1/26/2011 FAMILY Other languages aren’t foreign t…

Login Subscribe Get News Updates Print Edition News Archive Profile

News Family January 26, 2011 Search Archives Search

Front Page
News
News Briefs
More News
Family
FAMILY Other languages aren’t foreign to elementary-
Crime Watch school kids
Loose Ends
Opinions By Laura Peters
Calendar
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Sports
Legal Notices
Real Estate
Chesterfield County Public Schools is known for its
Sales extras, like high-school specialty centers and
Real Estate preschool programming for at-risk kids. But those
Classifieds extras cost money, and one of them – the world
Classifieds language initiative at elementary schools – has fallen
Reader victim to recent budget cuts.
Resources
SPECIAL
Thirteen of the county’s 38 elementary schools
Demographics
currently offer foreign language – Mandarin Chinese,
2010 SOL
Scores Spanish or French – as a 45-minute class once a
County Pay Jian Ru Yang teaches Mandarin Chinese to week, much like art, physical education, music and
Helpful County third graders at O.B. Gates Elementary library time.
Links School.
Letters Policy Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer
CCPS planned to eventually teach foreign language
About us at all elementary schools, but staffing cuts required
Our Advertisers the school system to refocus its priorities. The initiative is on hold until the economy – and
Shopping
funding levels for education – rebound.
Advertiser Index
Customer
Robious Elementary was the first elementary school in the county to offer a foreign language
Service
Place a to its students eight years ago. Students are still taking French classes there.
Classified
Ad “I think it’s important for children to realize that we live in a global economy. We all need to
Place a respect and appreciate other languages and cultures,” said Anne O’Toole, Robious’
Legal Notice principal. “I think that we have a lot of information that says that young children pick up a
Pick-up foreign language at greater ease than children after the age of 10. We’ve seen that here.”
Locations
Subscribe Still, that enrichment comes with a cost since the program requires the hiring of foreign-
Contact Us
language teachers.
Copyright©
2005-2010
Observer, Inc.
“We were moving along, but things kind of came to a halt,” said O’Toole.
All Rights
Reserved Karen Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Robious, is a fan of the foreign language initiative.

“When they teach the foreign language, they’re not just teaching the language, but they’re
Newspaper web teaching the culture as well. I think that teaching the culture will help the children with
site content acceptance and learning about diversity. I really think this will transfer to their adult life,”
management
software and Williams says. “I look at my students who are living in the age of communication, and I think
services that as adults they are going to be more global. I think that introduction to foreign language at
an early age will be very beneficial in their lives.”

“Our program is content-related, so instead of just learning numbers, they’re learning the
value of what five or 10 is. The idea that five is a universal conceptAit’s a revelation [for
students]. They don’t understand that the values stay the same no matter what the name is,”
explained Linda Szwabowski, CCPS’ world language specialist. “That helps them with their
upper-level thinking skills, it helps them make connections and helps them put perspectives
on the world.”

Everything the students cover in their world language class is tied back into what they are
learning in their core classes and is related to the state’s SOL tests.

CCPS is also in the process of revising the middle and high school foreign language
curriculum, due to the introduction of foreign language at the elementary-school level.

chesterfieldobserver.com/…/FAMILY_Ot… 1/2
1/26/2011 FAMILY Other languages aren’t foreign t…
“I think students absolutely love it! I wish there was a way that we could offer it twice a week,”
O’Toole said. “I think we would see greater mileage if we were able to have it twice a week,
but we haven’t figured a way without cutting something else that needs to be taught.”

Elementary schools currently offering world language

French
Robious

Mandarin Chinese
Watkins and Gates

Spanish
Alberta Smith, Bellwood, Elizabeth Scott,
Grange Hall, Harrowgate, Marguerite
Christian, Salem Church, Weaver, Wells
and Winterpock

chesterfieldobserver.com/…/FAMILY_Ot… 2/2