Alison Chuan-Hi Chang, Tara Ghassemikia,

Mitchell Krawczyk, Meredith Lampe, Karinne Sandstrom

The Fight for Foreign Language: Implementing Second-Language Education in Elementary

School Classrooms

Statement of Issue and Context:

Second-Language Acquisition (SLA) at an early age has verifiable cognitive benefits.

Elementary-age students that experience second-language instruction or are immersed in a

culture that challenges them to become proficient in a new language often display higher test

scores in high school and show higher levels of general executive brain function. Additionally,

these students have shown higher levels of reading achievement and perform better in classes

pertaining to their native language (ACTFL, 2015). SLA not only encourages the development of

these neurological benefits, but promotes cultural awareness and cultivates appreciation and

understanding of lifestyle differences.

However, despite evidence pointing toward positive life outcomes, the average American

elementary school curriculum fails to require any sort of second-language instruction. In fact,

Americans fall short in second-language proficiency across all ages, compared to their

international counterparts. According to the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, 18% of

Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans (and

increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language(Skorton &

Altschuler, 2012). Furthermore, schools are cutting foreign language programs as a means to cut
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costs; the U.S. saw a significant drop in the percentage of schools offering foreign language

instruction from 1997 to 2008, from 31 to 25 percent. (Skorton & Alschuler, 2012). Clearly,

foreign language programs are not an emphasized component of many American elementary

school curricula.

Attempting to incorporate SLA programs into primary schools is challenging; in addition

to controversy surrounding language selection--the political ramifications of choosing one

language over another--education administrators have to provide thoughtful curriculum and track

down proficient instructors to teach their students. Furthermore, educators must decide on the

most effective instruction styles and activities to communicate the material. These concerns

likely cause hesitation in the decision to implement SLA programs. As a means of easing the

transition into incorporation of foreign-language programs, we provide the most effective

methods and structure for these programs as shown by recent studies.

Immersion is widely seen as the best method to acquire a new language. However,

pseudo-immersive environments are difficult to implement, especially considering the lack of

exposure that many students will have had to a second language. Additionally, recent research

has shown that, rather than dropping students directly into an entirely new language

environment, gradually introducing new ways of processing (i.e. auditory, verbal, written, etc.)

into the SLA program can significantly improve the learning process. Specifically, in the

beginning stages of acquisition, students require a strong vocabulary base from which they can

build upon. Furthermore, if students develop strong listening comprehension skills before

attempting to speak, they avoid cognitive overload and allow the SLA process to occur in a
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healthier mental state.* The aforementioned examples are just two pieces of evidence that

suggest that the order and content of SLA curriculum be crafted with care.

After performing in-depth analysis of teaching practices and investigating the outcomes

of second-language instruction, we suggest incorporating bilingualism into elementary education

programs and provide materials that integrate techniques proven to be effective.

*Please see our literature review below for more information about these statistics.
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Literature Review:

Recent research has unearthed a promising line of inquiry into the benefits of knowing

multiple languages. As more research is published, scientists are strengthening the hypothesis

that the mental faculties of bilinguals outperform those of monolinguals on several metrics,

which manifest as positive academic outcomes in young bilinguals.

Current research illustrates that studying a foreign language is a boon to performance

across other academic disciplines. Students who study a foreign language show higher SAT and

ACT scores, particularly in verbal portions of those tests (ERIC, 1990). However, other studies

suggests that foreign language education has an even more generalized academic benefit because

it also correlates with higher english, math, science, and social science performance (Stewart,

2005). It is important to note that these benefits are seen merely from the act of learning a

foreign language at any stage, meaning that students do not necessarily have to attain fluency in

a language to benefit from language programs in schools.

Researchers have not yet placed much focus on examining the precise cognitive benefits

of language learners, but some have made significant findings that describe cognitive benefits in

bilingual individuals. Early theories concerning how the bilingual advantage ought to manifest

have not held over time (Paap & Greenberg, 2013), but there persists ample evidence supporting

the notion that bilingualism does benefit brain functionality, including increased general

executive function, referring to the management of other cognitive processes, essential for

many forms of high order thought (Hilchey & Klein, 2011).

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One current theory that seeks to explain bilingual benefit states that bilingualism forces

individuals to constantly monitor their choice of language. In order to stop themselves from

slipping into a different language, bilinguals must maintain robust cognitive pathways that aid in

activating one language while suppressing the other. One study tested bimodal bilinguals (those

speaking one spoken language and one signed language) and unimodal bilinguals (those

speaking two spoken languages) and found that only the unimodal bilinguals outperformed

monolinguals on their cognitive task (Emmorey, Luk, Pyers, & Bialystock, 2008). Clearly,

bilingual advantage results from lingual competition when language is being produced orally,

which might explain why bimodal bilinguals were indistinguishable from monolinguals in their

performance. Whatever the case may be, there is robust evidence that language learning is a

beneficial component of a childs educational experience.

