Getting the Lowdown on Foreign Language Immersion

Dear Extra Credit:

We are interested in getting our child into two-way immersion kindergarten or, if we don't make it into a kindergarten, one of the partial-immersion elementary school programs. I am having a hard time finding out what we can do to increase our odds of getting in.

I'm tired of reading about Advanced Placement and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology kids in this column: What about foreign language at the elementary levels? When will Fairfax County expand its foreign language instruction? The only foreign languages my husband and I know are what we learned while enrolled in Fairfax County schools and Virginia colleges.

Kari Mitchum

Lorton

Few school districts offer as much foreign language instruction as Fairfax County. The two-way immersion kindergartens in English and Spanish at Bailey's, Lake Anne, London Towne and Rose Hill elementary schools provide instruction in both English and Spanish in classes where half of the students' families speak one of those languages and half the other. Half the day the class speaks English and the other half Spanish. Those children can then move to the partial immersion programs in English and Spanish for grades one to six at those schools plus Fort Hunt, Laurel Ridge and Ravensworth elementary schools.

For grades one to six, there are also partial-immersion programs in English and these languages at these schools: Japanese at Floris, Fox Mill and Great Falls elementary schools, French at Herndon and Kent Gardens elementary schools, and German at Orange Hunt elementary school.

As you know, in partial-immersion classes, the students use English when studying language arts and social studies and use the foreign language when doing math, science and health. The foreign language is not taught as a subject but becomes a natural part of the day.

Ann Monday, assistant superintendent for instructional services, said the two-way kindergartens and the partial-immersion programs are open to all Fairfax County residents. Students are selected through a computer lottery that is open only to students who are about to enter kindergarten or first grade. If you want to enroll your child in a partial-immersion program after first grade, you have to seek the approval of the school's principal. Principals can admit more children if a program has room and the children have some knowledge of the foreign language.

"Parents may register for one or more immersion programs throughout the county, and acceptance is not dependent on whether the students live inside or outside the school's attendance area," Monday said.

Registration opened Jan. 17 and closes Feb. 24. Parents can apply online at http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/partial.htm . Paper applications are available at all county public schools. Parents will be notified April 24 whether their children have been selected or placed on a waiting list.

"Fairfax County Public Schools' vision is for all students to graduate with communicative competence in one or more languages other than English," Monday said. "Having students learn a foreign language at an early age prepares them to compete in the global economy of the 21st century. In order to prepare students for the future, FCPS is currently exploring ways to provide foreign language learning to all elementary students."

Sounds good to me. If I had had a chance to learn Japanese in elementary school, I would have been spared considerable pain in graduate school and would not have had to waste some of your tax dollars under the National Defense Education Act.

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