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Schools Try Elementary Approach To Teaching Foreign Languages
But Suzette Wyhs, foreign language supervisor for Loudoun schools, said you can teach young children a second language without taking away from such courses as math or science. Teachers can reinforce lessons the children have learned in other classes.
For instance, she said, third-graders who have studied ocean animals might read a book about dolphins in Spanish. "The only unknown should be the language," Wyhs said.
  Jonathan Ramos, left, and Steven Matute are among the kindergartners who have started learning Spanish at Graham Road Elementary School in Fairfax County. (By Mark Gong -- The Washington Post) In Depth
Sending Kids Outdoors
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Loudoun County began a Spanish program in elementary schools in 2002. Now, all first- and second-graders have Spanish for 30 minutes a week, and third-, fourth- and fifth-graders get double that. This year, for the first time, sixth-graders will have a half-hour of instruction in Spanish every other day.
In Fairfax, schoolwide language programs for all 137 elementary schools would cost about $16 million a year. Today, seven Fairfax elementary schools, including Graham Road, run programs in which children are learning Italian, Latin, French or Chinese. A handful of schools also have more-intensive immersion classes.
Paula Patrick, foreign language coordinator for Fairfax schools, said the idea is to have each school focus on one language. A task force of educators and parents recently recommended adding the program at 24 schools a year beginning in September 2007.
Several Fairfax County School Board members said they like the idea but don't know whether the district would be able to afford such a fast expansion. "I think it's the wave of the future," said board member Kathy L. Smith (Sully). "We just have to figure out how to do it."
At Graham Road last week, first-grader Heather McCall said Spanish class is "kind of hard because I don't understand."
But Heather is determined to learn. She is even trying to talk her mother into taking a Spanish class so they can practice together.
"I want to learn three languages," Heather said. "I want to learn Spanish and Chinese, and I already know English."
