I.E.S

An I.E.S. trained bilingual instructor will come to this school to provide language classes. Class sizes are formed for optimal conversational development. Games, activities, songs, poems, and drama are used to make the language come alive, and make learning fun!]

Students can join at any point in the school year. I.E.S. uses a spiraling curriculum with a natural, conversational approach to learning. Each book presents new vocabulary as it continues to reinforce other groups of words such as foods, clothing, school supplies, etc/

The numbers assigned to the books are for I.E.S. tracking only. The book numbers are not an order in which the books must be taught. Each book unit is independent in and of itself.

Students are given a book and tape to practice at home. These materials serve as a bridge between the weekly classes by helping reinforce the new vocabulary learned, and review vocabulary already learned. Assure your child that he/she should not understand all the new language on the tape as he/she listens to it the first few times. If the tapes were understood initially, the student would already be fluent! The idea is to grow into the language.

Students must practice the language several times a week. Years of weekly lessons are needed for a student to learn to play the piano, golf, tennis- this assumes that daily practice has also taken place. It is the same with language acquisition. Also, 10 hours of foreign language classes can be compared to the amount of vocabulary a two-year old child retains in 10 hours. The child listens, learns, acquires, but does not necessarily speak immediately the new words learned. It does take time, repetition, and practice! Listening to the I.E.S. tape is essential for that daily practice.

Acquiring a second language can and should be family fun. English translations are provided in the back of most books so parents can be involved in the learning. Listen together to the tapes! These tapes include songs and games, and the English translations make learning fun for the entire family.