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Twelve-year-old Exsenhawer Tobon Galeano props himself on his elbow, scribbling out a dialogue that he will perform in a few minutes.

He and his partner work side by side in silence — a sharp contrast to their six other middle school classmates who are busy chattering away, mostly in Spanish.

It’s not unusual to hear foreign languages in this trailer classroom at Gardner Park Elementary. The students have been placed here in the Gaston schools’ “Newcomer Center” program because they’ve all come to the United States within the past year with little or no English.

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