'Tri-Lingual Bee' shows getting 'em young pays off
As a veteran teacher, Debra Scott knows to keep the minds and hands of her little first graders busy.
That was the case last Friday when she demonstrated her invention, the "Tri-Lingual Bee," for parents and older classmates at St. Peter Lutheran School in Arlington Heights.
The Bee tested her young students on their mastery of words in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. In all, they were quizzed on more than 100 words, in honor of their 100th day of school.
Scott began the display by asking the adults in the crowd how many of them had studied a foreign language. When a majority of their hands went up, she followed by asking if they had found it difficult.
Once again, they confirmed her theory, which is that by starting a second language as late as junior high or high school, it is more like work.
Determined to immerse her young students in a new culture and spark their language skills, Scott began teaching Spanish to her first graders five years ago. However, she noticed only about half the group was participating.
The rest, she explained, were fidgeting.
"The whole idea of this bee was to learn from my mistakes," Scott told the crowd, gathered in the school's gym.
After her initial partial failure, Scott started having her children use the American Sign Language symbol for each Spanish word as they learned them.
"By having them use their hands to learn the words, it stopped the playing with friends," Scott explained. "Everyone was learning."
To get warmed up for the competition, Scott led them in a recitation of their Spanish and Sign Language words. Her goal was to make it through the list in less than five minutes. Which they did.
Once into the bee itself, Scott would recite the word in Spanish, before having each student translate the word into English and American Sign Language.
She described it as more like "Jeopardy!" than a traditional spelling bee, since it divided the words into categories, from phrases to food items. The class competed in groups, and rows would stand at one time before individually reciting their words.
"This has been a great success," Scott said beforehand, "because pre-reading students with kinetic and visual learning styles have the opportunity to quickly see and remember other languages."
As it is, she noted how her class is a diverse makeup of students coming from different cultural backgrounds. Four of her first graders come from a home where a second language - Polish, Japanese, Armenian or Malaysian - is spoken.
Parents at the bee applauded Scott's efforts to expose their young children to foreign language, early.
"I love that my son, Matthew, is being exposed to different languages and cultures," said Michelle Froehling of Palatine.
Another parent, Patti Thomas of Arlington Heights, who attended St. Peter's herself, concurred.
"It moves them above the traditional reading, writing and arithmetic," Thomas says. "It's such a unique celebration."