Hector Bellerin visited Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School in Islington to meet children studying Spanish through the Arsenal Double Club ahead of European Day of Languages on Friday.
The 19-year-old Spain youth international helped pupils practice football phrases in Spanish, before getting stuck into a football session in the playground.
The Arsenal Double Club Languages programme uses football to encourage and inspire children to learn additional languages.
Sessions are split into two halves with 45 minutes of classroom time, in which children are taught new languages using football related resources, followed by 45-minute football sessions where pupils are encouraged to use vocabulary from the language they are learning.
Bellerin said: “When I came to England from Barcelona in 2011, learning English was so important to helping me settle on and off the pitch. It’s great to see the work that Arsenal do to help children learn a second language, and to see so many youngsters enthusiastic about learning Spanish."
Since being set up in 2006, the Arsenal Double Club Languages programme has been rolled out to some 600 schools, with more than 12,000 pupils using the Club’s materials to learn an additional language.
The Arsenal Double Club also offers education programmes in numeracy, literacy, science, geography and business studies.
For more information on the Modern Foreign Languages programme, please visit www.arsenaldoubleclub.co.uk or follow the programme on Twitter @AFCDoubleClub.
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