Some 6-year-olds in Provo schools could soon be learning to read, write and do arithmetic in Chinese.

Provo School District recently received a six-year grant to start an immersion program in Chinese at Wasatch Elementary School, across the street from Brigham Young University. Children in select classrooms will learn most of their subjects in Chinese, beginning in kindergarten or first grade, through the end of sixth grade. The school has a year to research curriculum and set up the program, which is slated to begin in the fall of 2009.

"Think of the cultural opportunities," said Todd Billings, Provo School District's curriculum director.

Chinese immersion programs have never been tried in Utah until now. Wasatch's program will be the only Chinese program in Provo, though immersion programs are not new to the district. Timpanogos Elementary School has had a dual immersion program in Spanish for eight years. Students learn in English for a number of days or weeks depending on the grade level, then switch to Spanish and then switch back. The Timpanogos program has a dual purpose: to help English language learners adapt and to help English-speaking students learn to speak Spanish.

Diane Bridge, principal of Timpanogos Elementary, said many students leaving the program are fluent in two languages; they are as comfortable in one as they are in the other.

"A lot of our students leave truly bilingual," Bridge said.

Wasatch Elementary is home to a diverse population. Wasatch Principal Colleen Densley said the school hangs a flag in the hallway for each country from which its students originate, and now there are nearly 550. Densley said the Chinese flag was one of the school's very first, so a Chinese program is very fitting for the school, though there are not enough native Chinese speakers to constitute a dual need like the Spanish program at Timpanogos.

"This one is one that really would meet the needs of many of our children," Densley said.

Diversity aside, learning a second language at 5 years old can help students in more ways than one.

"It further develops the language center for their brains," Densley said.

Densley also cited research she's read that found that students in language immersion programs may fall behind at first, but they soon catch up with and exceed their peers.

Chinese in particular can help students understand the culture of the world's most populous country and one of the nation's vital trading partners.

"The more people that understand the language and culture of China, the more [it] will benefit the country," said Dana Bourgerie, an associate professor of Chinese at Brigham Young University who plans to help Wasatch develop its program.

• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549.