World language study has always been an important aspect of education, but the spotlight has recently been on the subject thanks to the Princeton International Academy Charter School, which has billed itself as an attractive alternative to the typical public school world language program, especially when it comes to Chinese.
But officials at the WW-P school district are confident of their work and point to their recognized program as evidence they are ahead of the curve.
As the new school year begins, how do the language offerings in the WW-P district fare, and what is the best language path for students in today’s society? National trends still find Spanish to be the preferred language, but one trend — nationally and in WW-P — indicates that Mandarin Chinese is gaining in popularity.
According to experts, immersion education — which avoids use of the English language from the moment a student walks into the classroom — is the best bet for students to achieve functional fluency. Fortunately for West Windsor and Plainsboro families, the WW-P district subscribes to this philosophy, as all of its classes are “full-immersion” courses, officials say, beginning at the second-grade level.
The district currently offers a variety of languages, including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, and Latin. WW-P was already ahead of the curve when it began its Chinese program in 1987 at the high school level. For the past nine years, it has offered it beginning at the elementary level. But WW-P has also been recognized in the state as a model program and has attracted visitors from as far as Singapore to its world language classrooms.
In WW-P, all students begin taking Spanish in the second grade and have the option of continuing that Spanish sequence through high school, where they can graduate with two Advanced Placement courses in Spanish — Spanish Language and Spanish Literature and Culture, explained Rosanne Zeppieri, the supervisor of curriculum and instruction for K-5, who formerly served as the world language supervisor for grades K-8.
But at the end of the third grade in WW-P, students have a choice: they can continue with Spanish in fourth grade, or they can switch to Chinese, which can also be continued through high school, where an Advanced Placement course is offered.
When students enter middle school in the sixth grade, the choices widen. They can continue with Spanish or Chinese, or they can begin with French or German. In ninth grade, students can begin taking Latin, said Zeppieri.
The WW-P district takes pride not only in its early offerings to elementary school, but the fact that Mandarin Chinese is one of them.
“All of the language studies show that a tonal language like Chinese is much more difficult for American students or people who speak Western languages to acquire,” said Zeppieri. This is why it is very beneficial to start Chinese in the fourth grade, she added. “They need that time and intensity to gain a high level of proficiency. Our students are positioned very nicely to do that.”
The district seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to the trend — that students are flocking to Chinese programs to prepare for careers in international business. Zeppieri said there is a statewide movement to add Chinese language programs to public school education, but many of them begin in high school and not elementary school, like WW-P does. “I’m proud we took that step and began offering it and have been doing it for nine years,” Zeppieri added.
The trend is not specific to WW-P or New Jersey. According to Briant Sarris — the Berlitz Kids assistant director for the national language learning company, which has its headquarters at Alexander Park in West Windsor — about one-third of its clients around the country have their children in Spanish classes. The second-most popular is French, and about 10 to 15 percent of the students in the past three years at Berlitz have studied this language.
However, “the one that’s been growing in popularity is Mandarin,” says Sarris. “Mandarin has grown to between 5 and 10 percent, increasing in popularity. Japanese would be next.”
In the San Francisco Bay area, for example, students are enrolled in more Mandarin classes than Spanish, says Sarris, but she says the area’s large Asian population may be a factor in that statistic.
Similarly, a large majority of students who take one of the other languages, like Italian, do so because of their heritage. About 3 percent of Berlitz’s clients take Italian, but many of those students do so to speak the native tongues of their parents or grandparents, “or the parents want that tradition to continue in the family,” she said.
German, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic are the languages that come in behind Italian in popularity. Another is Hindi, which is also usually taken by students who want to keep their family heritage alive.
Latin, though, is a language that is virtually falling off the map — so much so that Berlitz does not even offer the language in any of its programs, said Sarris. “It’s a dead language,” she said. “Latin is something you would want to study if you’re going into a science field or medicine, or you’re going into something where there is a lot of scientific terminology.”
Zeppieri disagrees. “I think there was a time when it almost died out completely, but there has been somewhat of a resurgence,” especially in this region, she said. “It may be weak, but I don’t think it’s dying.”
But Mandarin seems to have emerged as a top language to learn. “I think it’s because of the growth in economy in China,” said Sarris. “A lot of parents are anticipating China coming to the forefront as one of the major spots for business in the next few years, and they want their children to be prepared in dealing with that.”
So what language should your child study? It may be wise to look at the career path your child wants to take, but it is not necessary to place too much emphasis on any particular language.
“If they’re looking at going into business, I don’t have a crystal ball, and I can’t say for sure, but it looks like Chinese is definitely the trend,” said Sarris.
“People are looking at China as the next gate of opportunity in the business world,” Sarris added. “As far as practical, though, they may be able to get a larger client base here if they can communicate in Spanish because there are so many Spanish speakers here.”
What about the other languages? “French is falling out of popularity, unfortunately,” said Sarris, who is also a French instructor. “I’ve seen a lot of French instructors being replaced with Chinese or Japanese instructors.”
Still, “there are certain niches where French is a vital language,” she added. “For me, it’s painful to say, but it is not as vital as it needs to be. But it is still the second-most learned language.”
Megan Castellano, a 2005 graduate of WW-P High School North, argues the case for French. At North, Castellano took AP Spanish and attended Boston University, where she was able to graduate in three years because of the AP credits she obtained at North, including those for Spanish.
