Language Offerings Reflect Diversity, Global Outlook

By Michael Alison Chandler (Contact), Maria Glod

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

On their first day of first grade, Beech Tree Elementary School students yesterday easily fielded questions about their summer vacation. They smiled at teachers who offered cheerful hellos. But they appeared downright bewildered by teacher Fadwa Hussein’s unfamiliar greeting: “Marhaba.”

As Hussein talked to them solely in Arabic, smiling and gesturing to help them understand, their hesitancy faded. Soon the children — the first elementary students in Fairfax County to learn Arabic in school — were happily singing, “Marhaba, marhaba” (“Welcome, welcome”).

More than 300,000 students in immigrant-rich Northern Virginia started the school year yesterday. As the number of children in the region who speak a language other than English at home is increasing, so, too, is the number learning a second language at school.

Fairfax added classes in Mandarin, Spanish and Japanese at several elementary schools this year. Falls Church schools have started offering Arabic and Mandarin for students in grades 8 to 12. And for the first time, all Loudoun County public school students — from first-graders to seniors — will be able to study a foreign language.

The expansion of foreign language programs came amid other changes. Every Prince William County elementary school has full-day kindergarten for the first time, and is adding all-day kindergarten in 21 schools, enabling the school system to reach 70 percent of county schools with a program many educators think is critical for building early literacy.

In addition, Prince William opened a new middle school and is expected to have as many as 72,000 students this fall, which could push the county school system past Virginia Beach to become the state’s second-largest.

Fairfax, with about 165,000 students, is the largest school system, but its growth has leveled off in recent years. Fast-growing Loudoun County, with more than 50,000 students, opened three new elementary schools and one new middle school. In Alexandria, more than 2,000 teenagers filed into a new, three-story T.C. Williams High School, distinguished by its eco-friendly architectural design.

The push to teach Mandarin, Japanese and other languages in schools locally and nationally responds to a call from government and business leaders who say the country needs more bilingual speakers to stay economically competitive and even to fight terrorism.

Last year, President Bush stressed the need for more speakers of so-called critical languages, including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The U.S Education Department recently noted that only 44 percent of American high school students study a second language, but learning a foreign language is required in China, Thailand and other countries.

Fairfax School Board member Ilryong Moon (At Large) said yesterday that during a summer trip to South Korea he was struck that students he met spoke English. “They were much more focused on learning about the United States and learning English,” Moon said. “As much as other countries emphasize learning about us, we need to learn about them.”

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First Day of School

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On the first day of school, Tom Weng waits for his students at Harmony Intermediate School in Hamilton. Weng teaches Mandarin Chinese class. (Katherine Frey)

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Speaking only Chinese, Tom Weng directs his students to stand up. Students hesitate as they struggle to understand the command on the first day of school in their Mandarin Chinese class at Harmony Intermediate School in Hamilton. (Katherine Frey)

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David Kennedy pays close attention and recites Chinese phrases back to his teacher, Tom Weng, during Mandarin Chinese class on the first day of school at Harmony Intermediate School in Hamilton. (Katherine Frey)

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Frank Song Jr. pays close attention in Tom Weng's Mandarin language class at Harmony Intermediate. He speaks a fair bit of Chinese and was able to translate for his fellow students on the first day or school. (Katherine Frey)

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David Kennedy, right, greets fellow student Robert Kramer in Tom Weng's Mandarin language class at Harmony Intermediate School as Jared Mingo, Patrick Ryan and the rest of the class look on. (Katherine Frey)

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Speaking only in Chinese, Tom Weng teaches eighth- and ninth-graders how to say good morning, afternoon and evening during the first day of class at Harmony Intermediate School in Hamilton. (Katherine Frey)

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Many students took the bus to Harmony Intermdiate School today, the first day of school. (Katherine Frey)

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In Loudoun, where all elementary students take Spanish, some students have begun studying Chinese.

Yesterday, teacher Tom Weng greeted eighth- and ninth-graders at Harmony Intermediate School with a sunny “Ni hao” (“Hello”).

Weng talked only in Mandarin for an hour, rattling through numbers, times of day and pleasantries, never stopping to translate. “Do you understand what he’s saying?” one student whispered to another, as Weng instructed them to seat themselves in alphabetical order by last name.

By the end of class, the students were talking, too.

“Ni hao, Jared,” and “Ni hao, Megan,” they said, pairing off and exchanging bows. Some students, shy in the unfamiliar language, whispered their hellos.

“This class is going to be hard,” said Patrick Ryan, 14, as the period ended. He said his reasons for choosing Mandarin were practical. “I heard if you are looking for a job, there’s higher pay for people who speak Mandarin,” he said. Other students said they liked the way Chinese characters look. One said he wants to be an FBI agent.

Arlington County this year expanded its Spanish program for elementary students, adding an additional school, for a total of six. In Prince William, six elementary schools have offered French or Spanish since 1991. Next year, the school system plans to more than double the elementary-level program, with a proposal to add Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French or Arabic at eight elementary schools.

Fairfax schools are spending $700,000 this year to add foreign language programs in 16 more elementary schools, targeting young learners, who experts say have a greater aptitude for absorbing language than their older peers. Each school focuses on one language that a student can continue to study in middle and high school.

The twice-weekly lessons do not take time away from math and science because they are designed to reinforce what students have learned already. For example, children studying about the ocean might read in Spanish or Mandarin about sea life.

At Beech Tree Elementary yesterday, Hussein used construction paper pictures, one of a boy and one of a girl, to teach first-graders how to say boy — “walad” — and girl — “bint” — and how to introduce themselves.

The children huddled around her on a carpet, tentative at first. Then they began to catch on. Hussein tossed a beach ball from child to child. Jasmin Martinez, 5, caught it and thought for a moment.

“Ana bint,” she said. “Ismi Jasmin.” (“I’m a girl. My name is Jasmin.”)

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