Foreign Languages
Our Foreign Language program is designed to build students capable of communicating in a different language, gain an appreciation for other cultures, and support their future fields of work.
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Philosophy
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Courses
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Approach
The goal of our Foreign Language program is to enable our students to communicate with people who speak different languages in their fields of work. The languages offered, Spanish and Chinese, were selected with this in mind. Spanish is spoken by about 10% of the US population. Students who pursue a career in medicine will benefit from being able to communicate in Spanish. As future members of the scientific and engineering communities, we evaluated where scientific and technological innovation is occurring outside of English speaking countries and found that significant scientific research is occurring in China .
We believe in immersion provides the optimal learning environment of a foreign language. In the elementary and middle years, we focus on learning the target language through play, which is how children learn to speak in their native tongue. In high school, we focus on conversation and interactions with peers with a focus on fluency. We leverage technology for continued practice at home. In the Upper School, students are assessed on the ILR scale (0-5) for reading, listening and speaking. The ILR proficiency rating scale is the standard rating scale for language proficiency used by the United States foreign service. Students are assigned an ILR rating at the end of each year in which they take a foreign language at school and it is recorded on their transcript.
Students wishing to test out of the two-year language requirement are required to test at an Elementary Proficiency, + level (1+) in reading, listening and speaking.
We believe in immersion provides the optimal learning environment of a foreign language. In the elementary and middle years, we focus on learning the target language through play, which is how children learn to speak in their native tongue. In high school, we focus on conversation and interactions with peers with a focus on fluency. We leverage technology for continued practice at home. In the Upper School, students are assessed on the ILR scale (0-5) for reading, listening and speaking. The ILR proficiency rating scale is the standard rating scale for language proficiency used by the United States foreign service. Students are assigned an ILR rating at the end of each year in which they take a foreign language at school and it is recorded on their transcript.
Students wishing to test out of the two-year language requirement are required to test at an Elementary Proficiency, + level (1+) in reading, listening and speaking.
Our Courses
Spanish |
Chinese |
Spanish I |
Chinese I |
Spanish II |
Chinese II |
Spanish III |
Chinese III |
Spanish IV |
Chinese IV |
AP Spanish Language |
AP Chinese Language |
