City may offer Chinese 101

LYNN – Teaching Chinese in public schools is a great idea, said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy, and she wants to see it explored in detail as school principals launch a close-up look at how local students learn foreign languages.French and Spanish have been taught for years in public schools, but principals, including English High School?s Thomas Strangie, said Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and other languages have found their way into curriculums in a world where instant communication and phrases like “global economy” are becoming commonplace.?The globe is getting smaller every day,” Strangie said.Classical High School?s 1,600 students speak 30 languages, said Principal Gene Constantino, who is participating in the foreign language study review. He said offering students more languages to study translates into offering them more advanced education and work opportunities.Deputy School Superintendent Jaye Warry said retooling public school foreign language programs is a multi-year process that should partly focus on the need for language education in elementary schools.?The trend is starting kids younger to learn,” she said.Many of the city?s nearly 15,000 public school students speak two languages and that bilingual ability, Warry said, is a strength local language education programs can build on.?We have to think about a third foreign language because of the economy these kids are going to be facing,” she said.Kennedy admits to partial mastery of Spanish and said her father encouraged her to study Spanish as a girl. She said Chinese is beginning to rival English as a globally spoken language.?I?d love to see Chinese offered,” she said.English once offered Spanish, French, Italian, German and Latin. School program cuts reduced the programs, but he said, “Latin is alive and well here.” Interest in learning Latin is increasing in Classical, said Constantino, after years of lagging interest. French, on the other hand, is losing popularity.Constantino said more colleges are looking seriously at applicants who have taken three years of language courses in high school. He said there is a strong link between Latin studies and high verbal scores on SAT tests. He likes the idea of teaching Chinese in local schools and said other school systems across the state offer Mandarin classes.?The more languages are available, the more opportunities there are for students,” he said.Launching a new language class in local schools is an involved process not simply confined to hiring a new teacher, said Constantino and Strangie. School Committee member Maria Carrasco said principals reviewing school foreign language programs should find out how many native language speakers are teaching language classes.?That?s a key to effective language teaching,” she said.