MBAers' grade-school program makes learning fun in any language

Johnson School MBA students Amol Deshpande, '05, left, and Ashees Jain, '05, right, pose with some of the students in an after-school Lingua program class Feb. 14 in the Women's Community Building in downtown Ithaca. The students playing with Spanish color flashcards are, from left, Ella, 5, Jack, 6, and Lisa, 6. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Courtney Potts '06

When you first enter a Lingua^TM class, it seems like any other after-school program for young children. Students may be working on a craft project, singing songs or taking a break for snack time. However, it doesn't take long to realize that there also is beaucoup de learning taking place.

Created by three Roy H. Park Leadership Fellows in Cornell's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, the Lingua program offers classes for youngsters that are designed to make learning a second language as easy as learning your first.

MBA students who are admitted as Park Fellows receive two years of full tuition at the Johnson School plus a stipend in exchange for making a significant public-service contribution to the school, Cornell or the surrounding community. This requirement inspired Park Fellows Amol Deshpande, Ashees Jain and Kate Rubenstein, all MBA '05, to create their for-profit Lingua program as a way to "do something that mattered in the community," Deshpande said.

Deshpande and Jain, both first-generation Americans whose families are from India, grew up with more than one language spoken at home. "In other countries, children are exposed to foreign languages early; in the United States that doesn't happen," said Deshpande. "That gap inspired us to develop our program."

The team based their model on the premise that students learn languages more easily when they're young, and the fact that most area schools don't offer second-language programs until at least seventh grade. "We made it for-profit to attract high-quality teachers and create a quality program as well as jobs in the local community," said Deshpande.

Lingua currently offers classes at the Women"s Community Building in Ithaca in both French and Spanish for two age groups: 5- to 8-year-olds and 8- to 10-year-olds. Five instructors, all native speakers in the local community, and more than 40 children participate. The program will add three more teachers in March and include classes in Mandarin Chinese, Russian and German, as well as offer classes to a pre-kindergarten age group. "Our goal was, 'can we at least develop a small program?'" Jain explained. "But once we saw the demand, we took it one or two steps further."

What really makes Lingua stand out, however, is its innovative approach to teaching. "One of the basic ideas that I sort of brought to the project was focusing on having second-language acquisition be like first language acquisition," said Morten Christiansen, an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell who serves as the program's language acquisition consultant. With this in mind, the co-founders created a system in which second languages are learned primarily through everyday activities, and youngsters learn the meaning of words through hand gestures, pictures and contextual clues.

They also receive vocabulary lists each week so that they can practice on their own. The words are picked by Christiansen for their importance in everyday conversation. While the average adult's vocabulary includes more than 60,000 words, he said, roughly 65 to 70 percent of all conversation aimed at children consists of just 200 commonly used words. "What that means," he explained, "is that if you can get children to learn these words, they're going to have a really good handle on conversations."

Lingua also places a lot of emphasis on providing value. "The real idea," Deshpande said, "is for this to be a valuable, socially conscious business in the community." As part of this mission, Lingua limits classes to a maximum of eight children, allowing teachers to provide students with individually tailored assistance.

Despite Lingua's for-profit status, its founders are committed to keeping it affordable. Winter session enrollment cost $220 for 12 weeks, or roughly $20 per class, a price that Deshpande says is much lower than similar programs around the country. Lingua also offers financing plans and is "working on other ways to make sure people who want to can participate," he said.

At a recent session of the French class for 8- to 10-year-olds, participation meant singing songs such as "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" and "Frére Jacques" before settling down for snack time. Each student had the chance to choose between water (de l'eau) or juice (du jus), and to say how many crackers they wanted: a lot (beaucoup) or a little (un peu). They also practiced their manners by saying please (si vous plait) and thank you (merci) with every request.

The co-founders plan for Lingua to continue in Ithaca after they graduate this spring and will be seeking others to run it. They also hope to expand the program to other communities.

"Working on a project like this has given me a chance to explore something that you can't learn in the classroom," said Rubenstein. Deshpande and Jain agreed, saying that they've both enjoyed the experience. As for the kids they're teaching, after class the students were asked what their favorite part of the program is. Surprisingly, it's not the games or the snacks. One little girl answered for the whole group: "I like that it's all in French."

For more information on Lingua, see this Web site: http://www.lingualearning.com.

Courtney Potts is a Cornell News Service writer intern.