Maximizing Potential in
Language Learning
By Dr. Victoria Gilbert
A
s our world becomes increasingly global, it is not
only more necessary to speak other languages
proficiently, it is also critical to understand that
others do not operate from the same premise as we do. It is
critical to develop our boys’ ability to dialogue with those
whose ideas or approaches may vary widely from their own
and find ways to work together on a common goal. Second
language acquisition is one vehicle for developing this
intercultural competence and the earlier it begins, the more
natural it is to negotiate across multiple cultures.
Ten years ago, under the leadership of the Headmaster
and a task force of administrators and teachers, Saint
David’s researched, considered, and then began to design
and implement a Foreign Language in Elementary School
(FLES) program for Spanish language. A FLES program
is in the middle of the spectrum of programs a school can
adopt for early language learning. It is more rigorous than
a Foreign Language Exploration program (FLEX) and less
radical than dual language immersion where at least half of the
day’s courses (for instance math, social studies, and science)
are conducted in the target language from Kindergarten up.
To qualify as a FLES program, students need to meet for a
minimum of 90 minutes so that they can reach Intermediate
proficiency levels by the end of Sixth Grade. Spanish was
chosen after careful consideration of space, staffing, and
practical applications, as well as parental input. The overall
proficiency goal was for boys to be able to reach Advanced
12 • Saint David’s Magazine
Low by the end of high school if they continued their study
of Spanish. This is a considerable advantage as “Advanced
Low” proficiency is considered the minimum standard for
conducting business affairs or teaching the language.
In designing the program scope and sequence throughout
the roll out, Saint David’s faculty worked together with
homeroom teachers to ensure that units of study each year
were aligned to content in math, science, socials studies,
language arts, or fine arts. Content as well as routines and
games were replicated so that students would immediately
recognize the context and be able to infer meaning based on
previous understanding. Using content based instruction had
the added benefit of pushing our boys to use their critical
thinking skills in ways beyond memorizing lists of words.
This high cognitive demand in world languages has been
shown to impact performance in other areas such as math
and language arts skills. Certain units have become enduring