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Foreign language classes are going beyond pencil and paper in Sioux Falls schools.

The Sioux Falls School District will overhaul its world language curriculum next year to make learning more immersive for students. Following the success of the district’s Spanish immersion program, the philosophy behind the changes are simple.

The best way to learn a language is to speak it.

“I think for a long time they’ve always wanted the students to be speaking it, but the emphasis wasn’t maybe there enough,” said Kim Tollinger, a Spanish teacher at Lincoln High School. “I don’t know that we’ve been doing a good enough job in the past of emphasizing that.”

The district’s Spanish immersion program is proof the model is popular, with skyrocketing enrollment and an $11 million school set to open next year. As parents become increasingly interested in foreign language options, Sioux Falls’ growing immigrant population is adding to the dozens of languages spoken in the city and its schools.

“There’s interest in students developing those language skills because we are obviously becoming a much more global world here in Sioux Falls,” said Kate Parker, a Sioux Falls school board member.

It’s been seven years since school officials updated the curriculum for the district’s K-12 world language classes. Foreign language classes at Lincoln and other high schools will borrow more from the immersion philosophy, becoming more engaging with increased speaking requirements. Changes approved last week by the Sioux Falls School Board also include new curriculum for middle school students and updated lesson plans for K-5 students at Rosa Parks Global Studies and World Language Elementary School.

The district will invest more than $600,000 as part of the update. With only 50 minutes of class, teaching and reinforcing good speaking habits can be difficult, Tollinger said. Teachers will roll out new materials next fall when the changes take effect, including voice recorders, and new tests to place more of an emphasis on speaking.

“It’s hard to do that, but they’re finding that’s really when the kids are learning,” Tollinger said.

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Ethan Heiser’s seventh-grade class at Memorial Middle School is piloting the new curriculum. He is one of many Memorial students who will explore four different languages before they finish seventh grade: Spanish, German, French and Chinese.

“I think it will really help me a lot,” Heiser said.

The 12-year-old and his classmates are getting a richer learning experience, teacher Megan Harris said.

“Now we have the opportunity to dive a little bit deeper into the languages,” Harris said.

Teachers have spent more than a year working on the classroom changes. Tollinger serves on the curriculum writing team.

The updates made by her and other teachers follow the guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, which recommend teachers and students speak the language at least 90 percent of the time. Her students should be able to gain a better understanding of Spanish, Tollinger said.

“We want them to walk out of here and really want to use the language,” Tollinger said. “They’ll be more confident when it comes to using their language because they will have practiced it.”

Follow Pat Anderson on Twitter at @arguspanderson.