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March 28, 2011 in City
Pilot program gives students jump-start on foreign language
Sacajawea Middle School teacher Becky O’Neel gives a quiz to her students in Spanish on Wednesday. The class is part of a Spokane Public Schools pilot program.
(Full-size photo)
Bienvenidos, estudiantes. Esto es la clase de español para el grado ocho.
Until this year, that phrase – “Welcome, students. This is eighth-grade Spanish” – was foreign to Spokane Public Schools’ middle school students.
But with the success of a pilot program at Sacajawea Middle School, it will likely become more commonplace. Spokane Public Schools plans to make Spanish available to the district’s eighth-graders this fall, and those who successfully pass the yearlong course will receive high school credit.
“I think this is a great idea,” said Becky O’Neel, a Sacajawea world language teacher. “Just a year makes a huge difference in how well they learn (foreign language). They are like sponges.”
“It’s been a good experience,” said 14-year-old Hadyn Gabbert, adding she thought it would be “cool” to learn another language.
Spokane Public Schools officials decided to offer Spanish to eighth-graders after numerous requests from parents and students to make a world language program available before high school. In addition, a proposed change by the state’s board of education would make two years of a foreign language a high school graduation requirement by 2016.
“With more credits required (by the state) for graduation, students need to be able to start earning them sooner,” said Tammy Campbell, the district’s executive director of curriculum.
Spokane Public Schools is the first district in the area to offer a yearlong foreign language course at the middle school level. Central Valley and Mead school districts have no plans to do so in the near future, officials said.
Campbell said offering a foreign language in middle school is “trickier” from a scheduling perspective “because students interested in a foreign language are usually also interested in band or strings,” all of which are electives.
Staffing is another challenge. “Finding a teacher at the middle level who has an endorsement (to teach Spanish) is difficult,” she said.
While Spokane is offering Spanish just to eighth-graders, the Coeur d’Alene School District has been making the course available to seventh- and eighth-graders for the last seven years. Coeur d’Alene students don’t receive high school credit for it, however.
Coeur d’Alene School District officials decided to offer Spanish as part of an advanced learning program. The decision was also prompted by suggestions from the public, officials said.
A foreign language is not a high school graduation requirement for Spokane, Central Valley, Mead or Coeur d’Alene school districts, but language courses are counted as part of other categories, such as electives, fine arts or humanities. However, students trying to get into a four-year college or university do need to have two years of a foreign language.
Spanish has the highest enrollment in high school, so that’s why the school districts chose that language for the middle schools.
“It’s been a good experience,” said Sacajawea eighth-grader Kiersten Moss. The teacher “speaks to us in Spanish, and the more you hear it, the more you understand it.”
Patrick Fallis, 13, said he wanted to take the course because he has some Spanish-speaking family. “I thought it would be fun and challenging. My goal is to take it as far as I can in school.”
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Ninch on March 28 at 7:39 a.m.
Yes… most universities and colleges require two semesters of foreign language to be accepted…otherwise they must be accepted as probationary, which is an additional stress entering freshman do not need. Unfortunately, our local school does not have a qualified foreign language teacher, but my son was able to take 3 quarters of foreign language (Spanish) at SCC through Running Start.
The earlier one begins learning a 2nd language the easier it is, so middle school is a good start… K-5 would be better.
lewis8457 on March 28 at 7:54 a.m.
Good idea teach them all Chinese they are going to need it.
soccermomsusie on March 28 at 10:31 a.m.
They should learn how to speak American correctly before they learn another inferior language.
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!
Albert on March 28 at 11:33 a.m.
Susie, English is now a “2nd language”. If anyone has any questions on this, simply visit California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, or the Tri-Cities. The way “things” are progressing in the middle of WA, we will need to have a working knowledge of Espanol very shortly. Buenas tardes.
liz7315 on March 28 at 11:59 a.m.
SoccerMom, you really have nothing better to do but insult a language. Tell me what makes it inferior?
Thoreau on March 28 at 12:41 p.m.
Critics of learning Spanish are often intimidated or paranoid when hearing it spoken in public. Immediately, the unilingual person senses that “they’re talkin’ about me!”
Perhaps he/she feels inferior, since many of the world’s population are bilingual, whereas, many people in the U.S. detest people “speakin’ Mexican” when they should be “talkin’ American.”
There is no official language in the United States.
greenlibertarian on March 28 at 1:11 p.m.
If it ain’t KJV, it ain’t the Bible.
If it ain’t Latin, it ain’t a foreign language.
Loudin on March 28 at 1:38 p.m.
SoccerMoth’s kids in twenty years:
“Thay shud lurn how 2 speek Amerikan korrekly be4 thay lurn anuther infeareor languaj.
HERE OUR WHINING!!!”
BTW: Her kids will be repeating that blow-hard rant from behind the counter of a Burger King. Meanwhile, SoccerMoth will be on government welfare (Social Security & Medicare). Oy, God Bless America!
Loudin
de3 on March 28 at 3:32 p.m.
The middle school that I attended (out of state) offers both Spanish (2 sections) and French (1 section) and has for many years. When I attended, they offered Spanish, French and Italian.
Bellevue schools offer Spanish for all years K-12, since 1986. They also offer Chinese and Japanese as young as 6th grade, plus depending on which school you attend, and your grade, they offer French and German.
Lake Washington SD offers both Spanish and French in middle school.
Why is Spokane years behind?
ManleyPointer on March 28 at 3:59 p.m.
I think Susie was expressing a belief in American exceptionalism in her post, rather than commenting unfavorably on the linguistic attributes of a non-English language. I further believe she was indicating dissatisfaction with the present level of language education in our country and suggesting that we address that deficit before we devote resources to teaching non-English languages in our schools.
Thayne on March 28 at 4:54 p.m.
Actually she should be called Satire Susie. Here’s a joke, what do you call someone who speaks multiple languages - bilingual. What do you call someone who only speaks one - American. It is very sad that some people are so afraid of others in this country who speak a language other than engllish.
ManleyPointer on March 28 at 5:10 p.m.
“Afraid”? I disagree with your premise that “some people” fear other people who speak a different language. Do you really believe that to be the case? Or is it just your shorthand way of decrying xenophobia?
liz7315 on March 28 at 5:25 p.m.
I do agree that our children need to learn english first. I am bilingual and have a son who has a speech issue and therefore have chosen not to teach him spanish until I feel he has a grip on english first. I do believe if you come into this country you need to learn the language, but to be so ignorant as to think that in todays world you can get by without learning a second language then your living in ignorance. It will benifit children of all languages. I just wish I had learned russian instead of french!!!
Albert on March 28 at 6:14 p.m.
Liz…how fun! I grew up with a German mom and we spoke German in the home. I then went onto high school (Detroit) and enrolled into Russian. My dad retired from the PD in Detroit and we moved to S. CA. and I picked up Spanish. The really FUN part of languages is the cultural basis that expands our world view, thus I can understand what you are endeavoring to teach your children. Good 4U!!! The big secret is the doors of opportunity that swing open when the Navy found out that I understood Russian…then later on a large corporation hired me on the German/Spanish basis. Your children will thank you later on for what you did for them. Great job!
liz7315 on March 28 at 7:54 p.m.
That is so great! Thank You I hope he soon gets the opportunity to learn MANY languages!