SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Walk into the cafeteria at the International School of Arizona in North Scottsdale, and you might do a double-take. The voices you hear are speaking French and Spanish. Words like "bonjour," meaning good morning, and "comida," meaning food, fill the air naturally, and the students saying them range from nearly two years old to twelve.
This is not a foreign language class. The learning here goes much deeper than that.
"We are a dual immersion French and Spanish," said Francis Hewitt, Director of Admissions and Marketing at the International School of Arizona. "What that means is we don't teach the language. We teach in the language."
That distinction matters. Many of these students come from English-speaking homes. Their parents are not fluent in French or Spanish. Some of them started at this school as toddlers, long before they could fully read or write in any language. By the time they reach the upper grades, they are delivering full weather forecasts in another language with confidence.
That is exactly what happened when ABC15 KidCasters visited the school.
The assignment was straightforward: deliver a short weather report on camera. The initial reaction from students was a mix of curiosity and nerves. Questions flew. Scripts were requested. Then the practice began.
"They were like, what is that? And how much do I have to say, and do I have a script?" Hewitt recalled. "As we heard today, some of them have been practicing for two days to say their short little phrase."
Two days of preparation for just a few seconds on camera, and every second counted. You could hear it in the quiet rehearsals happening in the hallways. You could see it in the careful, deliberate pronunciation of phrases like "le soleil," the French word for the sun, and "tormenta de polvo," the Spanish phrase for dust storm.
For Hewitt, the most meaningful part of the day went beyond vocabulary and grammar.
"I love seeing their strength and being able to just be proud of who they are and say, yes, I'm an American, I speak English at home, but look at me now, I'm fluent in Spanish or French," she said.
At the International School of Arizona, immersion runs through everything. Songs are sung in the language. Stories are read in the language. Even a visit from ABC15 becomes part of the learning experience. The KidCasters program gave students a new kind of stage, one where all those hours of immersive learning came through in a way families and teachers could see and hear clearly.
The students walked away with pride, confidence, and a voice that carries a little farther than it did before.
School leaders say students can begin the immersion program as early as 18 months old. In the earliest classrooms, as much as 75 to 90 percent of the school day is conducted entirely in French or Spanish.
