Inland students' interest increases in foreign languages, mostly Spanish

[Jeanfromfillmore]

It should be noted that foreign language classes cost the State about twice as much as most other classes. They are a 5 unit class requiring 10 hours of instruction a week, like most ESL classes are. Most other classes like history or economics are 3 units and require 6 hours per week. Yet, while they’re adding or continuing the ESL and foreign languages classes, they’re cutting English Comprehension and other core/general eds. Just who is our education system catering to? And who is losing out?



Inland students' interest increases in foreign languages, mostly Spanish
Arlington High School students in Riverside say they're taking Spanish, or French, because knowing another language will be helpful in a global economy.
"I want to be a doctor, and many doctors have to learn Spanish," said 11th-grader Heather Wilson in a Spanish 3 Honors class. "Many jobs require you to be bilingual."
Ninth-grader Gerson Sandoval said he's taking French 1 because "most continents have French as a primary language or a secondary language." Some of his classmates said they already know Spanish and English and want to learn a third language.
Their motives were echoed across the Inland area, where educators say more students are taking foreign language classes, mostly Spanish, because more students think it is useful in Southern California.
"There's more and more kids taking foreign languages," said Robert Taylor, administrative director of secondary education in Corona-Norco Unified School District.
UC and Cal State both require at least two years of high school classes in the same foreign language for admission, as do most colleges and universities in other states. (Wrong, Cal State Universities require Speech, not a foreign language. Before writing an article do some research) More students are meeting those admissions requirements than a few years ago, Taylor said. Even students who don't plan to go to college think a second or third language will be useful, said Taylor and educators in other districts.
"The workforce and postsecondary education is driving the need for a more global perspective in foreign languages," said Dara Mosher, instructional services specialist in foreign languages and English language arts in Riverside Unified School District.
A few Inland schools also offer German and Italian, and some Redlands students take Latin.
POPULARITY
Districts find teachers for different languages. How many classes they teach of those languages reflects students' interest, Arlington Principal Antonio Garcia said.
Last week, students in Rocio Quijada's Spanish honors class at Arlington intently followed a class reading, entirely in Spanish, about César Chávez's life. They replied in English to Quijada's probing questions in Spanish about the passage and its meaning. Later in class, they all got up and danced together.
"Throughout every level" of language classes, "we do culture: music, poetry, literature, art and culture," Quijada said.
Halfway across campus, several ninth-graders in French 1 said they were there to learn a third language.
"We already know Spanish," Leonardo Alcarez said.
High schools also offer a separate language sequence, Spanish for native speakers, designed for students who already know the oral language but want to read and write Spanish. That sequence leads to Advanced Placement classes and college credit.
Bjay Hernandez said he signed up for French because he wanted to be in teacher Marie Sanner's class.
Quijada said Sanner, who is from France, promotes interest in her native language and teaches six class periods of French. Most high school teachers teach only five periods a day with a planning period. Arlington hopes to add a second French teacher next year, Quijada said.
Some districts, including Riverside and San Bernardino schools, offers foreign language as a middle school elective.
Riverside requires students to pass at least one year of foreign language or a fine arts course to graduate from high school, Mosher said.
OTHER OPTIONS
A few districts have dual-immersion classes, starting in kindergarten. In those classes, half the students primarily speak English at home and the other half primarily speak Spanish.
Students learn the languages from each other and their teachers and become bilingual and biliterate. Some then opt to take French or Chinese to learn a third language when they get to high school, Taylor said.
Taylor said Foreign Language Assistance Program grants are available for schools and districts to offer additional languages.
Mosher said American Sign Language is another language option through Riverside Virtual School, an online program for Riverside students.
Jurupa offered Japanese 1 in recent years, but since recent budget cuts requiring larger class sizes, not enough students signed up to fill the class this year, Assistant Superintendent Dave Doubravsky said. Japanese will be offered again next year, he said, adding that students miss that option.
Riverside high schools offer only two languages each, Mosher said.
German is no longer offered at Martin Luther King High School, where students choose French or Spanish.
Now that Spanish and Chinese are taught at John W. North High, French is being phased out, Principal Dale Kinnear said.
The school started offering Chinese in fall 2009 and now teaches 10 sections. Students said they were seeking a challenge that could prepare them for global business opportunities.
"It's sad we that cannot support three languages, but with high class sizes and the need to have large classes, it's been impossible for us to support that language," he said.
Colton Joint Unified School District offers Spanish, French and German with steady enrollment in all three, Assistant Superintendent Mollie Gainey-Stanley said.
She said she sees signs in two languages frequently.
"Ten years ago, you could graduate and might not need a foreign language," Gainey-Stanley said. "The students now are seeing the need for a foreign language in a global economy."
Reach Dayna Straehley at 951- 368-9455 or dstraehley@PE.com
LANGUAGE SAMPLER
Foreign language class sections taught this year in high schools at some Inland school districts:
San Bernardino City Unified
Spanish: 79
French: 22
German: 5
Japanese: 2
Corona-Norco Unified
Spanish: 297
French: 30
Chinese: 8
Riverside Unified
Spanish: 372
French: 76
Chinese: 10
Colton Joint Unified
Spanish: 69
French: 15
German: 7
Murrieta Valley Unified
Spanish: 105
American Sign Language: 27
French: 25
German: 8
Italian: 3
Chinese: 3
Lake Elsinore Unified
Spanish: 150
French: 24
Japanese: 2
American Sign Language: 10
Redlands Unified
Spanish: 77
French: 14
Latin: 5
Jurupa Unified
Spanish: 70
French: 10
Italian: 3
Japanese: None this year
Alvord Unified
Spanish: 52
French: 15
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