Below, we provide research discussing the three main pillars of second language

acquisition research: oral and listening comprehension, writing, and reading comprehension.

Oral and Listening Comprehension:

Oral and listening comprehension come as very important skills to master when learning

a foreign language, and though the two may seem to go hand in hand, there are several

arguments that suggest that by developing students listening comprehension abilities before

practicing speech faculties, students are able to learn a language with far better comprehension,

efficiency, and utility, as well as in a much healthier psychological state.

Larry Vandergrift, retired professor from the Official Languages and Bilingualism

Institute at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and author of numerous publications relating to
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metacognition in successful second-language listening, provides a basis for the sequential

learning argument, stating that processing and decoding auditory input requires recognition

knowledge, as opposed to encoding and generating speech output, [which] requires retrieval

knowledge (Vandergrift, 1999, p. 169). Vandergrift suggests that if language learners are made

to speak before the right amount of exposure to practice in listening comprehension, and before

the language that they are learning can be assimilated in long-term memory, cognitive

overload can occur (Vandergrift, 1999, p. 169). To frame his discussion, the author presents four

central reasons why learning listening comprehension before learning how to speak a foreign

language benefits the student. These reasons are as follows: students develop enhanced cognitive

comprehension, are able to more efficiently learn the language, are able to better utilize the

language, and are also able to gain confidence in their speaking abilities. Vandergrift also

discusses important strategies that teachers can employ when teaching their students a foreign

language, such as meta-cognitive strategies (in which students plan, monitor and evaluate their

language learning process), and cognitive strategies (in which students apply their learning to

specific scenarios).

In addition to developing listening comprehension skills, as emphasized by Vandergrift,

establishing a strong foundation in vocabulary knowledge is also fundamental to effective second

language acquisition. Michael F. Graves, Diane August, Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez, authors of

Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners, explain this concept. In chapter two of their

book, the authors explain how each of us have four vocabularies: words we understand when

we hear them (receptive/oral), words we can read (receptive/written), words we use in our speech

(productive/oral), and words we use in our writing (productive/written) (Graves, August &
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Mancilla-Martinez, 2013, p. 11). Specifically, the authors indicate how receptive words are those

that are understood when others use them (Graves, August & Mancilla-Martinez, 2013, p. 10).

They go on to explain how children and adults have larger receptive vocabularies than

productive vocabularies, meaning that they understand more than they speak or write. This

supports Vandergrifts argument that building ones foreign language knowledge first through

listening comprehension is more important than beginning with speech, because both adults and

children are initially able to understand more words than they are able to speak. In addition, the

authors discuss how language learners face a very particular challenge when trying to learn a

language through speech only; when learners hear someone speaking a foreign language, it

seems like all of the words are strung together into one long word and it is difficult to distinguish

where any pauses or spaces between words exist. To acquire word meanings incidentally from

mere exposure to a language, learners need to be able to perceive individual words. The ability to

do this develops in close relation to phonological and grammatical knowledge (Graves, August

& Mancilla-Martinez, 2013, p. 14-15). In other words, language learners must acquire the ability

to recognize individual words before being able to identify them in a string of speech. This

argument identifies the need for language learners to develop a vocabulary base and proficiency

in the meaning of certain words before being able to comprehend (through listening) or speak in

the foreign language.

Once students develop an adequate foundation in listening comprehension, the

development and practice of oral language skills becomes key in furthering the process of

learning a foreign language, especially at a young age. Research presented by this article does,

however, reaffirm Vandergrifts theory that one of the most significant barriers to oral language
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production is anxiety and stress related to speaking the foreign language; Performance anxiety

is negatively related to language performance, and MacIntyre (1999) claims that the presence of

such anxiety is one of the strongest predictors of foreign language success (Swanson & Nolde,

2010). These authors suggest strategies to help students practice oral skills (while also avoiding

as much related anxiety as possible): give students the opportunity to record themselves

practicing speech outside of the classroom. In this way, students can practice their speech as

much as they want, and choose which recording to send in to the teacher.

Second-language Writing:

Disclaimer: L1 refers to first language, whereas L2 refers to second language.

Oftentimes, as educators develop foreign language instruction, writing skills take a

backseat to the emphasis placed on speaking and reading skills. It was not until recentlywithin

the last couple decadesthat second language writing has been a central focus of psychologists,

behaviorists, and other second language acquisition (SLA) researchers. Before the establishment

of the Journal of Second Language Writing and The Second Language Symposium* during the

1990s, L2 writing research was composed largely of individual theories. Today, with the growth

of research collaboration, there is a plethora of writing theories and instructional methods.

