The World Languages Department believes that through the dedicated study of French or Spanish, our students will graduate with both a functional fluency in the language as well as a greater awareness and appreciation of other cultures. These will promote lifelong language learning, provide students with a better understanding of the global community, and help them take an active role as world citizens. The department strives to develop each student’s ability to attain at least an intermediate-high level of proficiency in all four language skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). To further this goal, we believe inus ing the target language as much as possible. The classroom experience includes minimal English in order to immerse students in French or Spanish.

Five skills of language acquisition are emphasized: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and culture. The “communicative approach” to teaching languages is used, which involves creating as many opportunities for students to speak as possible. Furthermore, we also use the immersion method of teaching a language in that if you want to learn Spanish/French, you will hear and see Spanish/French. Teachers strive to create a comfortable learning environment in which students feel at ease making mistakes and experimenting with the language in this immersion environment. All middle school students taking a world language course must purchase a workbook from the school.