Some Volusia County students are getting a head start when it comes to learning an additional language.
Citrus Grove Elementary and Spruce Creek Elementary are now offering French immersion programs for more than 1,600 kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.
News 6 was there as students as young as five years old demonstrated what a typical French class is like for them.
“They’ve probably had eight French lessons by now. So, they’re speaking amazing French. They embrace the accent. They embrace the activities. They’re excited about speaking French. When we start older, we don’t get this same level of accent production, we also get a little self-conscious to produce a different language. We get threatened by it. So, the ones embrace it, and we have a level of excitement.” said Dr. Grace Kellermeier, Coordinator of World Languages.
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Kellermeier explained the students attend French class once a week during their special area rotation. The classes are conducted exclusively in French.
Both elementary schools offering this program feed into high schools with French I-B curriculums. That means these students will have the opportunity to be fully fluent in French by the time they graduate from high school.
“The students have an opportunity. They have global horizons opened to them. They learn about others. They learn different people have different customs and different traditions. They use different languages.” Kellermeier said. “We’ll reap the benefits with their problem-solving abilities because when we’re learning a language, we learn how to problem solve because we’re deciphering. We’re decoding messages. So it’s an opportunity to increase their English language arts and their math scores, so all these children are blessed to be here in this program.”
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