RPA Students Learn Spanish Through Immersive Approach

Students in teacher Julie O’Neill’s Spanish class are gaining valuable, real-world language skills through the class’ immersive approach to learning the language. The Spanish program at RPA seeks to immerse students in Spanish, allowing them to function in the language for the entire class.  

Students have recently been working on vocabulary, and for a capstone event, they brought in items from home to buy and sell with one another (using fake money) and bargained and determined prices, all while immersed in Spanish.   

“As bargaining is a way of purchasing items in Latin American countries, this gave them a glimpse at how other cultures work, a chance to simulate that in the classroom while engaging in the language through authentic conversation,” O’Neill explained.