Reply to Why start a Spanish FLES program at a majority Hispanic school?

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Reply to "Why start a Spanish FLES program at a majority Hispanic school?"

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[quote=Anonymous]My kids go to a FCPS elementary which is a majority Hispanic school.  I can't pull up the FCPS website right now (I think it's down) but pretty much all those kids do speak Spanish and there is a sizeable minority of kids that speak languages at home other than Spanish/English.  The school just started the FLES program (Foreign Language in Elementary School) and Spanish is the target language.  In the letter that came home, it states "students will be learning how to greet each other, how to say his/her name in Spanish, identify colors, months, days of the week and also learn vocabulary in Spanish that will support what they are doing in Science and Social Studies.  It will also be cultural enrichment".  The class is twice a week for half an hour each class.

I'm a big supporter of learning another language.  I speak two languages other than English and my DH is South American and our kids speak Spanish fairly well.  But, I question the value of the program.  There's one teacher for a school of 700 students and many of the kids already speak Spanish or are non-Spanish speakers needing ESL.  It would seem better to use FLES resources on something like smart boards or an additional teacher so there are smaller class sizes or even an extra recess twice a week.  What's the point in teaching Spanish to a majority Spanish speaking school?[/quote]

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