Evening star., 1962-12-09
SMALL FRY LINGUISTS
Pupils Show Off This Week
BY HARRIET GRIFFITHS
star staff Writer

sixty OF the cityS high school principals
and teachers will read the handwriting on
the wall this week.
The handwriting will be in French and
Spanish on the blackboards Of District
elementary schools, which this June will
turn out their first batch Of pupils with
four straight years of foreign language
study under their belts.
Students who began the sequence in
third grade in 1859 now have progressed
to sixth grade as the first group to take
up the written language
The significance to high school edu-
Gators who will visit the elementary classes
Tuesday and Wednesday is that these
youngsters viii begin to arrive on the
secondary doorstep next year.
Visiting principals and foreign Language
teachers will see youngsters like sixth
grader 10 Ellen Staffin writing confidently
"Je m'appelle 10 Ellen. J'ai onze ans Je suis
une file. Je suis Americaine"
Or her classmate Helen Ament chalk
ing Mon ecole s'appelle Pecole Lafayette.
Ellie est grande. J'y vais lie lundi, lie mardi,
lie mercredi, lie jeudi et lie vendredi."
Fifth-graders viii be found reading
their first stories in French or Spanish.
Act Out Plays
Fourth-graders may be seen acting out
little plays about that familiar French
family, the Duponts. Linda Bartlett, as little
Josette Dupont, wishes aloud for "une
grande poupee" from 'le Pere Noel" and
her shining eyes show she knows she's
asking for big doll from Santa Claus.
In envlable accents, third-graders re-
cite sentences about the days of the week,
the weather, the parts of house, members
of the family and animals.
Mrs. Marjorie Percy Bowen, supervising
director of foreign languages for the
schools, directs an elementary enterprise
now involving 9,307 pupils from third to
sixth grades studying French or Spanish
in 80 schools.
The So teachers of the FILES Foreign
Language in Elementary Schools) program
are all language specialists third Of them
native speakers Each works in from two to
four schools.
Last year, Mrs. Bowen arranged for
junior high school principals and foreign
language teachers to observe the elementary
classes. This year, senior nigh educators will
observe.
1O-Year Program Sought
The objective is better communication
between the lower and upper school levels
according to Mrs. Bowen, who is working
toward an eventual l0-year sequence of
foreign-language study in the public schools
District high schools have taken the
same aural-oral approach TO language in
struction as the elementary schools, she
said. The children learn through hearing
association and repetition, then reading,
then writing.
Now, however, the secondary schools
must prepare to go forward with pupils
who will arrive with well-developed skills
Of understanding and speaking, good deal
Of competence in reading and limited
experience In writing.
The city has developed It's own ele-
mentary teaching materials in French. In
Spanish, the schools are using guides pre-
pared by the Modern Language Association.
Twenty-minute daily classes move
swiftly from one dialogue, game, playlet
or song to another. Teacher Sonia Fidao
explains that a big consideration with small
children is holding their attention,
Dialogue is a primary teaching tool.
From that are developed the drills that
can use a varied vocabulary in similar
situations or lead TO new situations For
example, THE dinner is good. The cake
is very good"
District elementary schools did some
pioneer work on foreign-language teaching
between 1852 and 1858, with regular class
room teachers giving instruction according
10 their capabilities
Mrs. Bowen calls the new program the
dessert" of her Job. She attributes much
of Its success TO the enthusiasm Of the
teachers. which, she says, matches her own.