UMaine Hosting French, Spanish Language Immersion Day April 2
Contact: Jane Smith, 581-2079; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — On Wednesday, April 2, French and Spanish will be languages of the day for many at UMaine, as 100 high school students or more and their teachers visit for a day-long French and Spanish language immersion experience.
Sponsored by the University of Maine’s Department of Modern Language and Classics and the Foreign Languages Association of Maine (FLAME), events will take place from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. in Little Hall, the Memorial Union and elsewhere on campus. Students and language teachers from Hampden and Foxcroft academies and Hermon, Bucksport and Brewer high schools are planning to attend.
Psychology professor and interim College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Jeff Hecker, Ray Pelletier, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics, and Nicholas Cloutier of the UMaine Admissions Office, will greet the students at 9 a.m. in 130 Little Hall.
Students will then disperse for a “human scavenger hunt in French or Spanish” to get to know one another, according to Jane Smith, associate professor of French and graduate coordinator in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics.
The program continues at 10 a.m. with “passport activities” in the Memorial Union. Throughout the remainder of the day, students will participate in a campus-wide scavenger hunt, skits (Bumps Room, French, FFA Room, Spanish), poetry recitations (Coe Room) and music and dance from Quebec and Latin America (Totman Room).
At 1:10 p.m., a “culture bowl” in French and Spanish is scheduled at 130 Little Hall
Closing remarks will be offered around 2 p.m. in Little Hall by Mirna Reyes-Henderson, chair of the Student Activities Committee of FLAME.
Lunch for the students and visiting teachers is being provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.