CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Many parents enroll their young children in piano lessons, ballet class, gymnastics or martial arts, figuring that getting a jump-start on these skills will serve their children later in life.
Silvina Montrul suggests that parents consider another option – a foreign language course.
Montrul – head of the University of Illinois department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and director of Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education and the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab – said young children have a unique ability to soak up a new language.
“Research shows that childhood is the best time to learn a language,” Montrul said, “and we, as a society, are not taking advantage of that opportunity.”
To fill that void, Montrul established the University Language Academy for Children, which opened last September, meeting after school at University Primary School. The academy was designed to fulfill the three missions of the university: research, teaching and community engagement. The staff, all native or near-native Spanish speakers, put together a curriculum that teaches kids Spanish through games, songs, stories and crafts.
“By playing, they learn a lot, and they’re having fun,” Montrul said. “We want the children to enjoy the classes.”
The academy is currently registering children ages 4 through 8 for summer camp.
Statistics suggest that Spanish is the logical second language to learn. Montrul cited 2010 census data showing that there are more than 50 million Spanish-speakers in the United States, making it the second-largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world, outranked only by Mexico. And in the U.S., Illinois has the fifth-highest number of Spanish speakers.
“The same way that many of us have had to learn English in other countries – to make you competitive, to function in society – I think Spanish proficiency is one of those competencies that people in the United States will have to have in the future,” said Montrul, a native of Argentina.
Growing up, Montrul, along with all her classmates, learned English in elementary school (she also speaks French). But such programs to teach children a second language, so common in other countries, are so rare here that Montrul and her staff are forced to create curriculum materials from scratch. They find creative ways to teach the children the standard vocabulary of greetings, colors, numbers, days of the week and months of the year, as well as words for seasons, animals, various foods, emotions, family members and body parts. The older children progress into reading and writing in Spanish.
Thirteen students ages 4 to 7 enrolled in the inaugural after-school classes, which met this academic year for an hour four days a week. The summer camps, which begin June 6, will run three and a half hours a day (campers select either morning or afternoon sessions), five days a week, and families are asked to commit to a minimum of two weeks.
Montrul analyzed the fees charged for other children’s activities to set the price for both the academy and the camp. The summer camp sessions cost $150 per week, with a $25 discount for additional siblings enrolled. The after-school program, which will resume in the fall, costs $215 per month for four classes per week.
“It’s comparable to what you would pay for other after-school activities that children do in this town,” Montrul said. “Parents spend money on music lessons, ballet lessons, martial arts lessons. This is another skill that enhances cognition and other aspects of intelligence as children develop. This is a tool they will use for life.”