VOCAW and ECHO: Advertising Foreign Languages

  Foreign language students from junior and senior high school visited fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes that were studying social studies units, Children Around the World, Our Neighbors to the South, Our Neighbors to the North, and Our American Heritage. Each teenager taught a small group (3–6) of children phrases, words, and songs in the language of the country they were studying. The teenage “teachers” created their own programs to show that learning a language was fun, and to allow each child to learn enough language to taste success. The excitement of meeting teenagers, of learning informally, and of saying a new language made elementary‐school children say that they wanted to learn a foreign language when they reached seventh grade. The teenagers felt the excitement, too, and several said that they wanted to become foreign language teachers.