Bridges
In partnership with the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies’ Title VI National Resource Centers and the IU School of Education, Bridges: Children, Languages, World is a project that offers language and culture classes to K-6 children in the greater Bloomington, IN area. Our language lessons are taught by IU graduate and undergraduate students who are studying Less-Commonly Taught Languages—many of which have been identified as 'Critical Needs Languages' by the U.S. State Department. Our instructors implement communicative teaching methods, which emphasize learning through play—i.e. games, stories, crafts, and other interactive activities—that help children acquire new vocabulary and confidence in speaking the target language. The goal of Bridges is two-fold: to ignite interest in learning about different languages and cultures in the minds of local youth and to train our volunteer instructors to become excellent language teachers.