.. • v r has been said that to really learn a new language, one had to be fully immersed in it, usually by going and living in a country where that language was spoken. their time at school. The solution was immersion dorms, a program that Harding set in place in 2008 students majoring in a foreign language at Harding, this was not always an option, and other ways were needed to increase students' exposure to the foreign language during to help students toward fluency in a foreign language, particularly Spanish. Living in an immersion dorm was a chance for two English speaking students to Jive with two Spanish sp eaking students from a foreign country in one dorm with one simple rule : all conversation in the dorm must be in Spanish. The first attelllpt at this new progratTl was this past sutTltTler at Harding University Latin America (HULA) . "Last fall when I studied abroad in Chile, I lived in an immersion dorm and realized by the end of three months, my Spanish speaking ability improved significantly," junior Amanda Johnson said. "I hope to be able to do the same by living in an immersion dorm this year. The idea came frotTl Ava Conley, Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and International Studies. She said that when she was in school she participated in a sitTliJar setting where she had to sign a contract saying she would not speak English . So the idea was brought to H arding, where Spanish teacher Michelle Coizman too k over direction of the program for Conley. To qualify for the immersion dorm, students had to submit applications and pass an interview process, which was designed to detertTline if their Spanish skills were sufficient enough. "[Living in the immersion apartment] gives you experience speaking Spanish outside the classroom; it's everyday stuff," OJ sophomore Andrea Ledesma said. Ledesma was a Spanish speakers for one of the immersion apartments. The girls who participated in the program agreed that the commitment to speak in Spanish was worth the effort. "[My] experience living in the immersion dorm has been great," senior Summer Gill said. "It's an awesome and challenging exper ience to wake up and start speaking your second language . " Also challenging at times were the occasions when other people came to the apartment, who were not under the Spanish-speaking contract. "It is frustrating when we have visitors over because we can't speak just Spanish around them~they don't understand us," senior Lucinda Kitchin said. fu of the fall of 2009, there were only a few immersion dorm rooms in Pryor Hall and the program was only available to girls, but plans to start immer sion dor ms in Cone Hall were being considered for the future . The immersion dorm process allowed students to make what they studied a part of their daily lives and gave them experience that helped them in the future. Kitchin hoped to either teach high school Spanish or work at the country's borders as a translator after graduation in May . J ohnson also planned to teach Spanish in the future, while Ledesma had hopes to eventually go back to her home in Ecuador to do health missions. Despite what their plans were, the opportunity to practice Spanish in the environment of the immersion apartments was one of the stepping-stones to reaching their goals . "Not only is a second language useful, no matter what field you're in, but it's also another way of communicating to others and getting to share the gospel with them in their language," Gill said. Joel Blake Re laxing on the front lawn, junior Graziella Roosz diligently reads her book. Roosz was a transfer student from France who decided to major in English at Harding. Noah Darnell ~ "We have so ::: 174 academics
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