Pedagogy

Teaching in Elementary Schools

FLEX Goes to College: International Language Camp at UMBC

University of Maryland/Baltimore County

For the past four years, in June, the University of Maryland/Baltimore County, has offered a one-week foreign language exploratory program (International Language Camp) for children entering grades 4 through 6. Adapted to a reduced format, the UMBC International Language Camp was designed according to the basic principles of FLEX outlined in Lipton's Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs: «Also called exploratory or language awareness or cultural awareness, this type of program... emphasizes exposure to more than one language and culture, with an orientation of cross-cultural contrasts... It is primarily a language/culture motivational program» (3)¹³³. On each of the five weekdays (or for a half-day), the children experienced an introduction to a different language and culture: French, German, Japanese, Latin, Spanish, and Russian. In the course of the day's activities children began to use the languages in the functions of making acquaintances and giving personal information. In each language, they memorized several routine patterns and came to understand some vocabulary associated with basic daily activities and significant features of the foreign cultures. Emphasis was placed on cross-cultural contrasts while avoiding stereotypes. The result was a brief, but intense, immersion in a foreign experience that could motivate the participants to go on to foreign language study in their middle and high school programs.

While this article describes in detail the methods and strategies I used in conducting Spanish Day, for those readers interested in setting up a similar FLEX experience, I will first give general information about the structure of the camp and the activities conducted in other languages¹³⁴. In order to preserve a spirit of summer camp rather than school, conversation in the foreign languages and cultural appreciation activities were alternated with preparation of the camp's newspaper, games and sports, music and crafts, and an hour of swimming daily. To help implement the relaxation and sports aspect of the program, two college students were hired as counselors. Since they were both foreign language majors, they could also join in the language and culture exercises, with their participation enhancing the children's enthusiasm. Campers generally brought lunch with them but on selected days a foreign meal was served.

A sample of the content of German Day includes a geographical survey comparing the neighboring countries and borders of Germany with those of other European nations as well as some geographical vocabulary in German. The names of colors and numbers were illustrated by the presentation of pictures and objects of folklore for the campers to examine and handle. The children learned to count along with the drawing of lottery numbers on German television and sang a simple German song. They watched Sesame Street in German and saw another television show from Germany showing a toddler learning to walk and verbally interact with her parents. One of the highlights of German Day was a taste treat -Zuckertüten- accompanied by an account of the cultural meaning

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of this tradition. Zuckertüten are decorated cones filled with candy, which are presented to German children on their first day of school. In fact, the children usually receive several, one at school, one at home from their parents, and often an additional Zuckertüte from family friends and relatives.

On Russian Day, the campers watched Russian television and sang the chorus to a children's song, wearing fur hats and woolen scarves brought back from the U. S. S. R. by their instructor. They were served Russian tea from a samovar, with jam substituting for sugar, in Russian style, and the table set with wooden spoons and plates typical of folk art. The children learned to count from 1-10 in Russian and practiced routine expressions, such as, 'hello, 'how are you', 'my name is'. The Cyrillic alphabet provided a number of enjoyable and informative activities. Each child wrote his or her name in Cyrillic. Working from words whose characters are the same in the Cyrillic and Roman alphabets, the campers first learned to recognize cognates then added new letters that allowed them to read additional words.

The experience of Latin Day created an active, alive image of that ancient language. The campers sang «Frater Gai» («Frère Jacques») and «Mica, Mica, Parva Stella» («Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star»). Combining cultural awareness and language play, the instructor narrated the myth of Romulus and Remus in English with interspersed Latin words. Groups of children represented each of these Latin expressions and learned a special response to their cue. For example, the «Roma» group stood up each tune they heard the word «Roma» and said: «bella, bella, bella». Several activities involved etymologies. The campers etymologized their own names, then looked at word derivations in English, analyzing parts from Latin and Greek. They enjoyed etymologizing the longest word in the English language, 'pneumonoultranicroscopicsificovolcanoconiosis'. In the game of «Hangman» they were able to identify words and phrases translated into Latin, like the titles of the movies Star Wars (Bella Stellarum) and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (Melissa, Feci Ut Liberi Se Contraherent). Finally, their sense of history and culture was heightened by a visit to the UMBC archaeology lab, where they could see artifacts from an excavation at Pompeii.

