It's Sink or Swim for Students of New Foreign Language Program

Imagine walking into a classroom for the first time and not being able to understand a single word your teacher says. That potentially terrifying scenario is the exact strategy Nick Pullen wants to use when the Bucks County World Language Academy begins its first sessions in the fall.

Pullen founded the academy to give elementary students a new way to get an early start on learning a second language, a crucical skill he says they will need in this ever-shrinking globe.

"This is becoming a flat world," said Pullen after last week's Central Bucks school board meeting. "It's been proven that children who are bilingual do much better in other subjects, too."

Set to open at the start of the 2013-2014 school year, the academy will be a $1,500 a year tuition-funded afterschool program open to elementary school students from the second to fifth grades. Citing the country's growing Latino population, Spanish will be the only language initially available.

The organization will rent classrooms at Kutz Elementary and Linden Elementary three times a week, for an hour each session. Even though Central Bucks schools will house the program, it's third party, non-profit status opens the enrollment to all children in Bucks County. Pullen wants to keep the class sizes small, between six and twelve students per room.

The program has four different cycles, meaning a second grader can sign up and have a progressive education each year up to the fifth grade. A third grader can sign up for the three-year cycle, and so on.

"This is a hands-on, literacy-based approach," said Stacy Gray, the world language curriculum coordinator for the Central Bucks School District. "Conversational interactions will reinforce what they learn through stories of the week."