Three years ago, Adriana Natali-Sommerville spotted what she considered a serious weakness in Lawrence elementary schools.

She noticed none of them offered foreign language programs. As coordinator of outreach programs for Kansas University’s Center of Latin American Studies, she decided to install Spanish-language programs in Lawrence elementary schools.

“I thought Spanish was such a useful language to know,” Natali-Sommerville said. “It’s the fastest-growing language in the U.S. I saw that Kansas City had a program for elementary students, but that Lawrence didn’t.”

Hillcrest School’s Parent-Teacher Organization approved Natali-Sommerville’s request to test drive the after-school program with a group of first graders in 2000.

Hillcrest added programs for other grades in 2001. Tammy Becker, principal at Hillcrest and member of the PTO, said the organization supported the program because it allowed all students to experience a second language.

Starting young

Today, the program offers classes for grades one through six at Hillcrest, Pinckney and St. John’s schools. For $25, elementary students can attend a series of eight one-hour Spanish classes taught by undergraduate and graduate students in Kansas University’s Center of Latin American Studies program. The elementary students can receive need-based scholarships.

Natali-Sommerville said she hoped to start programs at other Lawrence schools. Elementary school is the best time to begin studying a foreign language, she said.

“It is best to learn Spanish before junior high. The sooner, the better. When you start learning later, you can’t get rid of the accent,” she said.

From 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. each Wednesday, Amanda Dixon, second-grader at Hillcrest, attends a Spanish lesson with 18 other students in first and second grade. The program helps her to communicate better with her Spanish-speaking peers, Amanda said.

Hillcrest fifth-grader Fiona Muniu translates during a vocabulary exercise in an after-school Spanish class at Hillcrest School.

“I have Spanish-speaking friends and a lot of them don’t know English,” Amanda said. “I need to learn Spanish so I can speak to them.”

Kemly Rejidor, who moved to Lawrence from San Jose, Costa Rica, said she likes that the program helps English-speaking students communicate in Spanish with their Spanish-speaking counterparts. Rejidor said that her daughter, Monica, a first-grader at Hillcrest, had not lost her English skills by speaking Spanish with other students.

“They listen all day to students and teachers speaking in English,” Rejidor said. “Hispanic students teach them (English-speaking students) how to say things in Spanish. It’s good for both parts.”

Multiple benefits

Beside helping students communicate with their Spanish-speaking peers, learning a new language increases children’s problem-solving skills and improves memory, self-discipline and self-esteem, Natali-Sommerville said. And the study of a foreign language helps children think beyond their own culture and country, she said.

“In a global world, the historical tendency of Americans toward isolationism needs to be overcome,” Natali-Sommerville said. “Language is an obvious and attractive way to introduce children to other cultures and the idea of other nations.”

A grant from the U.S. Department of Education funds the administration and coordination of the program, while supplements pay for the Spanish instructors and provide materials needed for the Spanish class during the first semester, or eight weeks, of the program, Natali-Sommerville said. After the first semester, the programs become self-supporting from class fees.

Amanda’s instructor, Katie Naeve, Kansas University junior and Spanish major from Ames, Iowa, has just completed her fifth week of teaching at Hillcrest.

In the middle of the lesson, she told students to stand in front of the class and recite numbers one through 10 in Spanish.

“I really enjoy learning numbers the most. I like to learn them a lot,” Dixon said.

Though Naeve only meets with her group of 18 students each Wednesday, she said she has been impressed by how quickly they learn.

“I was told they wouldn’t retain a lot, but they do great from week to week,” Naeve said.

Becker, Hillcrest’s principal, said the Spanish classes have made the children curious about still other languages.

“Sometimes kids say they want to learn Russian,” she said.