Habla Espanol?

Each morning, Wendy Bowen's class of kindergartners and first-graders get earfuls of Spanish.

It's not just a 5-minute lesson in learning to say "Adios, amigos," or to recite their ABCs or count to 10 in Spanish. From the moment the students walk in the door each morning until the lunch bell rings, every word that comes out of their teacher's mouth is Spanish. And the 6- and 7-year-olds who until this year spoke only English know what she is saying.

"Will you please close the door?" Bowen asks in Spanish as a noisy group of students tromp by the Larson Elementary classroom. A little girl with curly blond hair jumps up from the floor without hesitation and shuts the door.

"Now can someone tell me what day it is today?" she asks, again in Spanish. Arms shoot into the air and a few of the more eager students blurt out the answer in Spanish.

"That's right. It's May 9," Bowen says, again all in Spanish.

During the next hour, the students talk about the weather, discuss Mother's Day and sing songs, all in a foreign language that most Mat-Su students do not begin to learn, or even hear, until high school.

While most of the discussion would be unintelligible to those without at least a basic understanding of the language, a few of the words are easy for even English-only speakers to pick up.

"Magnifico!" Bowen cheers after the students recite a Spanish poem in unison.

"Perfecto!" she says with a clap of her hands after the class finishes a Spanish song.

And when the short attention of the boys and girls begins to wander, Bowen sternly says, "Silencia."

Even when math, rather than Spanish, is on the agenda, Bowen conducts all business in the foreign tongue, asking for children to finish this problem or change that word on an assignment.

While the students sometimes respond in English, it is clear by their reactions that they have no trouble discerning their teacher's instructions. And when they do speak Spanish, the foreign words come quickly and clearly.

"The red cube is on top of the yellow cube," one boy answers in Spanish when Bowen shows him a stack of blocks.

"Muy bien," she tells him with a smile.

The goal of the first-year program, the only one of its type in the Mat-Su Borough School District, is to teach children a second language by completely immersing them in it. Rather than having a separate language class with its own brief block of time, half of each school day is conducted all in Spanish, regardless of the subject.

The immersion class isn't a district-wide pilot program, it didn't originate among school board members or central administrators, and it receives no extra funding or special treatment. The idea came from parents and has survived because of a principal and a teacher.

"I loved the idea," Bowen said, "because I know how powerful it is to acquire a language at an early age." She grew up in California hearing Spanish and learning it in school. She eventually minored in Spanish in college and traveled abroad to Mexico and Spain for several semesters.

While Alaska may be a long way from these Spanish-speaking countries, Bowen argues that the language is entirely relevant here.

"If you look more globally, Spanish is one of the most frequently spoken languages," she said.

For some of the parents, Spanish in particular wasn't as important as a second language of any type.

Before the new elementary school had even opened its doors, parents Nina Shaw and Tonya Gamble approached principal Karl Schleich with the idea of offering an immersion class. Shaw said she pursued it because she wanted to see her daughter have as many opportunities as possible, including the chance to learn another language.

"And not just Spanish," she said. "Any language."

She and Bowen credit Schleich for recognizing the potential of the unique program and being willing to take a risk on it. Schleich, in return, credits the parents and teacher for their commitment to making the class work.

And they all say teaching young children a second language not only offers them another way to communicate with people around the world, but also increases their ability to learn other subjects now and in the future.

Waiting until students are 15 or 16 before exposing them to a foreign language is missing the boat, according to Bowen. The younger children are, the more easily they absorb another language.

While creating lifelong Spanish speakers may be one of the program's loftier goals, Bowen said even if the students aren't able to keep up their studies during the next years, at least they have been exposed to the possibility of another language at a critical age and that part of their brain has been stimulated.

But Bowen and Schleich are hopeful that the program will expand to allow her current students to continue to participate in language immersion classes as they move through the school. Schleich has a plan in the works to add another class next year, perhaps led by a native Spanish speaker.

At the very least, the dozen or so of this year's kindergartners will return again next year as first-graders in Bowen's class. She says she has already seen how successful mixed-grade classes like hers can be, and now she is curious to see how that fits in with language immersion as well.

Bowen already has a waiting list of parents hoping to get their kindergartners into the vacancies in her class next year. As they did this school year, Larson Elementary will conduct a lottery to choose the children. Some of the families live within the schools boundaries, but others are willing to transport their children from other areas of the Valley so they can participate.

Because no other class like this is offered in Mat-Su schools, the principal says he thinks of it not just as a Larson Elementary program but a districtwide program, so he wants to offer equal opportunity to all interested families, regardless of where they live.

Schleich warns the parents, however, that the program comes at a cost. In addition to the extra time, effort and personal supply money the teacher has to invest, parents have to give as well. To make sure the students continue to improve on their first language, parents are asked to spend additional time with them at home working on their English.

None of this, however, appears to have daunted the teacher, parents or students.

Shaw said when her daughter and several of her classmates get together outside of class for birthday parties or other events, they will often break into Spanish songs or speak Spanish to one another.

And in the classroom when asked if they enjoy spending each morning speaking Spanish, the students yell out "Si!"

"I could only count to deiz in Spanish before I started," volunteered 7-year-old Kody Shaw. "Now I can count all the way to 199."