And Now, Teaching Spanish to Spanish Speakers
Loudoun's Goal Is Adding Fluency in Reading and Writing the Language

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Every year, many of those taking Spanish classes in Loudoun public schools are native speakers who are bored by the conversation exercises, struggle with the grammar tests, then leave class chatting easily in Spanish with other Hispanic students.

This year, the foreign language department is adding two Spanish courses tailored to students who speak Spanish fluently. The courses are designed to help the growing number of Hispanic students who can speak and understand the language but have trouble reading and writing it, often because of inadequate schooling in their home countries.

Suzette Wyhs, supervisor of the foreign language program for Loudoun schools, called the new classes "a booster shot to the ESL program."

Spanish speakers account for about 60 percent of the 3,000 students enrolled in the district's English as a Second Language program. Wyhs said that many of these students reach a plateau at a certain point in their English studies because they do not have a firm foundation in grammar in their first language.

"Studies show that what you can't do in your first language, you will never be able to do in your second language," Wyhs said.

To supplement Spanish skills, Hispanic students have often enrolled in Spanish classes geared to non-native speakers. They will be better served by the new courses, Wyhs said, which will help them improve their Spanish language abilities and ultimately their English abilities.

The goal is "bi-literacy," she said. "They will be able to read, write and speak in two languages."

The program will be available in eighth through 12th grades. It will be offered in about half of the county's secondary schools this year; about 350 students have registered for the classes.

A similar program will be offered to fluent Spanish speakers in sixth and seventh grades at Sterling Middle School, where between 35 and 38 percent of the students are Hispanic.

"The idea is . . . to formalize their Spanish education, get them academically involved and lead them to the possibility of college-level instruction," Sterling Middle Principal Michael Williams said.

He said the new classes would put students on track for the AP-level Spanish literature class in high school.

The curriculum will have a focus on Latin American culture, teaching students to read contemporary Latin American writers, for example, or folk tales they grew up hearing at home. Williams said he hopes the more personalized emphasis will inspire more students to remain engaged with school.

Spanish has become a fast-growing part of the foreign language curriculum in Loudoun over the last several years, as the district has rolled out an introduction to the language in all 44 of its elementary schools. All students in first through fifth grades receive Spanish instruction. That program will expand to include sixth-graders this year, and sixth- and seventh-graders in 2007-08. Once they reach eighth grade, students will have a choice between French, Spanish, German and Latin.

Beginning this year, students at some schools will have yet another option: Mandarin Chinese. School board members voted last year to add Chinese classes at Harmony Intermediate, Broad Run High School and Loudoun Valley High School. They selected Chinese because it is spoken by a large percentage of the world's population and is an increasingly important language in the business world, Loudoun schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard said.

"We are adapting every year as the population becomes more multicultural," Byard said.