Foreign Language after school program at ES in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 12:04 and I can tell you that when I was a kid I went to a dual language school where we were in immersion for several hours each day so I can certainly appreciate the benefits of that approach. However, I think it's a real stretch to consider a class that occurs once a week for an hour to be an "immersion environment" regardless of how much English is or is not used in it, and I also think it's not obvious that treating it as if it is one is necessarily the most developmentally appropriate approach.

I can't speak to the experience of others, but I can tell you that my kid was happy to learn languages when we traveled or in other classes we took, but was absolutely miserable in FLES. The teacher may well have been a native speaker, but it is unclear if she had any pedagogical training at all-- I think she actually used a dunce cap in class.

So sorry about your experience. I really wish you would call the FLES office and complain about the specific teacher. IME, there are always bad teachers in every educational environment. I agree that FLES is not "immersion" in the sense that it in no way provides the amount of time in the classroom that a typical immersion school would. But, it is "immersion" in the sense that English is usually not used at all. Any parent who enrolls their child in FLES and expects them to become fluent in one hour a week is delusional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 12:04 and I can tell you that when I was a kid I went to a dual language school where we were in immersion for several hours each day so I can certainly appreciate the benefits of that approach. However, I think it's a real stretch to consider a class that occurs once a week for an hour to be an "immersion environment" regardless of how much English is or is not used in it, and I also think it's not obvious that treating it as if it is one is necessarily the most developmentally appropriate approach.

I can't speak to the experience of others, but I can tell you that my kid was happy to learn languages when we traveled or in other classes we took, but was absolutely miserable in FLES. The teacher may well have been a native speaker, but it is unclear if she had any pedagogical training at all-- I think she actually used a dunce cap in class.

So sorry about your experience. I really wish you would call the FLES office and complain about the specific teacher. IME, there are always bad teachers in every educational environment. I agree that FLES is not "immersion" in the sense that it in no way provides the amount of time in the classroom that a typical immersion school would. But, it is "immersion" in the sense that English is usually not used at all. Any parent who enrolls their child in FLES and expects them to become fluent in one hour a week is delusional.

I don't think anyone expects their kid to become fluent-- I think the debate is over whether if you only have one hour a week should you use English in that hour or not. I think people hide behind the term "immersion" because it sounds good without really considering what makes sense for these kids in these circumstances.

[Anonymous]

I wanted to come back to this thread because my kid is doing the FLES in Spanish at her school. So far, it's only been the third week and DD has learned the months of the year, basic greetings (hola/como estas), days of the week, and how to say the date in the Spanish. She even came home with a graph in her workbook, where they graphed how each student was feeling (muy bien/bien/cansado/mas o menos).

Honestly, I wasn't expecting a ton, but am pleasantly surprised by what they've done.