In his article, Toward an Understanding of the Distinct Nature of L2 Writing: The ESL

Research and Its Implications, Dr. Tony Silva writes of the failure of educators distinguish the

differences between L1 and L2 writing. He states,

L2 writing specialists rely for direction almost exclusively on L1 composition

theories, theories which are, incidentally, largely monolingual, monocultural,

THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !9

ethnocentric, and fixated on the writing of NES undergraduates in North

American colleges and universities, (Silva, 1993).

Silva argues that the composing process in L1 writing is different from the composing

process in L2 writing. His empirical research reveals that L2 writers typically generate less

content and lack a variety of perspectives in their writing, possibly due to the L1 teaching

methods that fail to cater to L2 writing needs. Silva addresses some possible setbacks for L2

writers, such as limitations in vocabulary and less understanding of language structure.

Another well-known expert in the SLA field, Ken Hyland, authored the second most-

downloaded article about second language writing in the ScienceDirect database (a platform for

access to nearly 2,500 academic journals and over 26,000 e-books related to science research),

entitled Genre pedagogy: Language, Literacy and L2 Writing Instruction. In his article, Hyland

echoes Silvas argument advocating a more diverse approach to L2 writing instruction. Hyland

writes that instead of teaching methods focused on writing processes, grammar, or textual

content, teachers should use genre pedagogies, which he describes as a response to the still

widespread emphasis on a planning-writing-reviewing framework which focuses learners on

strategies for writing rather than on the linguistic resources they need to express themselves

effectively, (Hyland, 2007).

Hyland takes a Freirean approach to L2 writing when introducing genre pedagogy in

language instruction. He stresses the need for L2 instructors to approach writing with needs-

based methods that cater to the students rather than alienate them with difficult writing tasks. L2

writing, he states, should model writing environments the learner would use when implementing

his or her second language. So, instead of teaching how to plan, write, and review, instructors
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should introduce writing by genre, or situational writing. This teaching improves L2 writing

because it caters to language application instead of the writing process, which is generally

learned through L1 writing instruction.

In a final work that examines L2 writing, researcher Ali Shehadeh synthesizes L2 writing

instruction research and argues for the importance of collaborative group writing within language

learning classes. The social constructivist perspective of learning, Shehadeh argues, supports this

classroom environment. In L1 learning, individuals acquire language through social interaction

and occasional intervention from other L1 speakers. L2 classrooms should model this approach,

with peers interacting dialogically to collaborate a writing piece, emulating the L1 language

environment. Students collaborate on writing while the teacher provides regular assistance when

necessary. Such assistance, now referred to as scaffolding, enables children to stretch their

cognitive and linguistic development beyond their current level towards their potential level of

development (Shehadeh, 2011).

*The Second Language Symposium is an annual international conference that brings together

teachers and researchers who work with second- and foreign-language writers to discuss

important issues in the field of second language or L2 writing.

Reading Comprehension:

There is a significant distinction between students who are able to read a text in a foreign

language versus students who are able to comprehend a text in a foreign language. In other

words, solely understanding the phonologyhow words soundof a language is a shallow

interaction with a piece of literature as compared to understanding the vocabulary, morphology,

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and grammar of a given text (Geva, 2006). For a student to genuinely engage with a reading

assignment, teachers need to take a multidimensional approach.

Research by Pauline Gibbons has shown that, for students to fully understand a text,

reading skills are best taught using a three-dimensional approach (Gibbons, 2002). The first

dimension focuses on the acquisition of semantic knowledge, or knowledge of the world. This

gives students the information that they need to contextualize a piece of literature in terms of the

cultural background that it relates to. Through this, a student will have the proper foundation to

be a text participant, or, a critical thinker in regards to reading. For example, if an American

Spanish teacher is trying to introduce his American students to a reading about restaurant dining

in Nicaragua, the teacher should create pre-reading activities that first introduce the concepts in

an American context, move into explaining how this compares to Hispanic dining culture, and

finally allow the students to engage with the foreign reading (Mazzante, 2013). In this way,

students are able to gradually move from what they do know to what is yet to be learned,

which is also referred to as the Schema approach (Gibbons, 2002).

Second, a student must gain syntactic knowledge of the foreign language, or, an

understanding of the languages structure. Esther Geva, a doctor in early childhood development,

confirms this through her research about the cognitive and linguistic skills that students need to

decode grammar and vocabulary (Geva, 2006). Geva discovered that students who have a

reading deficiency in L1 would also have a deficiency in L2. In effect, there is a large population

of students that may struggle with gaining syntactic knowledge altogether. These students should

not be excluded from the cognitive benefits of second language acquisition, though many are

removed from foreign language programs altogether. Instead, teachers should personalize the
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pace that they move through syntactic material in the L2 for students with reading deficiencies in

the L1.

