Imagine a school district in which over 70 languages are spoken. Imagine a school district in which children can communicate with each other in languages such as Italian, Spanish and French. Residents of the Elmont Union Free School District do not have to imagine. For them, it occurs right in their own schools.

In Elmont, children aren't discouraged from speaking in foreign languages. In fact, they are encouraged. With Elmont's Language Academy, a program run on Saturdays for children in first through sixth grade with a desire to learn a foreign language, students are being introduced at a young age to foreign languages. The academy, which operated last school year for the first time, is set to begin again during this upcoming school year.

It's fitting that the Elmont School District would have a language academy since it is a school district where so many different languages are spoken. It is also a district which embraces its cultural difference and proof is the language academy.

"The district not only embraces its diversity and cherishes the different types of cultures and ethnicity that all these residents bring to the table, but the district also tries to build upon it," said Assemblyman Tom Alfano, who has visited the language academy and secured grant money to support it. "The language academy helps bridge gaps. What it helped children do was see that their differences is what made them so strong as a community."

Superintendent of Schools for the Elmont School District Dr. Maria Palandra was a foreign language teacher during her career in education and always thought of having a language academy, but she also credits parents for supporting the idea. "For the past several years, parents have been asking for a foreign language program," she said. "The climate was right."

For a foreign language teacher such as Dr. Palandra, having a language academy in the district was a dream come true. Such programs expand a child's exposure to other cultures while also facilitating learning. "There have been studies that indicate that children who speak other languages have greater divergent thinking. If a child can attach several labels to the same object, the cognitive ability increases," she said.

This past school year, there were over 300 students in the fall semester and over 400 students in the spring. The language academy takes place on Saturdays, when the district is able to secure foreign language teachers and can bring in children who are interested in the two to two and a half hour program for 10 sessions a semester.

"There's an emphasis statewide on the introduction of foreign languages on the elementary level," said Dr. Palandra. "The major focus is to introduce a foreign language at the elementary level, children are much more ready to pick up another language when they are young," said Dr. Palandra.

Students typically learn foreign languages in high school, but that doesn't have to be the case in Elmont, where children are introduced at an early age to another language, something that they may benefit from in middle and high schools. "This will offer our children a big advantage. They will be motivated when they go to junior high school and high school," Dr. Palandra said. "The idea of a foreign language is not going to be new to them."

The Elmont superintendent said children and parents have responded to the program. The feedback, she said, was terrific. "Children were very pleased to be able to say a few words in another language. They were able to showcase their newly acquired knowledge with members of their families," Dr. Palandra said. "The verbal feedback from the parents was terrific and the best feedback I could think of is that most children signed up for the following semester."

One of the teachers in the academy, Janice Feurtado of the Alden Terrace School, witnessed how exposing a child to a foreign language is a positive educational experience. "Children, by being exposed to a foreign language, get to see a different perspective in terms of another culture, language and another way of life. It's almost like an open door into another kind of experience, which can only be enriching," she said.

When Dr. Palandra introduced the program, she expected about 100 children. The program drew, however, in excess of 300 children, all of whom were accommodated. "To me, that's really success," she said.

To fund the program, the parents were charged a registration fee of $30. In addition, the grant money that Assemblyman Alfano secured was utilized to initiate the program.

There are clearly benefits to learning a foreign language, which in current time, are thought of extremely marketable skills in the job force. But, in addition, learning a foreign language enriches a child's education. Learning a language even may help children learn additional languages. "One is used to the pattern of language. A child will see how languages work. If you learn how to play a sport, the next one becomes easier. The same when you play a musical instrument," Dr. Palandra said.

Mrs. Feurtado knows by experience that learning a second language can be extremely beneficial. She learned French at the age of 9. "It's very beneficial. I learned a second language when I was quite young and I traveled as a result of it," she said. "A whole culture opened up to me in terms of art, reading and music."

Learning a foreign language is easier once a child has been exposed to it at any early age. "The early years are better suited to the introduction of a foreign language. There is a bilingual age in every individual that remains until the age of 11 or 12. People are predisposed to acquire language. The process of the acquisition of a second language is very similar to that of a first language," explained Dr. Palandra. "Children are much more flexible in accepting a new language. The sound system is not completely formed so you find out that children who learn a foreign or a second language early can speak it with native fluency."

Part of encouraging students to learn another language was making it interesting. The teachers in Elmont's language academy introduce languages through poems, riddles and songs, among other ways, covering topics that are of interest to children while presenting information about the countries where these languages are spoken.

The Latin program drew fifth and sixth grade students but the other languages drew children from grades as early as first grade children who pick other languages up rather quickly.

Simultaneously, the district has the English as a Second Language (ESL) program taking place for children in kindergarten through sixth grade. At times, the ESL students and the language academy students are able to interact.

Dr. Palandra said children were able to communicate and relate to each other since children who are learning a foreign language know what their classmates who are learning English are going through. "It makes children appreciate that it's not easy for a newcomer to immediately go into English. It made them appreciate the difficulty of learning another language," she said.