Immersion is the Best Way

What have your language learning experiences been like?  Do you remember drudging through boring book work learning irrelevant vocabulary that you wonder when you will ever use?  Or have you experienced the target language in an engaging, relevant, real-world environment?  Many of you can probably relate to the first example, but our mission at A-KEEP is to provide the second—immersive, relevant, real-world language experiences.  Why is this so important?  We know (and major education research agrees) that immersive language learning works best.   

Mrs. Grace Kim demonstrates how well immersive language learning works as she leads the Afterschool Program at Floyd Middle Magnet School.  Mrs. Kim began teaching Korean with A-KEEP this school year.  This is not her first teaching experience; however, it is her first-time teaching so many non-heritage speakers.  While observing her class recently, I felt like I was experiencing a bit of South Korea itself.  The environment was rich with Korean language and even the smells of kimchi as the students were introduced to Korean food, not only in pictures, but in reality.  Each student had the opportunity to taste two different authentic Korean dishes and were able to express how it tasted—spicy or not spicy—before leaving the classroom that day.  Of course, there’s nothing as relevant to middle schoolers as food, so they were naturally engaged, and I was impressed with how quickly students understood and responded to Mrs. Kim’s questions in Korean.  It was also fun to see her excitement as students understood and responded correctly with their newly acquired language.  

And I wondered at the end of my observation, “What if I had had the opportunity in middle school to learn a second language in this immersive manner?”  What students do you know that would like to have the opportunity to learn a second language and experience another culture while living in Montgomery?  We are currently facilitating 3 Afterschool Korean Club, programs during this fall semester at Floyd Middle Magnet School, Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School, and LEAD Academy.  Any student with their own transportation can register to join! For more information about the Clubs and/or becoming a Korean teacher please email us at KoreanEdu@akeep.org 

By Sharon Hobbie