Alton Elementary Schools Teaching Foreign Languages
Alton elementary school students can now be part of a voluntary new program that teaches first- through fifth-graders foreign languages: Spanish, French and German. The program consists of holding the 30-minute sessions at Gilson Brown, North and West elementary schools in Alton and Godfrey. A $45 per-student fee funds the language program, and the money goes to pay for school supplies and to the teachers, who are retired educators or college education majors.
Theresa Willis, a parent, program coordinator and a French teacher, said learning a second language at 6, 7 or 8 years old is easier for students than to take on the courses in high school. “If you learn a language at a young age, it becomes almost permanent,” Willis said. “If you learn it in high school, when most of us learn a foreign language, your brain thinks about it in English; then you translate it the new language, then you speak it.
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