87 ACADEMICS Spanish and French with teacher licensure majors taught Kid Lingo, a program for children that involved them learning a new language and the culture behind it. Kid Lingo was created by Dr. Kristi Bond and lasted four years before being canceled due to COVID-19. The program returned in fall 2022 under the direction of associate professor of foreign languages and international studies Joli Love. Teaching Kid Lingo was a requirement for Harding students receiving teacher licensure in a foreign language, and it helped them gain experience teaching elementary-aged children. “This is more just to fill in the gap,” senior Sydney McKinney said. “We get experience more in middle school and high school, and so we don’t get as much experience in elementary even though our license enables us to teach that age range if we wanted to.” In fall 2022, four students helped teach Kid Lingo. Two of the students taught Spanish, and two taught French. Thirty-three children signed up for the program. Of those, 22 learned Spanish, and 11 learned French. The program was offered on Monday nights and lasted eight weeks. The students teaching Kid Lingo picked a theme for the year and decided on holidays and family. The students used this theme not only to get children excited about learning a new language, but also to introduce them to other cultures. “I see the great benefit and validity in teaching young ones before they start building up an anxiety about another language,” Love said. “It’s not that we don’t have the ability when we’re older to learn a language, it’s just that if you are able to convince the child that it’s an easy kind of game to play to learn another language, that later they’ll appreciate recognizing culture everywhere.” Kid Lingo was open to the Searcy public for children in kindergarten through sixth grade for Spanish and kindergarten through eighth grade for French. “We have students that come from all different kinds of backgrounds,” senior Peyton Linge said. “I think that it’s a good way for the community to kind of come together because it is offered to people in Searcy, and it’s a good way to have this little town in Arkansas, that maybe doesn’t have that much exposure, to kind of just broaden their ideas of what it could look like.” Written by: Grace Hurt Lingo Lives On The Kid Lingo program returns to the foreign language curriculum. GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS Senior Peyton Linge offers assistance during French class. Linge taught every Monday in the Watson Center. Photo by: Lauren Simmons
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