In World Languages, the Game is Afoot(e)

By Lauren Goldberg

Foote's modern language program strives to reflect 21st-century ideas about global citizenship, cultural literacy and linguistic proficiency. Informed by the best practices recommended by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages, our curriculum focuses on five categories: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities.

Achieving proficiency across these categories requires students to "engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions" in the target language. One challenge of introducing a new language to young learners is finding meaningful and enjoyable ways of presenting and practicing words and expressions. In Foote's Lower School language classes, that challenge is often met with games.

This week, lively games were taking place in every Lower School class I visited. Sally Nunnally's fourth grade Spanish students learned and repeated vocabulary about classroom items (tape, markers, glue, scissors, etc.) and the verbs "to need" (a regular verb) and "to have" (an irregular verb) through a strategic guessing game called "The Secret Square." In the midst of laughter, good-natured corrections and excited competition, every student had the chance to repeat and vary the nouns and verbs multiple times. 

Angela Giannella's fourth grade French students played "The Shhhh Game." On the white board, Angela posted a collection of images of people representing various professions. She called out words as the children tried to determine whether she was giving the correct name as she pointed to a picture. Students had to listen for correct masculine/feminine pronouns, as well as the proper job title for the individual. As the students became more familiar with the words, Angela's pace grew faster and faster. Angela has told me that  "the children remember better when their bodies are moving." That philosophy was on full display earlier in the class, when the students had stood in two rows, facing each other and rehearsing conjugations of the verb "to be." As the rows rotated and partners changed, each person had a chance to hear, repeat and respond to the verb and pronoun phrases. 

Kindergartners played Spanish BINGO using cards with images of produce. "Me gustan cereza"(I like cherries), Angela said, holding a card with a photograph of shiny red fruit. The children searched their boards for a matching picture, repeating the word. During the game, students practiced color names: bananas, pineapple, and pears are amarillo (yellow); cereza, strawberries and apples are rojo (red). They decided whether something was a fruta or a vegetal, and they shared their own likes and dislikes.

In Chinese class, Wenyan Witkowsky's students were also keeping their bodies and minds moving. Class began with dancing and singing to a song about colors. Wenyan created her own version of the game Twister, spreading images of family members, colors and the Chinese characters for "like" and "do not like" across the floor of the classroom. On her cue, each student took a turn "becoming" the sentence she called out. "Mama likes blue" required a student to place a foot on the flashcard for "mother," a hand on the card for "likes," and another hand reaching to touch "blue." Classmates offered cues to each other to help remember the words for various colors or names for family members. 

These words for familiar objects, colors and people, and the verbs for actions, locations, and preferences, are essential for basic communication, and are necessary to build more complex statements. Our teachers are devoted to providing lessons that reinforce the meanings of the vocabulary, but more importantly, to demonstrating the joy of communication.

Lauren Goldberg is Foote's curriculum coordinator.

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