Third, students need to understand the relationship between letters and sounds, which is

referred to as graphophonic knowledge. Relative to semantic and syntactic knowledge, beginner

teachers often spend a disproportionate amount of time on graphophonic knowledge (Mazzante,

2013). Surely, understanding a languages alphabet along with its phonology is important for

reading, but the most important takeaway from the research shown is that all three methods--

semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic--need to be taught simultaneously rather than

hyperfocusing on one dimension, which beginner teachers often default to. Overall, a student is

able not only read, but also comprehend a text when they learn through all three dimensions, and

accordingly learn to be critical thinkers in their language acquisition.

Conclusion:

Each aspect of foreign language learning discussed above plays a key role in the

development of a childs understanding and ability to acquire a second language. Second

language acquisition is a complex process that results in gains not only in the ability to

communicate in another language, but in improved performance in other academic disciplines as

well. The aforementioned research emphasizes the importance of maintaining a balance between

each component of foreign language learning--oral and listening comprehension, writing, and

reading--as each component possesses its own significance in the development of second

language acquisition.
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THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !14

Concluding Statement:

The prospect of building an expansive and effective foreign language education program

to the U.S. is daunting. Our project has attempted to address just one small part of that enormous

proposition. Our aim is to promote foreign language education by supplying research-based

classroom activities to teachers initiating foreign language programs in elementary school

classrooms. We thought it was important to play a small role in this movement because of the

sizable benefits that researchers are finding in students who know or study a foreign language;

namely, important educational advantages that are a result of early second-language acquisition.

These findings indicate that students are showing greater academic achievement and even

improved cognitive functioning when they get the opportunity to study a new language. We also

know that language learning happens best at a young age, and yet only 15% of public elementary

schools offer any kind of foreign language education. Hopefully our work here will help in some

small way to support the efforts to bring foreign language education to those that would most

benefit.

At a basic level, we have certainly met our goal. Our website is simple and clean,

featuring over 10 hours worth of structured activities that a teacher could implement in their

curriculum, should they find themselves bringing a new foreign language program to an

elementary school. The activities themselves are neatly divided between the four major language

learning objectives: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Activities are also separated into
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !15

those for younger age groups (grades 1-3) and older groupings (grades 4-6), allowing teachers to

easily identify activities that will best support the learning in their classroom.

We were aware that students are not allowed to pick and choose any aspect of their

coursework in elementary school, unlike middle school or high school, and students generally

remain in one classroom cohort throughout the entire day. This means that students effectively

cannot opt out of foreign language instruction in elementary school, so foreign language

educators will be responsible for justifying their place in the curriculum. To support them in that

endeavor, we included facts and statistics highlighting the importance and benefits of language

learning (seen in the Mission tab). This will help teachers explain the purpose and value of

their work to interested parents or administrators.

Teachers looking to know more about second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign

language education can also use our Resources tab. Here they will find links to some existing

organizations that have done valuable work in compiling related information, such as additional

classroom activities, research into the benefits of foreign language learning, and research into

effective teaching practices.

The major strength of our work is that everything is rooted in research. Every activity is

rooted in at least one research finding or theory. Education was not an active area of scientific

inquiry when Americas educational system was established, so educators today must critically

examine whether their practices are rooted in long held American traditions or empirically

validated educational strategies. Our toolkit conveys the importance of scientific inquiry on

every page.
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Ironically, the greatest opportunity for improvement also lies in research. Although our

activities are based on research, none of them have been tested in a research setting (or even

tested at all). Our research forced us to consider abstract goals and features of an effective

foreign language education, but we had to operationalize those abstract guiding principles into

concrete lessons. Without testing, there is no way to know whether the spirit of our guiding

principles was adequately conveyed in our lessons, and to ignore testing would be hypocritical

given our evidence-based approach to learning.

There are several other ways we would like to expand on our work in the future. First,

effective activities and lessons alone still do not guarantee good educational outcomes-- they

must be paired with effective teaching. Teachers control the manner in which these activities

will be carried out, and they exert great control over the classroom. The activities we provide

hopefully offer a viable structure that allows for effective teaching, but they do not ensure good

teaching. A planned activity merely frees the teacher to spend more time addressing the other

demanding challenges of teaching, like monitoring individual student progress, behavior, and

participation, or linking different concepts and transitioning between lessons. Adequately

preparing teachers to perform these functions, specifically in the context of an elementary school

language classroom, is a very important issue that must be thoroughly addressed in the future.

The research surrounding teaching practices is extremely difficult to find at this point in

time. One review of foreign language education went so far as to assert, there are no substantial

groups of studies conducted on well-defined teaching practices pertaining to classrooms at a

primary level (Harris, J. & Duibhir, P. O, 2011). Particularly, in light of the findings correlating
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !17

foreign language learning and levels of student anxiety, language teachers must take special

considerations in how they comport themselves.

There are also aspects of our lessons that were shaped by the needs of our website as an

academic assignment. The main concern is that these lessons are largely too long for elementary

language programs that might actually exist. If foreign language teaching were adopted on a

large scale across America, the programs would not be immersive. It is not reasonable to think

there would be enough qualified, bilingual teachers to staff all of the elementary schools in the

nation. Instead, language teachers would probably visit a class for only part of the school day.

This would likely mirror way manner in which music and arts education are currently

incorporated in elementary schools today.

In this context, it would not make sense to have one activity that takes an hour to

complete. That may be the entirety of the days instruction, and teachers need time for multiple

activities that reinforce multiple aspects of the language during each teaching session. Our

lessons do not reflect this reality because we strove to meet the assignment requirement that our

lessons were equivalent to 5 two-hour teaching sessions and not exceed 2,500 words. In order to

include adequate detail in the description of our activities, we had to have a smaller number of

long activities in order to meet 10 total hours of instruction time.

Future improvements on our work would also include several obvious ways of extending

our work. We would include many more activities to give teachers a wide variety to choose

from. No one classroom is the same, and context is everything. A teacher could certainly choose

to adapt our lessons to better suit their purposes, but there ought to be a large and wide variety of
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !18

lessons so that one lesson can illustrate a first approximation to the teachers final lesson as

closely as possible. One noticeable exclusion from most of our activities is the use of explicit

instruction. Our activities primarily concern practicing and enhancing the use of the language,

but they do not teach the language itself. We ought to include activities or strategies for how

teachers can best introduce material that requires a level of rote memorization, like grammar

rules, vocabulary, and spelling.

Despite our best efforts, bringing foreign language education to American elementary

schools is going to require many additional considerations. Picking which languages to teach

will be a major obstacle. Due to the structure of elementary school instruction as it was

previously described, only one language can be offered for each class, and cost efficiency may

demand that one teacher (and therefore one language) will be present for an entire school. Under

these circumstances, the language a school chooses to incorporate may be highly controversial.

It does not help that many commonly taught languages, like French and German, do not have as

many native speakers as languages like Portuguese and Mandarin, so the most useful languages

may not be ones that parents are familiar or comfortable with.

Additionally, once target languages are identified, there must be enough teachers trained

in a given language for it to become widely taught. Then comes the challenge of ensuring that

teachers are receiving high quality preparation for their roles as language instructors. The issue

of teacher preparation in the U.S. is already a contentious one.

The most difficult practicality will be the issue of funding these new foreign language

programs; they require development of new curriculum, and they require hiring thousands of
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language instructors. Reallocating funds to pay for these instructors will spark heated debate, but

there is hope--analogous arts and music programs have left a successful template for

incorporating school subjects that require a special instructor. One way to assure funding for

these programs is by building wide support in the community, just as campaigns for arts and

music programs have done in the past. A nationwide campaign for foreign language education

would be an encouraging sign of things to come.

Given all these avenues to support bringing foreign language education to elementary

schools, it is difficult to choose what to prioritize in this process. In light of this project, we

propose a possible next step: convincing foreign language teachers to know the research. Not

only will research give them more effective tools for their classrooms, but it will also help them

understand in great detail the benefits that their work is providing their students. As the people

who work on the front lines, these teachers should be able to advocate for themselves and arm

themselves with the best teaching practices possible. Going forward, an articulate, well-informed

body of foreign language educators will be the most useful force in bringing foreign language

education to elementary school students. In doing so, they impart a valuable gift to their students

that will help them through every stage of their lives.

THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !20

Personal Reflections:

Karinne Sandstrom

This final project centered around foreign language has proved to be an interesting portal

into the past. I grew up in San Diego, a city heavily influenced by Mexican culture. It was

inevitable that throughout my life I would pick up basic Spanish. I never learned enough to

generate fluent conversation with a native speaker, but by late elementary school I knew the

basic phrases; I could count to 10, say hello, goodbye, please and thank you. It was not until my

freshman year in highschool that I began actual foreign language instruction. I took my standard

four years equivalency of Spanish and, due to the structure of my high school, finished language

courses by sophomore year. After completing this project, and upon further reflection, I now

realize that this seems very late in the game to be acquiring another language.

