The Department of Spanish Language Immersion

Department Philosophy

“Monolingualism Can Be Cured.”  Through the learning of language we build on and affirm cultural, linguistic, intellectual and personal identities.  Knowledge of several languages empowers individuals by opening economic and social opportunities.  It promotes tolerance and diversity as well as solidarity within our global community.  Language learning allows us to bridge cultural barriers and promote ways of interpreting our diverse world while stimulating intellectual curiosity. 

Lead With languages Campaign: Lead With Languages is the national campaign for languages sponsored by The American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). This will be a long-term effort to raise public awareness about the importance of learning languages and understanding cultures in the lives of all Americans. Click here for more information

Research

According to research, one can define several advantages associated with immersion programs. These advantages include:

• A greater measure of cognitive flexibility and creative/divergent thinking skills
• Development of more intense listening skills
• Transfer skills in many curriculum areas. Vocabulary development  in English is especially enhanced by learning a romance language at any early age
• Development of fluency in a world language in a natural setting, with fluency being the by-product
• Development of a greater degree of cross-cultural acceptance through the understanding that the diverse peoples of the world speak diverse languages, and that learning a world language can bring us in touch with the world around us in a very personal way

 An Grade 6-8 Overview of the Language Immersion Program at Herricks Middle School (Currently in grade seven)

As the students progress to the Middle School from our elementary immersion program at Denton Avenue, they will take a specifically-designed Spanish class that will strengthen and expand their proficiency in the language. As a means of offering another opportunity to use the Spanish language, students will have the content of our 6th and 7th grade Social Studies class delivered in Spanish. The grade six semester courses of Health and Art will be delivered in both English and Spanish to provide students with the content, but equally important, focus on the social language that these two courses provide due to their themes. Bilinguals students need a balance of academic and social language to function when they interact with native speakers of Spanish. 

6th and 7th Grade Schedules

The Spanish Immersion program at Herricks Middle School provides students with the following course offerings in grade six and seven

• English Language Arts - content delivered in English
• Social Studies - content delivered in Spanish
• Mathematics - content delivered in English
• Spanish Language Immersion - 1. targeted instruction to build proficiency and accuracy 2. provide the language needed to support the academic content areas
• Health - content delivered in English and in Spanish (grade six only)
• Art - content delivered in English and in Spanish (grade six only)
• Music - content delivered in English
• Physical Education - content delivered in English

To review the 5th to 6th Grade Language Immersion Parent Orientation, please click here.

The Herricks Language Immersion Program was featured in the New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education & World Languages' newsletter. The article is available by clicking here.

If you should have any questions about our programs, please contact: