Every Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 6:50 p.m., one professor, two Spanish education students, two service learning students and eight children meet in Nicarry 104 and 106 to learn Spanish in an immersive environment.
The Children’s Spanish Program, headed by Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of Modern Languages Dr. Charla Lorenzen, is an intensive learning experience. This means the class is held entirely in Spanish. The children come from mixed backgrounds. Four do not speak Spanish at home nor do they have family members who do. Three students have family members who speak Spanish, and two of the students speak exclusively Spanish at home. “Those two get free tuition in exchange for their parents doing service hours such as recording stories in Spanish and contributing materials and time,” Lorenzen said.
The program has been provided for five years, but none of the students have been there from the beginning. Five of the children have just started this year, one is in her second year of the program, and two of the children have been participating for four years.
The sign hanging on the whiteboard explains the rules of the class in a simple way. “Sobrevivientes en español. ¡Puedes hacerlo!” The students must be “survivors” in an all-Spanish environment and are encouraged that they can do it. The game runs on a point system with 150 total a semester. “We keep track. They get an ‘X’ for each time they accidentally use English. One or two ‘X’s are fine, but with three, they don’t ‘survive,’” Lorenzen explained. The students also have the opportunity to get extra points by doing things like reading a book written in Spanish to the teachers, making a list of vocabulary they would like to learn or downloading and playing an app designed to facilitate the learning of the language.
The notion of immersion means that speaking English is forbidden. Explanations and questions are both done entirely in Spanish. This applies to homework as well. “We do give them each two Popsicle sticks that say, in Spanish, ‘In English, please?’ to use each class. This is if they really need to ask something or have something explained, but we keep it short. Also, we use some English on handouts and encourage kids to ask questions in English before or after class.” Lorenzen elaborated. “Of course, what we send home for the parents to see is in English if they do not speak Spanish.”
“We use the same words and phrases over and over, speak slowly and use visuals and gestures. The kids learn quickly with meaningful repetition. We also teach them how to ask us to repeat ourselves, to say they don’t understand, etc.,” Lorenzen said.
When the children arrive on Tuesday night, they hand their homework to one of two SPA 325 service learning students to check. “Do-nows” are small games or assignments the students work on before class officially begins. As they are working, the teachers walk around and ask them easy questions such as when their birthday is to get their brains geared towards Spanish. Their attention is next directed towards the Smartboard where they watch a YouTube video of the months of the year. There is singing and dancing in the classroom as this happens. Next, the kids gather around a table at the front of the classroom and play memory games to test vocabulary. They are encouraged to move around and to use as many of their senses as possible to truly learn the material.
The class watches one more video, this time on the days of the week, and then they break into groups based on their proficiency. Lorenzen takes the more advanced group. The beginners stay with the two Spanish education majors. The beginner group used a fly swatter to identify numerals written on the whiteboard. Then, they played hangman to further practice vocabulary and the Spanish alphabet. This program does not only benefit the children, however. “This program is beneficial for Spanish education majors because it gives us a chance to do early education. Most student teaching placements are from seventh grade and up because many schools don’t start earlier than that,” sophomore Nelli Orozco explained.
There are 15 classes a semester. By the end of those 15 classes, the children are able to speak fairly fluently in Spanish. “After the first year, they can talk about daily things. Then, each year, their knowledge grows. The kids who finished the combined year four and five class last year were able to go on a field trip to a Mexican restaurant and speak in Spanish the entire time. We called ahead to request a Spanish-speaking waiter and had one 300-level college student of Spanish or native Spanish-speaking parent next to every kid to ensure the use of Spanish,” Lorenzen said. “They did a great job.”
The program costs $120 a semester, which amounts to $8 a week. Employees of Elizabethtown College receive a 10 percent discount. This money pays for class materials and professional development for the Spanish education majors. Lorenzen and the student helpers teach the class without pay.
