World Languages: Romance Languages – French & Spanish
“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein We believe that World Language Education: Foreign language acquisition encourages students to respect and understand other cultures as well as heightens the awareness of one’s own culture and language. Teaching students about culture promotes increased sensitivity and compassion, whilst seeking the value of differing perspectives. Foreign language acquisition equips students to participate more actively in the global community and to be more adaptable in an increasingly interconnected world. The aim for the Romance Language Program is to develop communicatively competent and culturally enriched students. Our program places a differentiated focus on the three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive and presentational). In a proficiency-oriented classroom, teachers design curricula and teach “specifically for proficiency outcomes balancing the three components of proficiency: content (the topics of communication), function (a task; the purpose of a spoken or written communication), and accuracy (correctness or appropriateness in pronunciation, writing, grammar, culture, and vocabulary choice).” We believe that engaged World Language learners: 1. Work collaboratively as well as independently. 2. Listen to and respect multiple perspectives. 3. Take risks and demonstrate resilience. 4. Demonstrate creative problem solving skills. 5. As often as possible, use an ever increasing amount of the target language in student-student, student-teacher interactions. 6. Display and promote intercultural understanding and respect of other cultures. 7. Use the target language to exchange ideas in a variety of contexts. 8. Go beyond the classroom to seek opportunities in their local community to use their linguistic and cultural competencies. We agree that World Language Education happens best when: 1. Communication is at the heart of language instruction. 2. Teachers foster an atmosphere of trust, care and safety. 3. Students share responsibility for the atmosphere and learning experiences; are proactive and take ownership for their own learning. 4. Learning is inquiry-based, collaborative and interactive. 5. Teachers integrate authentic resources and technology to help students develop cultural and linguistic competency. 6. Units are topic focused and proficiency based. Learners need a command of grammar and a wide breadth of vocabulary to communicative effectively in a language. The proficiency-based approach employs these components in the context of productive, communicative activities. Most competitive universities require or recommend from three to four years of the same modern language at the high school level. Less competitive universities may recommend two or three years of the same modern language at the high school level. Placement is based on an interview and/or placement test. Students need a solid foundation at early levels for success at higher levels. All courses are sequential.
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