Teaching Languages and Cultures in K-6
In 1995, the Regional Center for Languages and Cultures at ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College, under the aegis of Isabelle Kaplan, started offering language and culture classes in local schools. Today, ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College students teach Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, Swahili, Indonesian, Hindi, Urdu, Portuguese, and ASL, among other languages, to elementary-age students in ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø and North ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø. They also offer international culture lessons designed with the support of the ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø faculty.Â
In 2013, ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College language faculty members Sarah Harris and Noëlle Rouxel-Cubberly—aided by faculty member Ginger Lin for Chinese—began supervising advanced ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø students of Spanish, French, and Chinese to provide weekly language instruction to students pre-K through 6th grade at the Village School of North ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø (VSNB).
In fall 2016, Sarah, Noelle, and faculty member Ikuko Yoshida taught a one-credit course to ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College students called “Teaching Languages K-6," which was aimed at preparing students to teach in local schools. That same term, ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College students began teaching Japanese to 3rd graders at ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø Elementary, as well as lessons on Japanese culture at the ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø library. In conjunction with these classes, Ikuko led a tutorial for these student teachers to learn additional methods and techniques of foreign language teaching to apply in the classroom. Beginning in 2017, lessons were offered in the library for Vietnamese and Italian, which expanded to include both Spanish and French in 2018.
The Language Program at VSNB is now a well-established program, and has received positive feedback from teachers, students, parents, and the numerous ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø College students who have taught in the program.
The two-credit course "Teaching Languages and Cultures K-6" is now offered every two years.