Sadly, I have almost forgotten most everything, which is the downside to second

language learning post-puberty. The problem is, if you do not regularly use the second language

(or any language for that matter) in your day-to-day life, the foundation of the language begins to

slip from memory. Conjugations blend together and you can forget ever knowing the difference

between future tense and past tense. The vocabulary I do remember seems random at most. I

know my sister is mi hermana and my dog is mi perro. I lay in mi cama every night and

eat comida many times a day. Yet, place me in Spanish-speaking environment and I could

probably find a bathroom at best.

While I did have glimmers of Spanish immersion growing up so close to the U.S.-Mexico

border, it simply was not enough to sustain the formal instruction I received in high school. I left
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San Diego for college anyway, so essentially the language classes I took in high school checked

some education requirement box and did little to further my bilingualism.

This project has convinced me that, had I began Spanish language at an earlier age, the

amount of the language that my brain absorbed and retained would be substantially more than

my two short years of Spanish instruction. Elementary schools have a unique opportunity to

utilize the ages of the students they are teaching. Brains are more malleable to language at a

young age, so introducing this language as early as possible could benefit students immensely in

the future. How many times, as I reflect back now, would learning and utilizing Spanish at an

early age have helped me in future contexts?

For one, I worked in a restaurant in high school, roughly at the same time that I began

taking Spanish classes. Even though I could write a short essay in class using correct verb

conjugations and vocabulary, when it came to communicating with the Spanish-speaking kitchen

staff, I froze. The lack of familiarity with the language (and lack of immersion inside the

classroom) prevented me from implementing the language. There was a disconnect between the

classroom and real-life situations. I see now that introducing language early not only allows the

student to learn the second language at a more rapid pace, but provides a foundation for the

student to have time to develop a comfortability with the language, so by the time the student

begins working or traveling, speaking is not as daunting. The foreign language becomes less

foreign.

With regards to my group, I see this project originating as a vision from individuals

unsatisfied with the traditional foreign language education they received. What I produced after

researching and developing teaching plans was influenced by my own experiences with foreign
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !22

language; I observed that second language acquisition begins and ends in high school, unless a

student is motivated to pursue the language in college (which happens very infrequently, if my

exposure to university students is any indicator).

My own experiences extend elsewhere, however. Monolingualism is a national problem.

Rather, it is a lack of emphasis on polylingualism that ranks the U.S. so poorly among other

countries. Language, I have learned, is a series of building blocks. The more languages acquired,

the easier it is to acquire another one. The more languages known, the better connected an

individual is with various cultures and people. It is hard to justify why foreign language

emphasis beginning at the elementary level is not a standardized requirement in education when

the benefits are so clear.

Meredith Lampe

Researching Second Language Acquisition (SLA) for elementary aged students has been

an enlightening experience. Prior to this project, I had heard in passing that learning a second

language at a young age is beneficial, but had never read any scientifically-verified studies or

looked into the implementation of SLA programs. This concept was grouped in with other tidbits

of information that one might hear is good for kids--learning a musical instrument, playing

sports, problem solving, etc. Now, after having spent a significant amount of time attempting to

understand the motivation for the inclusion of SLA programs in primary school settings,

(namely, the cognitive benefits that these programs have for students, and the ways in which

these affect their performance in high school and beyond), I feel confident in our groups
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !23

conviction that these elementary SLA programs have a remarkably positive effect on each

students performance and mental faculties.

We came across some pretty striking evidence pointing to the relationship between young

SLA and positive outcomes; I wont restate examples here at the risk of redundancy with our

project, but our literature review and statement of context provide a nice summary of the meat of

our findings. However, despite our ability to formulate a cohesive final product, we did have to

deal with some issues along the way.

One of my primary concerns in our decision to create a toolkit for teachers was that the

market for an information resource like this has been saturated. Lesson plans, curriculum, and

ideas for activities to teach a foreign language abound on the internet; googling teach foreign

language elementary school is all one has to do to get ahold of this information, and there seems

to be a plethora of opinions on the best way to go about second-language instruction. The

challenge that this presented for our group was how to recognize any remaining information need

and, furthermore, to meet that need while making our resource different than what was already

present.

Another problem that arose in the compilation of our project was addressing the issues

that a school or educator would encounter when attempting to implement an SLA program in a

district that didnt require such a program--specifically, figuring out how to sell elementary SLA

programs to administrators and parents. At this stage, I was reminded of an anecdote that a

political science professor had shared with me during this very same quarter. To summarize, he

referenced the struggle that environmentalists have always had in convincing influential

international politicians and owners of large corporations of the necessity to control harmful
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !24

vaporous emissions that are released into the atmosphere. Despite countless statistics and

presentations, the environmental activists were unable to get through to their audience and

convey the importance of their mission. Finally, an issue of the New York Times featured a

photograph depicting the state of the ozone layer--specifically, the large hole that has appeared in

recent decades . Suddenly, politicians and CEOs responded to the environmentalists requests.

