LAFAYETTE — Fifty-eight Paul Breaux Middle School students received special diplomas from the French Ministry of Education on Monday, recognizing their proficiency in writing, speaking, listening and reading in the French language.
“It shows that they have the competencies we have as French speakers,” said Philippe Aldon, attaché of the Cooperation and Cultural Service for the consulate general of France in New Orleans. “It gives value to what they have learned, what they are. It shows that school can enable you to receive fluency in a foreign language.”
For the students, the recognition comes after nine years of French immersion studies in the Lafayette Parish school system. A total of 62 eighth-graders completed French immersion studies and were recognized during a graduation ceremony Monday at the Vermilion Conference Center.
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The Lake Oswego School Board appears ready to commit to an elementary school language immersion program that continues through the fifth grade.
The majority of the board on Monday leaned toward supporting the expansion of their Spanish language immersion program to fifth grade by 2015 by adding one grade each year. A vote on the commitment to further expansion will likely come before the board June 4.
Chinese Education Conference 2013
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Don’t miss the best conference for K-12 Chinese language teachers! Please save the date:Please read more here.
Why Teach Chinese through Song?
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Language and song, speech and music are aspects of a single act. That act is communication. Song is the highest form of speech. Because song “ups the ante” by emphasizing the color, pronunciation and intonation of every syllable, it is a valuable tool for improving students’ spoken language skills. Why “teaching Chinese through song” is an effective musical approach to teaching language?
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“They have no accent!” colleague says
To the editor:
Thank you, Karin deJonge-Kannan, for your excellent, informative letter (“Monolingualism can be cured,” May 16) about Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs in Utah schools, where participating students learn academic content in another language in addition to English. A year ago, I visited Uintah Elementary School in Ogden with a couple of Chinese-American colleagues from Weber State University’s College of Education. We all agreed our visit to a second-grade Mandarin Chinese dual immersion classroom was one of the most exciting experiences of our professional careers. The atmosphere in that room was electric — kids excited and motivated to learn, teacher excited to teach. I don’t speak Mandarin, but my colleagues were astounded at the proficiency of those 7- and 8-year-olds. After hunkering down to talk with a couple of students in the corner of the room, the colleague from Nanjing whispered excitedly to me, “They have no accent!”
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First Greenery Arts school in the U.S. opening in American Fork
By Michelle Garrett, Deseret News
Published: Friday, May 18 2012 12:08 p.m. MDT
Michelle Wong, president of the Greenery Arts company, hopes to encourage peace by teaching the Chinese language culture to American students.
Greenery Arts
Greenery Arts, a company that promotes music, language and cultural education, is opening a new branch in American Fork.
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‘Sounds of the South’ coming to BYU…
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Why learn a foreign language?
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Utah arts scene accessible to family
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Arts education endeavors in schools
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Why expose children to art
Jan. 7, 2012
AMERICAN FORK — Greenery Arts, a company that promotes music, language and cultural education, is opening a new branch in American Fork.
Greenery Arts will be holding an open house to introduce its Mandarin-language program to the community May 19.
The school was originally opened by Dr. Wai Tat Wong in Hong Kong in 1988. According to its website, the school’s purpose is to not only educate students in music and art, but also improve the quality of their character through mental and physical health, as shown in its motto: “Strengthening Minds, Enriching Lives.”
The branch in American Fork is the first to open in the United States. It will be holding Mandarin classes this summer to review what students in the 17 Chinese immersion programs in Utah public schools have been learning during the school year and will also offer courses for those who have never learned Mandarin before.
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More than a decade after the state urged that students start learning a foreign language in the early grades, many local elementary schools are losing ground.
Immersion programs, in which children study all of their subjects in the second language, are thriving in a few communities. But traditional foreign language classes, often for a few hours a week, have disappeared from elementary schools in Arlington, Bellingham, Franklin, Littleton, Marlborough, Needham, Newton, Norfolk, and Shrewsbury.
The cutbacks are largely due to tight budgets and high-stakes testing in other subjects, officials say.
“It’s really budget,” said Kathleen Bodie, superintendent of Arlington’s school system, which dropped its Spanish program for kindergarten through third grade.
“People would love to have an elementary language program,’’ Bodie said. “In terms of brain development, that is the ideal time to learn a language. It’s much more difficult as we get older.”
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