Posted on Mon, Sep 24, 2012 : 4:40 p.m.
Saline school district looks to expand foreign language offerings to younger students
By AnnArbor.com Staff
Saline Area Schools next school year will introduce a “Love of Language Program” to expand foreign language offerings to elementary students, Saline Patch reported.
According to the story, the program will expand foreign language instruction from two years taken by students in middle and high school, to instruction beginning in kindergarten.
Officials are working to lay the groundwork for the new program, including deciding on which languages will be offered. They are hoping to raise $75,000 to start the program, Saline Patch reported.
Read more about the world languages offered by Saline on the high school's website.
Comments
Gerry
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 5:07 p.m.
Good for them! I hope this comes to more school districts in the area.
Ann English
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 11:12 p.m.
Kids use foreign words in common games, such as concentration or even Simon Says. In fifth grade French, both were played, and I did better at Simon Says in French (Simon dit), than I did in English. Garments and school supplies were the subjects of the concentration squares. Of course pictures were used there, since we were supposed to know the French words for them, not to simply read them. Kindergartners might know this game better as Memory. Kids could learn the Spanish equivalents of "edifice" and "signify" before these words themselves; I know I did, in a Spanish class in my teens.
SEC Fan
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 3:03 p.m.
This is such a great story! so...why the negative posts? people really that insecure about their own lives?
Bulldog
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 12:43 p.m.
Trying to keep up with Big Brother in Ann Arbor?
xmo
Mon, Sep 24, 2012 : 10:49 p.m.
I never took Spanish in school but I can read it now because of all the Bi-lingual signage everywhere. I am in favor of everybody being more international but does introducing a foreign language in elementary school really help,maybe their time could be better spent on another subject like Science, Math or English?
Ann English
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 10:58 p.m.
Introducing French in third grade helped me; it was all speaking and listening in the both the third and fourth grades, but I learned French equivalents of English words first, such as comprendre, cravate, tricot, cuisine, oublier (to forget), chambre, cinema, manger (to eat), lait (milk), laver (to wash). French was required, not self-chosen, right through seventh grade. Kids in kindergarten can get exposed to foreign language words without having to read or write them, using pictures with just initial letters of foreign words followed by blanks; words that may stand alone or short sentences.
Gerry
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 5:09 p.m.
Because learning is similar to pumping intellectual iron. By excersising the additional areas of the brain through learning a language, those kids will have a stronger thought process with which to approach those other areas.
SEC Fan
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 : 4:25 p.m.
the ability to read a sign or two does not make one bi-lingual.
nickcarraweigh
Mon, Sep 24, 2012 : 10:37 p.m.
Those poor kids out in Greater Saline need something to pass the time besides watermelon mutilation, so I am all in favor of this. Anything to keep them out of the outlaw moped gangs, really.