"Speaking in Tongues" documentary

A few months ago, I went to a screening of the documentary "Speaking in Tongues" about four students who attend public school in San Francisco where the primary language of instruction is not in English.  Two of the students learn to speak, read and write in Mandarin, one learns in Cantonese, and one student learns in Spanish.

The two students learning in Mandarin come from families that are non-Asian.  They get exposed to a new community and culture, among other things.  The girl learning in Cantonese deepens the connection with other members of her family, particularly her grandmother, in a way that her English-only speaking parents and siblings do not.  The boy learning in Spanish comes from a family where Spanish is the main language spoken at home.

I was most surprised at how he benefited from learning in Spanish at school.  Apparently, many kids who speak a non-English language at home will lose fluency in their native language.  Studying in Spanish helped this boy not only strengthen, but also increase his proficiency in both Spanish and English.

The "Speaking in Tongues" web site has a bunch of short videos "highlighting key issues in multilingualism".  They seem to touch on many of the topics the film addresses.  There are also a couple of pages listing Myths & Realities about bilingual education.  The site has a link for finding screenings of the film, but there aren't that many upcoming screenings.