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Teaching Spanish to Preschoolers

Some students start without knowing any words while others are fluent

By Annie Lubin

Rosa Torres took a leap of faith in 2005 when she accepted a job as a Spanish immersion teacher at the newly opened International School of Brooklyn. Torres had no veteran teachers from whom to learn how to best teach the students in her early childhood classes. There were no proven methods or surefire tactics for teaching in such a progressive environment. But Torres took the freedom and flexibility that the school provided and ran with it.

That leap of faith turned out to be the best move for Torres, who is now able to pursue her chosen career with the added bonus of giving her young students an appreciation for her own Spanish culture.

“I love teaching in general,” said Torres. “And here I’m able to transmit that love for learning and for being bilingual and for expressing the rewards in exploring other peoples’ cultures.”

Torres, 27, grew up in the Dominican Republic and moved to the United States about 10 years ago. Her background gives her the ability to know what the students are going through in trying to learn a new language, and the experience to know how to best help. “For me, coming here and not knowing English was a very hard transition,” said Torres. “I keep that in consideration every time I teach. I always try to make the experience of learning a second language as smooth as possible.”

For children of such a young age, encounters with a foreign language can sometimes be a scary and isolating experience. Although young children are best equipped to pick up a second language, the experience of walking into a classroom where the only language spoken is an unfamiliar one can be very intimidating.

Torres believes that the key to teaching a language without overwhelming the children is to go about the process in a playful way. “We really have to make it very fun for them,” she said.

“The program is very focused on the whole idea of exploration and inquiry-based teaching,” said Torres. She has found that the best results come when the children can explore the language and materials in a hands-on way. Torres focuses on projects, songs, books and art that “transmit the love for Spanish culture.”

Because of the nature of the immersion program, Torres has the added task of having to get through to a group of students with a wide range of comfort ability with the language. Some come in to school on the first day not even knowing how to say hello in Spanish, while others come from Spanish-speaking homes or from prior exposure to the language.

“The students in her classes have grown academically, social-emotionally and linguistically under her great care and guidance,” said the school’s director, Rebecca Skinner. “Her own curiosity for learning is contagious.”

As one parent described, these are 3- and 4-year-olds who come into school knowing only a few Spanish words picked up from Nickelodeon shows, and who leave school at the end of the year speaking complete sentences.

But for Torres, it is a career that is more rewarding than she ever thought possible. “I have the freedom of being who I am and designing my material and curriculum,” said Torres. “We teach what the kids are interested in learning… This is the kind of job everyone wishes they had.”

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Rosa Torres
International School of Brooklyn
477 Court St., Brooklyn