NewsPre-K to 8
Lower School Adds Spanish
Jun 1, 1999 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
Barbara Barfield will begin teaching Spanish at the Lower School at the beginning of the 1999-2000 academic year.
“We are very fortunate to have her join us,” said Randa Mixon, Upper School foreign language department chair. “She is a native speaker and is an experienced elementary school teacher. And she is young and enthusiastic.”
According to Mixon, every Lower School class will have 30 minutes of age-appropriate Spanish instruction three times a week. Barfield will travel to the classrooms to teach the language, and the entire language class will be conducted in Spanish. The classroom teachers will also participate by linking language study with topics in their curriculum.
“The purpose of the program is brain training so that fluency can occur at later stages of learning. The goal cannot realistically be fluency unless it is a complete immersion program,” Mixon said. “We hope all the children will enjoy their language studies and have fun.”
Spanish studies can continue throughout a student’s career at Darlington. Currently in the Middle School, students take their first year of Latin, French or Spanish in the seventh and eighth grades, and in the Upper School German is offered as well. In future years, Spanish will be accelerated in the Middle and Upper Schools for those who continue their studies from the Lower School.
“Our goal is for students to start language study as early as possible and to stay with it as long as possible,” Mixon said. “We also encourage the study of more than one foreign language for those with an aptitude for languages.”
“We are very fortunate to have her join us,” said Randa Mixon, Upper School foreign language department chair. “She is a native speaker and is an experienced elementary school teacher. And she is young and enthusiastic.”
According to Mixon, every Lower School class will have 30 minutes of age-appropriate Spanish instruction three times a week. Barfield will travel to the classrooms to teach the language, and the entire language class will be conducted in Spanish. The classroom teachers will also participate by linking language study with topics in their curriculum.
“The purpose of the program is brain training so that fluency can occur at later stages of learning. The goal cannot realistically be fluency unless it is a complete immersion program,” Mixon said. “We hope all the children will enjoy their language studies and have fun.”
Spanish studies can continue throughout a student’s career at Darlington. Currently in the Middle School, students take their first year of Latin, French or Spanish in the seventh and eighth grades, and in the Upper School German is offered as well. In future years, Spanish will be accelerated in the Middle and Upper Schools for those who continue their studies from the Lower School.
“Our goal is for students to start language study as early as possible and to stay with it as long as possible,” Mixon said. “We also encourage the study of more than one foreign language for those with an aptitude for languages.”
