Yo Quiero Por Favor Students Learn Spanish Through Immersion Teaching Approach

YO QUIERO, POR FAVOR...

Students Learn Spanish Through Immersive Lunches

WALK INTO THE KINDERGARTEN around lunch time on any Wednesday and you’ll think you’ve been transported off the campus of The Peck School and to un restaurante (a restaurant).

Students dine on manzanas (apples), yogur (yogurt), galletas (cookies), arroz (rice), pollo (chicken), and chocolate (chocolate). They say ¡hola! (hello), buenos días (good morning), and gracias (thank you) while excitedly chatting with their friends and teachers.

Welcome to ¡Vamos a Comer!, a weekly Spanish immersion lunch in the K.

Spanish teachers Adriana Sykora and Sara Montijo have created a mock restaurant experience for their youngest learners to practice conversational Spanish skills in an organic and authentic way. It’s part of a teaching approach called “comprehensible input.” According to The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which recommends that learning take place through the target language for 90% or more of classroom time, comprehensible input is language input that can be understood by listeners, despite them not understanding all the words and structures in it. It is described as conversing at a level just beyond students’ current level of proficiency in the language, but not out of reach. According to American linguist Dr. Stephen Krashen’s theory of language acquisition, giving learners this kind of input helps them acquire language naturally, rather than learn it consciously. Students learn the vocabulary words for things like foods, objects, and requests in their twice-a-week Spanish classes. The weekly immersion lunch offers an additional opportunity to put those new skills to work in a natural setting. “By having an immersion lunch, it separates for the students mentally where they are learning the vocabulary and where they are practicing their skills,” Sykora said. “Language retention is higher when they practice in a more organic environment because their brain is absorbing all of the language and structure without them realizing they are learning a language.” Sykora and Montijo also use hand puppets, a key element that intensifies both language usage and excitement during the lunch. Rosco el zorro (Rosco the fox), Orgullo el Léon (Pride the lion), and Café el caballo (Coffee the horse) travel around the room “stealing” food. On their feet, in real time, the students gleefully practice asking for their food back by saying, Yo quiero por favor mi (or in English, may I have my, followed by the Spanish word of their food item.

The use of the puppets also provides an opportunity for students to learn the names of a variety of animals throughout the year including un pavo (a turkey), which is used near Thanksgiving, and un reno (a reindeer), used near the winter holidays. By the end of the year, students will not only have learned the names of all of the animals that show up to crash their lunch, but they also master several phrases including necesito ayuda por favor

Orgullo el León

Rosco el Zorro

(I need help, please), abre por favor (open, please), yo quiero leche por favor (I would like milk, please), ¿puedo ir al baño? (may I go to the bathroom?), ¡terminé! (I’m finished), and asking to go outside for recess (¿vamos afuera?).

Sykora, who introduced ¡Vamos a Comer! in 2016, says the program can also help students navigate realworld conversational Spanish.

“They really love it,” Sykora said.

Additionally, this year Sykora is reintroducing regular ¡Vamos a Comer! lunches for the Lower and Upper School, who eat family-style in the dining hall. “The same benefits of ¡Vamos a Comer! in the kindergarten apply for students of all ages,” Sykora says.