Spanish Day began with the introduction of my two «friends», a piñata named Toro and a cowboy puppet named Tex. I explained to the children that Toro was from Mexico and spoke Spanish, while Tex came from Texas and was there to learn Spanish along with them. Tex and Toro exchanged greetings and introductions (and abrazos) in Spanish with the campers, each other, and me, then retired until the afternoon program. We spoke in English during a cultural awareness lesson in which we looked at the globe in order to identify places where Spanish is spoken, watched a filmstrip on the Aztec heritage of Mexico and another on Mexican open markets, examined craft objects from Latin America, and finally listened to several musical selections from the Andes. At this point, I felt that the children were ready to move around, after having engaged in receptive concentration for some time.

I explained that it was possible for them to learn to understand a good deal of Spanish even in a single day, and we began a Total Physical Response [TPR] lesson¹³⁵. They first followed me in a series of movement commands:

Next I showed them flash cards with the numbers from 1 through 10 and gave commands like the following:

By demonstrating the appropriate gestures myself, I soon had campers responding to a good portion of the commands. We went on to play a hiding game with one of the number cards, using «frío» and «caliente» as clues to help the students who were «it» find the card. By the time the number lesson ended, with the song: «Uno dos tres inditos» many of the children spontaneously joined in the singing of the numbers one through ten in Spanish.

Next, we played a TPR version of «Simon Says» by touching, pointing to, and shaking the parts of the body, going on to count our heads, eyes, ears, noses, and fingers (mistakes of miscounting are advisable to produce the effect of humor, for example, «uno, dos,

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tres ójos»). This counting recycled the previous presentation of the vocabulary of numbers. The lexicon of the parts of the body was similarly recycled in the activity which followed, as children went to the blackboard to contribute to the collective drawing of a person: «Stephany, dibuja una cabeza. Michael, dibuja dos ojos. Etc». The last TPR activity of the morning rehearsed the vocabulary of colors with the use of balloons. Commands included:

This last humorous and, if not impossible (like «toma el número 9 y cómelo» cited above), at least uncomfortable task is an example of what Asher calls «novel commands», an essential element of the TPR strategy. Novel utterances, as Asher points out, «will delight your students and at the same time increase their linguistic flexibility which is critical for the achievement of listening fluency» (75).

The morning of Spanish Day concluded with a slow-paced activity that allowed campers to calm down from the excitement of TPR and the balloons, while reinforcing some of the vocabulary presented through listening comprehension activities. In pages taken from elementary school Spanish workbooks, campers colored the flags of Latin American countries on one design and, on another, they followed directions to color the parts of the body appropriately. This gave them a chance to glimpse the written forms of some of the Spanish words they had heard during the TPR lesson.

During their lunch break, the campers continued to engage in activities related to Hispanic culture. They produced the day's issue of their camp newspaper in which they summarized the morning's program and wrote: «For lunch we had fabulous tacos, Mexican rice, bananas, plums, oranges and milk or juice. Dr. Lipton let us have seconds and thirds! After lunch we did something really neat! We made «Ojos de Dios» -God's eyes- by weaving yarn on two sticks. These were used by Mexicans to protect their families. ¡Me gusta el español!». The newspaper also included a wordfind, a crossword puzzle, and a word scramble consisting of the number and color vocabulary. There was a cartoon in English about the variety of tacos and another in Spanish.

After lunch, the campers settled down to listen to a story in Spanish, a familiar one for all North American children: Jorge el curioso. They did not remain settled for long, however, since they were divided into groups with each sub-group responsible for a word representing some object or person from the story, for example, «mono», «pipa», «bomberos». Each word was written on a posterboard card. The game we played is a version of the pedagogical «Taxicab», which itself is a version of the old game called «Stage Coach». Every time I came to one of the words in the story, the appropriate group stood up and showed their card, turned around, then sat down again. At the mention of the word 'Jorge' every child got up and rushed to another seat. The book's illustrations, preparatory work with the vocabulary cards, the physical response to words, along with previous familiarity with the tale all helped the children grasp the global meaning of a narrative read to them aloud in Spanish on their very first day of contact with the language.

