When Signal Mountain resident Vanessa Stafford moved from her native Venezuela to Knoxville 20 years ago to attend graduate school at the University of Tennessee, she said she almost never encountered other Spanish speakers. Now, she said, it happens all the time, and she's seen a corresponding increase in people's interest in learning Spanish.
Since young children pick up language more easily than adults, Spanish immersion classes have become increasingly popular, with the number of language immersion programs offered in U.S. schools growing from three to 448 between 1971 and 2011, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Stafford is offering a 12-week session of Spanish immersion classes Mondays beginning Jan. 23 at 10:30 a.m. The 45-minute classes are designed for preschoolers ages 3-6 to attend with a parent or caregiver.
Students will learn vocabulary that they encounter every day - such as colors, foods, numbers, greetings and words to describe the weather - through play and interaction in a classroom setting with a small student-teacher ratio. Stafford said she conducts the classes entirely in Spanish, and she makes lessons fun by incorporating songs, stories, games, hands-on activities and crafts.
"It's interesting how fast [young children] can pick it up and understand what you're saying," she said.
Part of the reason a toddler can pick up a language more quickly than an adult is that they're not having to translate, said Stafford.
"They're just learning to speak by repeating after me, pronouncing the words like a native, like I pronounce them," she said.
Stafford said she has always enjoyed teaching, and has been a Spanish tutor since graduate school when she arrived in the U.S. After leaving her career as an engineer in order to spend more time with her children, she began teaching immersion classes for toddlers and caregivers in Knoxville. As those students got older, many were interested in continuing, so she began offering after-school classes for older students as well.
She moved to the mountain this summer and this will be her first time teaching here.
Stafford said classes involving toddlers and caregivers are beneficial in that they allow the caregivers to practice with the children at home, using the correct pronunciation. This is important because the effectiveness of the class depends upon how consistent they are with their practice, which she said need not be more than a half-hour every other day, and can be done while eating breakfast or riding in the car.
"The more you listen, pronounce and repeat, the more you understand," Stafford said.
Children reap other cognitive benefits from learning a second language as well. A 2000 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology shows that language skills acquired through Spanish immersion classes transfer to children's native English language skills by increasing their vocabulary through cognates. The study revealed that 30 fifth- and sixth-graders who learned Spanish through an immersion program outperformed 30 English monolinguals on 60 consecutive items on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.
Older children don't have to miss out on these benefits, because Stafford is also offering after-school classes for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Nolan and Thrasher elementary schools through the Mountain Education Foundation. She said Nolan Principal Shane Harwood had contacted her about offering classes at the school because students aren't otherwise exposed to foreign language until middle school.
Classes at Thrasher will be held Mondays starting Jan. 23 from 3:15-4 p.m., and classes at Nolan will be held Thursdays beginning Jan. 26 from 3:45-4:30 p.m.
Spanish immersion classes at Mountain Arts Community Center cost $150 for members and $165 for nonmembers, in addition to a $15 supply fee. Participants can register online at signalmacc.org or in person at the MACC, 807 Kentucky Ave.
Contact Nolan or Thrasher to sign up for after-school classes.
For more information, contact Stafford at 865-684-8490 or spanishforkids15@gmail.com, or visit facebook.com/spanishforkids15.
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.