However, Castellano, who is currently studying international law at Cornell and who has recently accepted a job in London at a well-known law firm, said she wishes she would have taken French. “I think French is a powerful language to know in Europe,” she said. “At least in the legal world, and in business as well, a lot of international tribunals are done in both English and French, and not in Spanish.”
She said she still believes Spanish is helpful to learn, but says she would recommend French for international business.
Officials at WW-P seem to agree with Castellano: they have actually seen a surge of WW-P student interest in French over the past few years. “In WW-P French is a very strong offering; it’s vibrant, alive, and our enrollment is high,” said Zeppieri. “We still have a lot of Spanish, but the trend has been moving to French. It’s unusual, but the kids have the option to choose.”
Sarris said that learning any language, especially at a younger age, is advantageous — not only because it gives someone an edge, but because it makes it easier for someone to learn another language in the future.
“Studying any language at an early age, even if you don’t go into a field with that language, makes it beneficial because it makes it easier for you to learn other languages,” Sarris said. “If you study Spanish early, it will give you a foundation to build your French skills. Studying any language really keeps the neurological pathways open.”
WW-P officials agree. “Learning a language is learning a language,” said Carol Meulener, the district’s supervisor of world languages from K-12. “It increases your vocabulary. What’s important is just learning another language because in doing so, you learn another culture, and you learn how other people think.”
Aside from picking the language, what about the way in which it is taught? Berlitz solely uses immersion as the most effective way to teach language. “We only teach the immersion methodology,” Sarris said. “It’s the best way to learn, especially for children. It replicates the same environment in which they learned their first language. The younger they are, the better they are at absorbing it.”
In school districts, the focus is on grammar, writing, and accuracy, but at Berlitz, Sarris said, the focus is on communication skills. Many times, clients at Berlitz will tell stories of taking a language for four years, but not being able to hold a conversation.
One example occurs when students who do well in Spanish take a trip to Mexico or another Spanish-speaking country. “They realize they can’t even order a meal,” she said. “They come to us to round out their communication. They may be able to write beautiful compositions, but they can’t get a hotel room or rent a jet ski.”
WW-P understands this idea and boasts a program that it says goes above and beyond what one sees at a typical public school to be able to help students achieve communication fluency.
“What makes our program different from others is how we teach the classes and the instructional decisions we have made,” said Russell Lazovick, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “Those kids are fully immersed. They’re getting that full experience. Our target really is fluency and understanding the culture.”
In addition, the district uses authentic materials from the cultures surrounding each of the languages to engage students on a deeper level. “It’s not your normal public school language program in which you learn the verbs and how to conjugate them,” said Lazovick.
WW-P is actually engaged in a pilot program with the state in which it will track a group of students for four years to see their proficiency levels. Proficiency levels are so high at WW-P that two of its students in the 10th grade Spanish classes tested at proficiency levels that exceeded the requirements necessary for a teacher to be able to teach in the state of New Jersey, said Zeppieri.
A look at the district’s own review of the world languages program, completed in 2007, provides insight into its curriculum design.
Even at the middle school level, the district offered a variety of co-curricular experiences, including yearly trips to Montreal and Quebec for middle and high school students as well as cultural events and festivals to showcase students’ language skills and cultural understandings, and yearly “World Cup” tournaments at the middle schools to culminate performance, the review stated.
At the high school level, the district hired “highly-qualified world languages specialists” and had a staff of 28 Spanish, Chinese, French, German, and Latin high school teachers. In 2007, students were receiving approximately 240 minutes of weekly instruction, depending on the rotating, one-hour schedule. Course selection at the high school level is determined by the student, parent, and guidance counselor after a recommendation from the teacher, the review stated.
Advanced Placement courses are offered in Spanish, Chinese, French, and German, and they are supplemented with trips to France, Spain, and Quebec. There are Honors Societies established for Spanish, German, and French, and world language clubs were available.
Overall, the district’s program seemed to earn high marks with consultant Greg Duncan, who served as the former coordinator of foreign languages and international education with the Georgia Department of Education.
“The board of education for the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District has every reason to be proud of its world language program,” wrote Duncan in his summary. “It is well-recognized, well-implemented by a very professional and highly competent staff of teachers and supervisors, and is well known throughout the state of New Jersey and beyond for its quality and vision.”
And for the past four years, the district has been a part of the STARTALK program, which is a component from the National Language Initiative. The federal grant program builds interest in critical languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, and Farsi. At WW-P, the district has had a STARTALK program in Chinese for the last four years and a Hindi program for the last two, said Meulener.
“I feel personally that’s been a real feather in our cap,” said Meulener. “It is a competitive grant. We are evaluated by experts in the field.”
“We are a model district for the state, and we are a resource for other districts in the state,” added Meulener. “As such, people come from all over the state to visit the program. During those visits, we share ideas.”
The district recently had a visit from a delegation from Singapore, visiting ETS in Princeton and making their way down to Washington, D.C. They visited WW-P on the way. “They particularly wanted to see the elementary Chinese,” said Meulener. “They were impressed with what they saw.”
But the real indicator of success in the world languages program at WW-P comes from the students themselves. “One thing I feel really distinguishes our program is that the kids stay with it through high school,” said Zeppieri. “Nationwide, most students take two years of a language. At least 75 percent of students will stick with a language through four years at WW-P. The colleges really want three to four years for world language.”
