Frasch Elementary’s Spanish immersion program

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Many residents in Louisiana are bilingual. Speaking languages like French or creole, alongside English.

Though, at one local school they’re taking foreign language to another level of immersion.

It’s not English or French that students at Frasch Elementary are learning in. It’s Spanish.

“Students need to be able to compete in that global market, and therefore we are trying to provide that quality of education.”

Adriana Spicer has been teaching Spanish at Frasch under the Spanish Immersion program for the last 17 years.

“This is one of the oldest programs that we have here in the whole state, and I think this kind of program provides that quality of education for our kids at a young age, you know. They’ll be able to compete in a global economy and I think one of the pluses is that they will be able to learn a second language.”

Awarded fourth place in the nation by the Spanish Consejeria de Educacion, the program forces students to immerse themselves by switching half of their curriculum to only Spanish speaking classes.

“This is a program that actually starts in elementary, so they start in kindergarten all the way through fifth grade, but it also follows them all the way through high school.”

Natalie Carroll, a fifth grader at Frasch started the program when she was only just in kindergarten.

“I have used it with my grandparents, I’ve used it at restaurants, I’ve used it in several different places.

Aspiring to be a surgeon when she grows up, Natalie says speaking another language will allow her to communicate to a larger group of people.

“I think it’s really cool that I’m bilingual so that I can talk to different people that speak different languages.”

A new generation getting ready to tackle on the world one language at a time.

Registration will be available online.

The deadline to apply is Feb 28.

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