Print  email 

Schools report resurgence of foreign-language courses

Children from kindergarten to sixth grade attend Spanish class

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published March 16, 2009

• Comments (0)

TUMWATER – Black Lake Elementary School third-grader Garrett Jones thanked language teacher Rita Jean and held out his hand to receive a certificate, but teacher Jean waited patiently for the magic word.

"Eh, Salvador?" she asked, using his Spanish classroom nickname.

"Oh, uh, gracias!" Garrett responded.

Last week, Garrett and others in kindergarten through sixth grade at Black Lake Elementary finished up six weeks of basic Spanish language instruction that was offered at the school.

About 60 students — more than 10 percent of the student body — signed up for the after- and before-school program. Nicole Mercier, coordinator for ACE World Language Programs, said the Black Lake program had one of the highest turnouts for an elementary school language program offered by ACE in several years.

Mercier said that the response shows a resurgence of interest in foreign-language programs for elementary school students. Mercier said Lydia Hawk Elementary School in Lacey also hosted a North Thurston Public Schools districtwide after-school class that introduced students to several languages.

Parent Aurora Shackell, the Black Lake PTA coordinator, said the big response from families meant that several classes were added. Shackell said that many of the parents were interested in continuing the after-school program next year and several have signed up to continue the lessons for the next six weeks.

"A lot of parents have wanted it for a while," Shackell said.

Garrett's mom, Stephanie Jones, said foreign language was so important to the family that the family first enrolled him as a transfer student in Evergreen Elementary School in Shelton, a bilingual school. They stopped when the wintertime commute from Tumwater was too much.

"I personally feel that the U.S. is behind in (teaching) foreign language, and we will not be able to compete for jobs globally or locally," Jones said.

Jones, who has one grown son fluent in Spanish and another fluent in American Sign Language, also said children in younger grades have an easier time learning foreign languages than if they start in high school or as adults.

Teacher Rita Jean and the other Spanish teachers eschew grammar and rote lessons in favor of vocabulary games and catchy songs. The method trains students in hearing the sounds and accent of the Spanish language, so that students gradually acquire some of the vocabulary and common phrases.

The students also call each other by Spanish names in class, Jean said.

"They also get the hang of the accent," she said. "They learn through play and songs."

"It's conversational and it's also active," Jean said.

"The hope is that by the time they take a real Spanish class, they do have a good accent when they are in high school. It won't be 'Americano,' " she said.

Venice Buhain can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.