Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Bonjour and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is a classroom where you will find students fully engaged, speaking another language and loving every minute of it. On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to Fox Hollow Elementary School where sixth grade students share their experience in a French Dual Language Immersion class. We have some fun together speaking French and the students deliver a lively performance using the language they have truly grown to love.

We're here at Fox Hollow Elementary to talk about the Dual Language Immersion program with two of the students participating in the program and one of our teachers. Introduce yourself, tell us what grade you're in and just a little bit about yourself.

Lily:
My name is Lily and I am at the dual French Immersion at Fox Hollow Elementary. And I really like it here because the teachers are so kind and yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Spencer:
I'm Spencer. And I'm in sixth grade and I do the French Immersion as well. And I like it here too, because our teacher is really nice.

Anthony Godfrey:
Let's talk to that nice teacher.

Lydia Fa’asu:
Hi, my name is Madam Fa’asu or Lydia, and I've been at Fox Hollow for five years now in sixth grade. And it's been an amazing experience.

Anthony Godfrey:
And can you describe the Dual Language Immersion program for those who may not understand it?

Lydia Fa’asu:
Absolutely. So the students have half of the time in English and half of the time in French. So they start for example, in the English class and do ELA and math, and then they switch and go to the French class where they do science, social studies and French, everything in French.

Anthony Godfrey:
And when you say everything in French, everything is in French. There is no English spoken by the teacher or the students, because part of the way you learn language is when you need it to survive. Is that right?

Lydia Fa’asu:
That's correct. They know that the rule is when they step in the classroom, everything is in French, and I send them back if they don't.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, and I've seen as I've observed over the years, even in first grade classes where students are just starting out and they need to ask permission to go to the restroom, they need something in class. And when they have to do that in French, that really forces them to put their brains into high gear and think about how to express that in a foreign language.

Lydia Fa’asu:
Yes, so in first grade when they arrive and they don't know a word of French, one of the basics is to teach them those key sentences. To ask to go to the bathroom or to ask what time it is or things like that. And so they learn little by little and usually by the end of the year, they know all the basics. Instructions or sentences that they need to be in a French class.

Anthony Godfrey:
Which grades have you taught since you've been here at Fox Hollow?

Lydia Fa’asu:
Fox Hollow I only did sixth grade, but I taught in fourth grade in Canyons School District for five years as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, great. And were you a teacher in France previously?

Lydia Fa’asu:
Yes. I was already an elementary school teacher in France and I taught pretty much every grade level