However, it wasnt until they saw such a striking and concise visual that they were moved to act.

In the same vein, our project had to be as straightforward and convincing as possible to move

educators to act.

Despite these hurdles, along with other obstacles involved in group projects of this

nature, I am proud of the work that we have done. Our resource is valuable and highlights an

urgent information need--namely, the need for a thorough, convincing, research-based toolkit for

educators who desire to see their students not only acquire a second language, but improve their

performance in a variety of other areas of education and personal health. I thoroughly enjoyed

this project and hope to apply this information in subsequent activities as I continue my

education at the UW and beyond.

Ali Chang

Learning a foreign language has always seemed to me like a very important skill to

acquire, especially beginning in the early stages of ones life. When I attended an international

school in Kiev, Ukraine for my junior and senior year of high school, the benefits of knowing

more than one language seemed to jump out at me even more. I remember feeling at a significant

disadvantage in comparison to my multi-lingual friends who had the ability to call a taxi or
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !25

converse with store vendors (in Russian) with ease while I had to make due with pathetic hand

motions and facial expressions in order to, for example, simply buy a bag of fruit on the street. I

wish so badly that I had been given the opportunity to learn a foreign language at a young age.

This is why I chose to research and explore the topic of foreign language learning in elementary

schools for the final group project.

At first, admittedly, I was skeptical of how our group could transform the topic of foreign

language learning into a project that would fit the parameters of the final project guidelines.

However, once we settled on the idea of creating an online toolkit for elementary foreign

language teachers, I felt confident that we could pull together a product that would not only

emphasize the importance of foreign language acquisition (and the lack of these opportunities at

an elementary level), but also provide solutions to this important issue.

From both my group peers, as well as from my own research, I feel Ive learned a lot

about foreign language learning in all its different aspects. One of the most fascinating things I

learned was that the benefits of foreign language acquisition encompass not only cross-cultural

communication, but gains in other cognitive functions as well. This is reminiscent of our

readings from Tough, in which he explains how developing non-cognitive skills positively

impact ones abilities to perform cognitive functions and build positive character qualities.

Overall, I am more than satisfied with the final assembly of our project. I truly think that

it could, with further research and a longer timeline to make improvements here and there,

become a useful and popular tool for foreign language teachers in elementary schools across the

country. Some research that I think we could have included more of (if we had had more time)

would be on the actual cognitive benefits of developing foreign language skills in elementary
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !26

school. Due to the lack of research we were able to find in this area, we didnt end up including a

lot of information on this particular topic. Also, in an ideal scenario, we would have the chance

to practice our activities in real classrooms and gather results and feedback much like we did

with our teaching puzzle papers. My hope for our project is this: to test our toolkit/methods in

this way and make improvements on our project based on these results.

Regardless of these deficiencies, however, I believe our project represents an impressive

solution to an important, yet poorly addressed, issue in American elementary schools today.

Tara Ghassemikia

I was initially intrigued by this topic because I felt personally connected to it, but also

had minimal knowledge about the formal benefits of foreign language. I grew up in a household

where I constantly alternated between speaking farsi and english with members of my family,

and I also began studying french at the age of twelve. My development in each language was

extremely different and this paper ultimately taught me why the acquisition of foreign language

has not only been valuable in my own life, but something that other children will and should gain

significant benefits from.

Currently, it is problematic that the topic of foreign language is presented to students as a

high school graduation requirement. Both the timing of when the language is taught and how it is

presented is flawed. After careful research, we saw that the optimal time for foreign language

acquisition is far before high school students see their high school foreign language

requirement to be a box to check off, but students and parents alike are not exposed to the

underlying value and purpose of learning a second language.

THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !27

Fortunately, our entire group was quite passionate about the topic. After we gathered our

initial research about the benefits of foreign language acquisition, we quickly realized that this

topic was massive in its scope. Even once we narrowed our focus to elementary school students,

it took significant discussion for us to choose a goal that we thought was relevant, realistic, and

impactful. We brainstormed solutions ranging from a full summer camp curriculum to a political

advocacy group, but I am satisfied with the accessibility and tangible quality of our final product.

Creating the website was quite exhausting, but it allowed me to put myself in the shoes of

a teacher. As I designed different pages and pulled out components of our research that the public

could take value from, I realized that the product we created was more unique and innovative

than we anticipated. The lesson plan applies the values of Friere, Tough, and other authors we

read throughout the quarter. The majority of our research confirmed how valuable critical

thinking and dynamic interaction are in the teaching process of foreign language, and I was a bit

disappointed with how so many of the lesson plans we found online took a fairly static or

banking model approach. Although the absence of foreign language classrooms at a young age is

a large problem, the methodology of how the classes are taught is a also significant problem as

well. Surely, that issue is a beast in itself and I wish we could have had more time and space to

elaborate on it.

