Fayetteville, N.C. — Most students begin learning a foreign language in middle or high school, but some North Carolina children are picking up a second language beginning in kindergarten.
Howard Hall Elementary School in Fayetteville is one of several schools across the state to use language immersion classes, which teaches children to read, write and do their work in a second language.
In 2005, the state had seven language immersion programs. As of November, there are 47 programs. Some schools have multiple programs in different languages, including Spanish, Japanese, French and German.
Splash! Language Immersion, a Chapel Hill-based company, has helped establish and manage nine of the programs.
“The great thing about these programs is children get a good academic experience, and they also become fluent in another language,” said Splash! CEO Alan Young.
Parents can volunteer to enroll their kids in language immersion. All students must start the program at the kindergarten level to ensure fluency and success, school leaders said.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Chatham County, Cumberland County and Johnston County schools are just some of the places where language immersion is taught.
Howard Hall Elementary has two kindergarten classes that focus on teaching children in Spanish.
“From the very beginning, it’s only Spanish so that they get used to the language, so they get used to everything we’re saying,” said Howard Hall teacher Yadira Munoz.
Munoz, who is from Honduras, has taught in several countries and is licensed to teach in North Carolina. Immersion teachers all follow the N.C. Standard Course of Study.
Parent Misty Hevey said she is amazed at how her daughter, Finn, is thriving.
“Her mind just automatically works in Spanish and English already,” she said.
In 10 weeks, students can read some books in Spanish and they can write sentences in the foreign language.
Splash! Leaders said they hope to start a Chinese immersion program next fall.



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November 6, 2009 12:58 p.m.
November 5, 2009 4:38 p.m.
True story: a famous educator had a mom bring her daughter for an admissions interview for 9th grade placement. This girl, her mother stated, had already written a book as part of her middle school curriculum. The educator asked her to identify the verbs on a page in a book. The child couldn't do it.
We did nearly every thing I have listed, above, by 3d grade, certainly by 5th - 1968.
November 5, 2009 4:13 p.m.
November 5, 2009 3:40 p.m.
I have a masters in computer science so I am quite educated thank you very much. Funny how the libs are throw things like you are uneducated in your face when you have a view point that is different from your own.
That is just intellectually lazy thank you very much.
I also thought that the libs were all about tolerance. Kind of hard to swallow that "inconvenient truth" that they are not isn't it? They are only tolerant of their own views.
November 5, 2009 2:59 p.m.