For the past eight years, students at East Tennessee State University have been helping area kindergarteners and first and second graders learn to speak Spanish through the Amigos program.
ETSU student volunteers present the curriculum during a half-hour session each week in kindergarten and in first- and second-grade classrooms. Schools in Johnson City, Gray, Unicoi, Erwin and Kingsport participate in the program. Amigos sessions, based on a curriculum designed at the University of Tennessee, use a series of videos followed by activities to help children learn the words and phrases featured that day.
The Amigos program aims to interest young students in becoming bilingual and in serving as “cultural ambassadors,” able to welcome members of other cultures while representing their own culture for the world community.
During the 2006-2007 academic year, the program provides Spanish lessons in 12 classes, with a total of 72 hours of supplemental classroom instruction.
The Amigos program is conducted by the Language and Culture Resource Center (LCRC), a part of the ETSU Department of Foreign Languages. Dr. Ardis Nelson is the director of the LCRC and coordinates the applied Spanish minor, which involves several programs directed toward placing ETSU students into the community to improve their Spanish language skills through direct interaction with Spanish speakers while creating cultural bridges between the Anglo and Hispanic communities.
For further information, contact Nelson at 439-6897.

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