A partnership between WRAL-TV and the George Lucas Educational Foundation called Project Education: Edutopia has pioneered a different method of foreign language learning in order for children to be able to compete in a global economy. Seattle students that attend John Stanford International School become immersed in either Spanish or Japanese instead of a class dedicated to either language. Students have the choice of which of these languages they want to learn and then spend half of the school day studying math and science in that language and the other half studying social studies and language arts in English.
The reason for having students immersed in the language when studying math and science as opposed to social studies where one might discuss culture is because those subjects are much more abstract. Math and science have more hands on activities and factual learning. Other educators have witnessed in awe at the school's ability to teach second language skills while also improving test scores; the international schools has one national awards and the success of the program has led to the creation of five other international schools including one that teaches Mandarin. Because it is an international school, the mix of languages helps level the playing field for those with English as a second language. All the students benefit from exposure to children of other cultures and everyone understands what it takes to learn a language which fosters greater appreciation within the school's community.
I think such a program is a brilliant idea and the success of it should urge other schools across the country to consider reforming foreign language learning. This school probably has many more resources than the average public school and sadly many schools would not have the money or qualified teaching staff in order to implement such a program. Hopefully the government will take note of such programs and seek to change the way languages are learned; these children feel more comfortable using the language and they are more likely to utilize it in the future. Most schools have a language requirement but a great number of students fulfill that requirement and lose their language abilities after a few years. This integration of language learning and conventional curriculum would probably lead to better retention of the language and more confidence using it in a real world setting.
The article can be found here: http://www.wral.com/news/edutopia/story/7611054/
No comments:
Post a Comment