For our students, learning a world language is essential in gaining a broader, more balanced, and more nuanced view of the global community.
Learning Language and Culture
Starting in Middle School, we offer four languages from which students can choose: Chinese, French, Latin, and Spanish. With an emphasis on fostering real-world communicative skills and a deep understanding of linguistics, we give students the opportunity to develop an enthusiasm and excitement for language study that leads them to become inquisitive scholars of culture, history, and literature.
Accordion
The focus of this course is to serve as an introduction to the Chinese language and culture. Level one in Chinese is divided into two years. The first year covers basic grammatical points and conversation. Pronunciation and tones are particularly stressed. Topics are related to students’ daily life. Chinese characters are introduced in this level so that students will have a basic concept of the writing system and feel comfortable in reading and writing at a beginning level.
This course builds upon the knowledge gained in Chinese 7 and completes the first formal level of the language. Students learn more vocabulary, phrases, sentence structure, and characters. In this course, listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized. Students conduct and understand longer conversations and present themselves and their interests such as family, hobby, daily life, etc
Sixth graders take this introductory level of Latin. The course covers elementary grammar concepts and presents simple vocabulary and sentence structures. The class studies Roman culture as it relates to daily life, history, geography, literature, and art of the Roman World. The class also discusses how the Latin language and Roman culture relate to our life and language.
Latin 7 introduces fundamental components of the Latin language and the cultural and historical context in which it was spoken and written. Students acquire basic Latin vocabulary, morphology, and grammatical concepts needed to read adapted Latin texts and compose simple Latin sentences. They experience the language through the history, mythology, and culture of the ancient Roman world.
In this second year of Latin study, students build on their foundation in basic Latin vocabulary, morphology, and grammar and improve their ability to read and understand Latin texts and to compose in Latin. Latin 8 students complete their exploration of the tenses and voices of Latin verbs, master the remaining noun and adjective families, and consolidate their knowledge of Latin pronouns. They continue to explore the history of the Roman Republic, examine daily life in Rome, and travel into the city through the eyes of an ancient Roman family.
During the alternate semester, sixth grade students take French. This class presents introductory grammar and simple vocabulary. The class studies Francophone cultures including geography, music, art and daily life.
Level one in French is divided into two years. The first year covers basic grammatical points, including the present and indicative forms of the major verb groups, and conjugations of irregular verbs. Students learn thematic vocabulary, idioms and expressions to describe people, ideas and situations. The curriculum emphasizes the four linguistic skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Included is cultural information that relates to the Francophone countries around the world.
In this second year, students complete the first formal level of the language. Students learn more vocabulary, verb conjugations, including a continuation of the indicative forms of the three major verb groups, and more sentence structure. Orally and in writing, students use simple descriptions to discuss their lives, school, home and friends.
This course integrates language learning and cultural studies through a focused exploration of four countries in the Spanish speaking world. Working with functional chunks of language, students practice interpretive, presentational, and interpersonal communication couched in cultural comparison. The course is designed to build off of linguistic skills initiated in the lower schools, while creating space to initiate language exploration for students new to the school. Students learn concrete vocabulary and functional phrases with simple grammatical concepts in order to communicate meaningfully about themselves and the cultural topics at hand including celebrations, family dynamics, and geography.
Level one in Spanish is divided into two years. The first year covers basic grammatical points, including the present and indicative forms of the major verb groups, and conjugations of irregular verbs. Students learn thematic vocabulary, idioms and expressions to describe people, ideas and situations. The curriculum emphasizes the four linguistic skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Included is cultural information that relates to the Hispanic countries around the world.
In this second year, students complete the first formal level of the language. Students learn more vocabulary, verb conjugations, including a continuation of the indicative forms of the three major verb groups, and more sentence structure. Orally and in writing, students use simple descriptions to discuss their lives, school, home and friends.