuses in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles – St. Joan of Arc Dual Language Academy in West Los Angeles. There, he will learn to read, speak and write in English and Spanish.

St. Joan of Arc and All Souls in Alhambra, both closed due to declining enrollment, will reopen this fall as the first dual language schools in the archdiocese. Though not new in public education, such programs are rare in Catholic schools. If they are successful, they could become a model.

"It's part of who we are, our culture," Valencia said of the Spanish her parents spoke to her after they had migrated as teenagers to Los Angeles from Mexico.

"I'm close to my roots even though I didn't grow up in Mexico. I know where my parents came from. ... It's something you can easily overlook and forget. But it's part of who we are and who he is," she added.

Both schools will offer English and Spanish in kindergarten. All Souls also will offer an English/Mandarin program. The diocese will add new grade levels each year.

"We've got to be sure to have kids who are truly bilingual and biliterate," said Kevin Baxter, superintendent of elementary schools in the archdiocese.

The region's demographics drove the decision, he said.

"Spanish is obviously a natural for us here in Los Angeles," Baxter added.

Los Angeles isn't the only archdiocese making the move to dual language education. The Archdiocese of Baltimore opened its first dual-language elementary school last fall, and Catholic scholars have made such programs a goal.

Dual language learning helps Catholic schools with recruiting and retaining Latino students – a challenge as schools became more tuition-driven and programs did not respond culturally and linguistically to diversity, said Martin Scanlan, assistant professor of education at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Scanlan said the new programs may be bellwethers of what is to come in Catholic education. "It's a strong move by the diocese," he said.

Dual language programs require diligence, experts said.

A balance of speakers of each language is essential to avoid domination by one group, said Rosalie Pedalino Porter, a former bilingual teacher on the board of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. In addition, parents must realize that some students initially may not read at grade level.

"In the long term, they will be ahead of their classmates because they will be competent in two languages," she said.

Meanwhile, dual language education in public schools is growing, said Julie Sugarman, research associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C. The center's database lists 386 two-way immersion programs, but there are more, Sugarman said.

For St. Joan of Arc, the transition will change the parish school to a language academy under the guidance of the archdiocese with a citywide reach, said Janina Brzechwa-White, chairwoman of St. Joan of Arc's board.

"We are going very far beyond our parish boundaries in terms of recruitment," Brzechwa-White said.

She said families seeking out the school include some with a Spanish-speaking heritage and others who see the business value of learning Spanish.

To help with the transition, school officials have been working with Olga Moraga, assistant director of bilingual education at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Moraga said finding bilingual teachers who can communicate with children who initially do not understand one of the languages is critical.

"They have to make that content comprehensible to the students," Moraga said. "They have to use pictures or motion or any kind of strategies to make sure the student is understanding what they're saying. It's a lot more work."

Learning Mandarin or Spanish will not come at the expense of mastering English, said Thomas Delgado, All Souls' board member and a retired principal for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"The students need to have the strongest English language skills," Delgado said.

Valencia, an accounting specialist, said a dual language school will suit her son Adan because she knows becoming bilingual early is helpful in life. She often has been the only bilingual person at work.

"It's been extremely beneficial to me in my career," she said. "It's a very important aspect of living in L.A."

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Marisa Agha is a journalist based in Southern California.

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