NHPS Language Learning Tip: Talk It Out

Instead of learning to conjugate estudiar through grammar charts in Spanish class, New Haven Public School (NHPS) students instead are being taught to become proficient in the language through classroom immersion in dialogue and full sentences like, Estudio español en New Haven.

NHPS Supervisor of World Languages Jessica Haxhi discussed that shift in how best to teach young learners different languages during a recent interview in her office on the fifth floor of 54 Meadow St.

As of last Friday, NHPS no longer has any vacancies among its language educator positions, now that the district has hired 12 new employees for those roles. 

Those newly hired educators include six new full-time Spanish teachers, two new full-time French teachers, one new part-time Arabic teacher at Career High School, one part-time teacher teaching French and Arabic at Wilbur Cross, and two part-time elementary Spanish teachers at Ross Woodward and King Robinson.

Each school year, Haxhi finds ways to support the educators while paring back on the information she provides to new staff to help them to have a successful first week and lay the ground work for an impactful year.

The most taught languages in the district are Spanish, then French, Arabic, Chinese, Latin, Italian, Japanese, and American Sign Language (ASL).

“Arabic has been on the rise as we added it to three middle schools and now are adding it back to Hill Career part time,” Haxhi told the Independent.

Japanese was added as a language course two years ago, and ASL was added last year. 

Each school year Haxhi, who has worked for NHPS for the past 10 years, said she aims to improve the supports she provides to new educators as they transition into their roles. 

“My first year I tried to give them every single thing ​‚but there’s only so much that they can take in,” she said. 

One of her main goals is to help new educators establish a routine during their first week that will create a sturdy foundation for their teaching throughout the year. 

In the past Haxhi has created activity handbooks and guidance videos for new staff. Over the years she learned the less wordy her resources are the better. 

For this school year, Haxhi is piloting a handbook she’s created to include dozens of worksheets for educators to use as professional development throughout the entire school year. 

Haxhi’s handbook pulls resources and data from the textbook ​“Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain.” She has also referred to questions she’s gotten from new educators over the past decade. 

One worksheet helps to explain the importance of building trust with students. 

The worksheet walks educators through ways to build trust with students in small moments and then draft ideas for how they can do so in their classrooms this year. 

The handbook also includes QR codes for educators to scan and watch guidance videos, and worksheets for educators to brainstorm their goals for the year.

She hopes for the handbook to help educators to make ​“language classes a joyous place.”

This can be done by having educators show students travel videos and cultural festivals from different places that would motivate them to learn another language and culture. 

The goal of the handbook is to help Haxhi to get to know and support educators, help them to build trusting relationships with students, and establish a routine for the school year. 

“No one expects you to walk in perfect,” Haxhi said.

Over the last 25 years Haxhi said the world languages field has changed so much.

The traditional way of teaching a new language with a focus on grammar is no longer how things are taught today. 

“The fun of education is constantly trying to do better,” Haxhi said. 

Now language teaching is about immersing students in the language through dialogue rather than a focus on learning grammar rules. The goal is to teach students conversational language skills to use the language in real world. 

The goal is proficiency in real world application rather than fluency, Haxhi said. 

In today’s language classrooms, educators use vocabulary visuals and strive to immerse the students with the language during the majority of the class. 

“In the old days we talked about language, nowadays we learn the language by speaking the language,” Haxhi said. 

Conjugation charts are rarely used to lead a lesson. Instead, authentic text, videos, and pictures make up a lesson to help students to practice dialogue and comprehension. 

Haxhi said these methods are proven ways to improve student engagement because the language is being applied to real world experiences. About five years ago, Haxhi created an internal website for NHPS educators to access and share language resources. 

Most NHPS students start learning a language in 7th grade. Ideally Haxhi would want to introduce language learning to more elementary schools in NHPS. 

Haxhi said she is excited for the coming school year with no language teacher vacancies. Last year’s shortages caused Haxhi to spend a lot of her time helping to substitute at Wilbur Cross, which had language teacher vacancies all school year. Now with a full staff she does not have to do the official grading of five different language classes and can instead turn her attention back to classroom observations and supporting teachers, she said. 

Haxhi has also secured a grant to bring an Arabic festival back to Career High School for its second year and Jepson School for the first time. This will allow for the increasing population of Middle Eastern transplant students to be bussed to the nearest school location to attend the festivals. In the past funding was only enough for Cross to host an Arabic festival.

Haxhi added that all the languages taught in NHPS are languages spoken in the New Haven community. She aims for students to learn a language to be an active part of the community and learn another culture besides their own to expand their thinking, she said. 

Through teacher support and guidance Haxhi’s goal is to have 200 students receive their seal of biliteracy this year. Last year 141 language learners were celebrated for their love on languages and received the award.