Two Los Angeles Unified School District schools are serving as models for a planned expansion of the district's dual-language classes for transitional kindergarteners in the next school year that would take advantage of the pliable brains of young learners.

At Grand View Boulevard Elementary School in Mar Vista, class instructor Hillary Erlich teaches four-year-olds who are learning their letters, numbers, and colors like other preschoolers, but they're doing so in English and Spanish.

A third of Erlich's 24 students are primarily Spanish speakers, and the rest have another dominant language, usually English. 

"In the beginning, it’s a little confusing for them," said Erlich. "Because they're only four when they start, in the very beginning of the year, there's a lot of translating, and then gradually, it's less English, and almost all Spanish."

Three of the preschoolers in her class help illustrate the varying levels of language proficiency that Erlich sees at the beginning of the school year. Isabelle spoke mostly Spanish, Ariana was already bilingual in Spanish and English, and Leia had some proficiency in English and Mandarin.

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