Nonetheless, we found some shocking evidence about the cognitive benefits of learning a

second language. The research on this topic has been growing in the past decade. We each found

many studies within the topics of reading, writing, oral, and listening, but it was hard to find

studies that considered all four components cohesively. We broke our research and activities into

categories focusing on the development of each of these sections. I think if we were to continue
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !28

our work with this topic, it would be valuable to begin analyzing how these four topics intersect.

We were able to do this with oral and listening, but it would be fascinating to design activities

incorporating all four components seamlessly.

Overall, I am happy with the work and passion that we all put into this project. Our topic

presents such a relevant issue and I am excited to see how we offer this toolkit along with our

extensive research as a resource to teachers and other stakeholders out there. It is frustrating that

money is a large factor that is preventing foreign language programs from being integrated into

elementary school classrooms, but I feel empowered by the knowledge that we have gained from

this project. My hope is that this research, along with additional resources to schools (such as a

toolkit for incorporating bilingualism into elementary schools), will help make small steps

towards valuing foreign language acquisition to the extent it deserves.

Mitchell Krawczyk

I am proud of the final product we managed to produce. I feel that we made a product

that is markedly better than anything we could have made on our own, which is validating in

ways that not all group projects are. Given the open-ended nature of this assignment, there was a

high demand for organization and delegation, but the effort put toward our organization seemed

to pay off. Every member put in their fair share of work to make a presentable product.

I did the bulk of the writing for our groups concluding reflections, so many of my

personal opinions are embedded there. I will use this space to elaborate on some of the main

points. One prominent feature of our project was the research focus, and it was the greatest
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !29

challenge that I faced in this process. A lot of my time searching through the literature did not

come to anything. I spent a particularly long time trying to find research describing

considerations for teaching different ages within an elementary school (e.g. teaching a 1st grader

vs. a 5th grader). I was disappointed that I could not find any studies exploring this distinction,

but I had to move on to other topics.

This project required a lot of research in general. We accumulated many more useful

sources than we were able to incorporate, and much of that is merely a function of time. Even

though many of those findings only served to confirm points made from other sources, I would

certainly have included them had there been more time. The spirit of the full breadth of our

research is still reflected in our final activities, even if it is not explicitly shown.

Despite the large amount of new information we had to accrue for our project, it was a

fitting capstone to the work we have done in class up until now. The activities we generated

were almost the same as a large collection of teaching puzzles. The lasting impact of Green,

Tough, Ripley, and Freire are undoubtedly hidden in our writings even if we were not conscious

of their influence.

I feel that our project was ambitious. As such, our toolkit still has a lot of untapped

potential that could be explored in the future. I think the most exciting avenue would be testing

our plans in actual classrooms and collecting feedback from actual educators. We cannot keep

claiming that our activities are research based if we fail to collect empirical evidence on the

actual activities themselves. In order to do this, we would also need to significantly shorten the
THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !30

length of our activities because, as is explained in the group reflections, elementary language

learning lessons are not likely long enough to spend an hour on every exercise.

Furthermore, when I consider my own foreign language learning experiences, I wonder if

our emphasis on standalone activities is misguided. In the classes I have taken so far, teachers

rely less on including a wide assortment of activities in their lessons and rely more on consistent

routines to convey the new information in every lesson. For example, my current Danish

instructor often takes the time to explicitly teach a new grammar form, then sets up sample

sentences for us to complete aloud in order to practice the new construction. His strategy is

much simpler than the creative activities shown on our website, and I wonder whether there is a

place for both in the classroom. I did not realize until the end of this project that we implicitly

assumed that our product had to be fun and novel when that was not reflective of our very own

experiences with effective language instruction.

Creative exercises, like the ones we developed, are certainly used in my experience, so

our work still holds significant practical value, but these activities only represent a minority of

the time spent in language classrooms. I would love to explore what makes for effective routines

in language learning classes in the future. Surely it matters more what occurs on a daily basis

than what strategies are employed once a week at most.

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THE FIGHT FOR FOREIGN LANGUAGE !31

Emmorey, K., Luk, G., Pyers, J., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The Source Of Enhanced Cognitive

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Foreign Language Learning: An Early Start (1990). ERIC: Educational Resources Information

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Harris, J. & Duibhir, P. O. (2011). Effective Language Teaching: A Synthesis of Research.

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Paap, K., & Greenberg, Z. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in

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Stewart, J. (2005). Foreign Language Study In Elementary Schools: Benefits And Implications

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