The foreign language program implemented this year for the second grade will hopefully be expanded to include students in grades three through five by 2008, according to Marie G. Nuzzi, chairperson of the district's World Languages department. Nuzzi gave a presentation at Tuesday evening's Garden City Board of Education meeting.

Future goals of the foreign language program at the elementary school level, known as FLES, include hiring one new teacher next year for grade three, another teacher the following year for grade four, and an additional teacher the next year for grade five. Money has been designated in the proposed budget to cover the hiring of one FLES teacher to teach third graders next year.

Second-graders receive FLES instruction 30 minutes a day for three consecutive days for a total of 12 a month. It is expected that by the end of the year students will be able to recognize a sound system different from English; produce oral language by imitating, singing, rhyming and responding with learned words and phrases; hear and respond to simple directions in Spanish; and understand vocabulary related to content areas such as math, science, social studies, language arts/reading, art and music.

Since the program was implemented this year, evaluation has been ongoing, involving administrators, teachers and parents. A questionnaire has recently been sent home to parents of second-graders currently in the program.