Article: Spanish Unlocks Doors to Other Languages in Cal State Program

From http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-french-spanish-20111231,0,3944823.story

Spanish unlocks doors to other languages in Cal State program
Linguistics educators around the country are gaining interest in nontraditional programs at Long Beach campus that focus on similarities in grammar and vocabulary.
By Carla Rivera
December 31, 2011

Priscilla Castro grew up enthralled with French culture despite understanding few words of the movies and music in which she delighted.

Now Castro's facility with Spanish, which her family spoke at home, is serving as an unlikely bridge to mastering le Français in a unique Cal State Long Beach program designed to exploit Spanish speakers' existing language skills.

The French for Hispanophones program was developed more than five years ago but recently surged in popularity at the Long Beach campus, where more than 30% of students are Latino.

About 80 students were enrolled this fall in the French program, which has been such a success that a course in Italian for Spanish speakers was added this year. The university may double the number of class sections for each course next fall because of the demand, officials said.

The program has attracted the interest of linguistics educators from around the nation, including the Air Force Academy, which last year established a Portuguese course for Spanish speakers that is modeled on the Long Beach initiative.

Read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-french-spanish-20111231,0,3944823.story