Having, in fact, introduced the theme of animals, I went on to present the campers with photographs of various species and their names in Spanish. Then we began a TPR exercise using the commands: «Actúa como un mono, como un pato, como un caballo», etc. Needless to say, the children responded enthusiastically to this activity, which we also reversed into a charade. One student would act like an animal, and the others guessed the name. The pictures and Spanish names remained in front of the group for reference.

A calmer activity followed this excitement. The campers learned to sing two songs in Spanish: «Todo el mundo ama sábado» and the refrain from «Cielito lindo». We sang «Everybody loves Saturday night» in English as well as French and Spanish, since Spanish Day had been preceded by French Day.

One of the important strategies of the natural approach and of teaching with TPR is the principle of recycling vocabulary. «Mono», for example, appeared in the Jorge story and in the dramatic game. Numbers which occurred in a morning TPR activity with flashcards, were reworked in the exercise of counting parts of the body, and reappeared later in a birthday celebration. Similarly, colors were introduced through the balloons and recycled in

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the coloring of the Latin American flags. Towards the end of the day, we imagined that it was Toro's birthday. I showed the campers a poster of a birthday cake to which I attached candles. We counted the nine candles together, and I then explained: «Toro tiene nueve años». I began to ask the children: «Cuántos años tienes?» and soon they were understanding the question and responding either with the appropriate number of fingers or verbally in English or in Spanish.

To continue the simulation of the birthday celebration, we dramatized an activity which I translated into Spanish from a sketch in Romijn and Seely's Live Action English (22). It is called «Abrir un regalo»:

According to Romijn and Seely's suggested procedures for enacting this type of TPR series (viii), I began by displaying the prop and naming it in Spanish. Next, I demonstrated the actions myself, then asked a camper to perform them, responding to my commands. Finally I had the entire group of campers participate in «group five action» (viii) using pantomime to represent the present. After we completed the dramatization of opening a birthday present, we listened to a recording of «Feliz cumpleaños».

Our final activity of the birthday simulation and of Spanish Day, was the game of piñata. I explained that the game was traditional at birthday parties for Hispanic children. In the evaluations of Spanish Day, it is not surprising that the campers rated the piñata as their favorite moment. Of course, the piñata -who was not our friend Toro- was filled with real candy, and the children enjoyed the reward of eating it on the way to the swimming pool, where they concluded another day in International Language Camp.

My readers, who are language teachers, may be wondering about the question of language acquisition. How many of the expressions in Spanish that the children learned to understand, how many of the conversational phrases that they memorized, will be retained? And if any are retained, for how long will they be remembered? Although as a language teacher, the same thought inevitably passed through my own mind as we ended Spanish Day, instead of answering the question, I reminded myself of the purpose of the FLEX experience. It is, after all, essentially motivational. If the UMBC campers remember no more Spanish than «anda» or «toro» or «rojo», the intellectual and sensual associations attached to the sounds and meanings of certain Spanish words will remain. It is quite possible that these familiar, enjoyable, and fascinating memories associated with the Spanish language and culture and with the process of learning Spanish will be a deciding factor in the choice of foreign language study by the camp alumni, as they proceed further along their academic road.

Asher, James J. Learning Another Language Through Actions: The Complete Teacher's Guidebook. 2nd ed. Los Gatos: Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., 1982.

Lipton, Gladys C. Practical Handbook to Elementary Foreign Language Programs. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, 1988.

Rey, H. A. Jorge el Curioso (Curious George). Trans. Pedro Villa Fernández. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961.

Romijn, Elizabeth and Contee Seely. Live Action English for Foreign Students (Laeffs). 6th ed. San Francisco: The Alemany Press, 1982.

Hispania [Publicaciones periódicas]. Volume 73, Number 3, September 1990