Chinese, the most widely spoken language in the world, with more native speakers than English and Spanish combined, may be added to the language program at Cape Elizabeth High School.

School Board member Jack Kennealy, principal Jeff Shedd and chairwoman of the foreign language department Angela Schipani are spearheading the effort. They are organizing a committee of about 15-20 parents, teachers, board members and other community members that will convene next week to discuss options for how to bring the program into the school.

Kennealy and Schipani approached Shedd with their interest after attending a Nov. 30 Chinese language conference at Colby College. The conference focused on incorporating Chinese language programs in schools throughout Maine, and emphasized the importance of bringing an increasingly globalized world into the education arena. Shedd had already been considering the idea of adding Chinese to the existing language program at the high school for over a year. Currently, the high school offers Latin (first year only due to low student interest), French and Spanish.

“I’m supportive of this program, and the foreign language department is supportive of this program,” Shedd said. “It’s like going surfing and riding a big wave. You want to catch the wave, although you don’t necessarily want be the first one to ride the wave.”

Cape Elizabeth is not the first town in Maine to have caught on to the Chinese language wave. If the program were approved, Cape Elizabeth would be the 10th school to offer the language . Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone pioneered the first Chinese language program in 1995. Westbrook High School followed shortly thereafter, implementing a program in 1997. Bangor High School set up a program in 2003, and Erskine Academy in South China began teaching Chinese in 2004.

Noble High School in Berwick, Washington Academy in East Machias, Fryeburg Academy, Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford, Waynflete School in Portland and John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor all implemented Chinese programs in 2007. Yarmouth High School is also now considering bringing Chinese into their schools for 2008.

At a School Board meeting Jan. 8, Kennealy and Shedd presented their ideas for the program to board members. One proposed plan is for the high school to work with the College Board to bring in a Chinese guest teacher through the Chinese Language Council International (also known as Hanban), which finds and places Chinese teachers in foreign countries. The College Board is a nonprofit membership association whose mission is, according to its Web site, “to connect students to college success and opportunity.”

“The goal is to develop a plan that will make it feasible to apply for the guest teacher program,” Kennealy said.

After proposing this plan, Superintendent Alan Hawkins cited a letter that he had received from a Chinese teacher living in the U.S. for the past 10 years, teaching Chinese to students in Skowhegan. The teacher had submitted his resume after reading on the school’s Web site that Cape was considering adding Chinese.

“It’s interesting to see that we have these resources available to us here in Maine,” Hawkins said. Hawkins also provided words of caution moving forward. “Whenever you make additions, you have to look very carefully at the entire system,” Hawkins said. “You only have so many hours in the day. We need to protect what we have and move on from there.”

“In the next 20-25 years this is going to be an extremely important country and language, and we also have to look at India. I see this happening, but I also see it as a process. The possibility is amazing,” Hawkins commented.

The question remains whether a language would drop out from the existing curriculum if Chinese came in. “We really need to look at how adding Chinese would affect not just our department, but other electives and the entire curriculum of the school,” Schipani said. This year marks Schipani’s second year chairing the language department, and seventh year as a teacher at the high school.

“I think it would be a great addition to the language program, and I think many students would be interested in participating,” Kiersten Brown, Cape Elizabeth student representative, said at the School Board meeting.

If Cape Elizabeth does decide to work with the College Board and Hanban to bring in a teacher from China, the only costs to the school system would be the approximately $2,000 expense associated with getting a U.S. visa for the Chinese teacher. Kennealy said he has already received offers from various parents offering to host a teacher from China for a year, so housing costs would be covered. The teacher’s one-year salary would also be paid by a stipend offered by Hanban through the Chinese government.

Leland Arris, who chairs the Westbrook High School language department, said in an interview he has been teaching Chinese at Westbrook since the program began in 1997. Westbrook has seen enrollments of 25-50 students per year over the past decade, who have chosen to participate in Chinese over the last decade.

Fortunately for Westbrook, Arris was the first teacher certified in Maine to teach Chinese. He was also already the Latin teacher at Westbrook, and when the school switched from a traditional schedule to a block schedule, it created an extra class period that the Chinese language class was able to fit into. Latin, French, Spanish and Chinese are currently taught at Westbrook.

Arris studied Chinese at Cornell University, and has taught Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan, on a Fulbright.

“I emphasize conversational Chinese in my class. We focus on food and numbers in the first year, and I take the kids to a Chinese restaurant where they have to speak and order their food in Mandarin. The students enjoy that,” Arris said. “Some students also enjoy the artistic component of writing Chinese characters. It’s a tonal language, so there can be four different words that have the same sound, and that can be a big challenge for students.”

Arris also commented on the steep learning curve that many Chinese teachers face when they come to the U.S. to teach.

“They are used to teaching in a rote way, and where students are very attentive. It can be hard to adjust to teaching in the U.S., and schools need to be aware of the cultural differences that make it difficult,” Arris said.