Lakes International Language Academy (LILA) is a

language immersion Language immersion, or simply immersion, is a technique used in bilingual language education in which two languages are used for instruction in a variety of topics, including math, science, or social studies. The languages used for instruction ...

school located in

Forest Lake, Minnesota Forest Lake is a city in Washington County, Minnesota, United States, located 27 miles northeast of Saint Paul. The population was 20,611 at the 2020 census. The 2021 population is 20,608. History Forest Lake began as a stop on the St. Paul ...

, USA. It is a public

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

and therefore does not charge for tuition, but there is an application for Kindergarten and the Upper School grades 6-12.

History

LILA was founded by a group of parent volunteers in September 2004. Since its inception, the school has offered a

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

immersion program and, in 2011, LILA expanded to include a

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

language program as well. Teachers plan and deliver lessons at LILA using primarily the target language, or

second language A person's second language, or L2, is a language that is not the native language (first language or L1) of the speaker, but is learned later. A second language may be a neighbouring language, another language of the speaker's home country, or a fo ...

. Teachers are either native speakers of the target language, or have acquired near-native speaking abilities. Subjects such as social studies, mathematics, science and technology, arts and physical education are taught in the second language.

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, including reading and writing, is introduced as a formal subject in second grade. In spring 2009, the

International Baccalaureate Organization The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...

(IBO) awarded LILA accreditation in its

International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is an educational programme managed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students in grades Kindergarten to Fifth grade. While the programme prepares students for the IB Middle Y ...

(PYP). The success of the program also spurred the Forest Lake school district to develop its own language immersion programs.Daarel Burnette II
"Cultural immersion in Forest Lake schools"
''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'', December 4, 2010. LILA expanded from Pre-K-6 to grades 7-8 in the 2015–2016 school year and added grades 9-12 in the 2016–2017 school year. Students in grades 6-12 (the "Upper School") have the option to take selected classes in their second language. All classes are also offered in English for students without immersion backgrounds or who choose not to continue immersion learning.

References

External links

Official website

The International Baccalaureate

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{{Authority control Public elementary schools in Minnesota Charter schools in Minnesota 2004 establishments in Minnesota