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Parents wait in their idled cars to pick up their kids from school. The final bell rings as seven students bounce into class with Mr. Lara waiting at the front of the room.

The school day is over but, for some, class is not.

These seven Sunnyside Elementary students are attending an after-school Spanish class.

While most public elementary schools in Washington state do not currently incorporate foreign languages into the regular school-day curriculum, there are growing numbers of before- and after-school language programs supported by parent groups, PTAs, and community organizations, according to Michele Anciaux Aoki, the world languages program supervisor for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Sunnyside is the only one of three elementary schools in Pullman to join this trend. The school’s PTO initiated the Spanish program a couple years ago and continues to fund $1,500 a year to subsidize lessons. More than 70 Sunnyside students are enrolled in the program which offers Spanish classes ranging four difficulty levels. Students attend 45-minute classes twice a week that take place before or after school or during lunch break.

Students attend Spanish class during non-school hours because these classes are not a part of elementary curriculum. A mandated foreign language program does not exist in Washington state.

“There is no statewide requirement or curriculum for adopting a formal foreign language program [at the elementary level],” said Dave La Rose, superintendent of South Kitsap School District in western Washington.

“Since the education system has not considered learning another language a part of ‘basic education,’ many students in our public schools will never be given the opportunity to develop this critical 21st century skill,” Aoki writes in her article World Languages: State of the State.

The Washington state legislature will not pass a bill to implement a statewide curriculum for elementary foreign language anytime soon. As of now, a mandate would be impossible because of the lack of funding for such programs, Aoki said. Even if a mandate existed, the programs would be insufficient; there is not enough money to create a fully developed and effective program. Aoki said 60 to 90 minutes a week on a subject may introduce information to the children but it is not enough time to build skills. She compared learning to ride a bike to how these underfunded programs would run.

“Imagine learning to ride a bike, and once a week you rode a bike for half a block – you’d never learn to ride,” Aoki said.

Because of the absence of foreign language curriculum, many programs have been developed and implemented by parent groups and other organizations. Most of these new foreign language programs are developing in places such as Seattle, Lake Washington, and Vancouver school districts, said Aoki.

Of the 185 elementary schools on the west side of the Cascades that responded to the Mapping and Enhancing Language Learning in Washington State Survey, 26 percent offered a foreign language program. Of the 64 elementary schools on the east side that responded, 16 percent offered a program. This difference is explained by Aoki.

“It is very diverse in western Washington and the Puget Sound area, and there is a greater interest in global affairs,” Aoki said. “[In eastern Washington] there is not as great of an exposure and interest to connect to the rest of the world.”

Many parents push the implementation of a foreign language program because of the educational benefits to their children. Learning a foreign language at the elementary level compared to high school can be advantageous to students for two reasons: brain development and social aspects.

“The main reason is all the evidence of brain development,” Aoki said. “As a child, we’re able to take in information in a different way. Learning a language in high school can be helped by activating that capacity as a child.”

Erik Lara, one of Sunnyside’s three Spanish instructors and a WSU student, suggests that learning Spanish helps students learn other languages in the future.

“Grasping the Spanish language can help them learn other languages because of the Latin base,” Lara said.

Socially, young children are more open in general to learning new things, Aoki said.


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Contacts:

Michele Anciaux Aoki
World Languages Program Supervisor
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
(360) 725-6129

Erik Lara
Spanish Instructor
Sunnyside Elementary
(541) 861-8124

Dave La Rose
Superintendent South Kitsap School District
(360) 874-7009