The ABCs of Hmong | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

The ABCs of Hmong | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics:

The ABCs of Hmong

Submitted by Momo Chang on December 20, 2012 - 1:59pm

 

• Education
 
• Culture
 
• Diaspora
 
• History
• Immigration
 
• Parenthood
 
• Social Issues
 
• dual language immersion
 
• Hmong immersion
 
• Lee Yang
• Sacramento
 
• Susan B. Anthony Elementary

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Ninety percent of instruction is in Hmong for kindergartners in the Hmong immersion program at Susan B. Anthony Elementary. Photo by Andria Lo.

The ABCs of Hmong

By Momo Chang

At Susan B. Anthony Elementary, Mr. Vue’s kindergarteners sit on a brightly colored carpet as they look up at him, repeating sounds of the alphabet.

“Ahhh, aaay, eeeh,” he sings as the children sing along. The sounds are not in English. The school, located in South Sacramento, is home to the only Hmong dual-language immersion program on the West Coast — and the second in the country after a similar program in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dual, or two-way, language immersion programs are ones where students learn English and another language with the goals of developing a high level of proficiency in both, academic