Editor’s note:  This press release from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers, Inc. (NYSAFLT) was provided by the Pelham School District.

The 2018 NYSAFLT Sally G. Hahn Outstanding NYS FLES Program Award was presented to the Pelham School District, Pelham, NY. Teachers Frances Corelli and Lauren Gobbo have seamlessly implemented an all-inclusive FLES program in their district. Classes are conducted in Spanish and incorporate movement, music, and relevant and engaging language activities that encourage communication for their young students. The FLES teachers work directly with the classroom teachers to plan units that are interdisciplinary for their students. Needless to say, the program is a resounding success. The district plans to use the award monies to buy Seesaw licenses so that their students can use the digital portfolio to share their work with the school community.

The Sally G. Hahn Outstanding NYS FLES Program Award was established through a generous bequest of past member Sally G. Hahn to support elementary language learning in New York State. The interest from Ms. Hahn’s bequest is also used to fund grants and scholarships to FLES teachers in New York State.

The study of world languages fosters an appreciation and understanding of other cultures, promotes a better understanding of one’s own language and culture, supports learning and improves performance in other content areas, and cultivates the qualities of global citizens who are well-educated and prepared to compete professionally in an increasingly interconnected world. Research has shown that early language instruction not only facilitates the language learning process, but results in more native-like pronunciation and fluency in the second language. In addition, early language instruction has been shown to strengthen students’ performance in their first language as well as in other content areas.

NYSAFLT is a professional organization dedicated to providing the foreign language teachers of New York State with professional development opportunities and promoting the study of foreign languages and cultures. For more information about NYSAFLT, please visit our website at http://www.nysaflt.org.

World Languages is a core subject area in New York State.  All students are required to earn one high school credit in a modern or classical foreign language or American Sign Language.  NYSAFLT supports an early start to language learning and encourages continued language study beyond the minimum requirement in order to prepare our students to meet the challenges of today’s global community.