The mission of the Senior School World Languages Department is to graduate culturally aware and linguistically competent global citizens who explore, engage and excel in intercultural communications.

Offerings include Chinese, French, German, Latin and Spanish. The modern languages are taught in the target language using methodologies that foster the student‘s development of communicative competence in the five proficiency areas: listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural knowledge. The study of Latin emphasizes communication skills of reading, writing and listening while developing knowledge of cultural and historical contexts.

An authentic cultural and linguistic dimension is added to language courses at all levels so as to immerse the student into native situations in the target language and thus illustrate and enhance the student‘s learning experience. These sources include guest speakers, the Language Lab, film, CDs, newspapers and magazines provided through hard copy and Internet subscriptions, and literature written for native speakers. Field trips are also arranged to theaters and museums for relevant plays, exhibitions, poetry readings and films.

Students are encouraged to share their enthusiasm for language learning by participating in extracurricular linguistic and culturally oriented activities within the Asian, French, German, Latin or Spanish clubs.

The department‘s aim is to equip our students with linguistic and cultural sensitivity skills required for effective participation in the 21st century‘s global economy. Classroom participation in the language within a cultural context is vital for development of the student‘s foundation in these skills; however, nothing can replace actual immersion in another culture to practice and perfect those skills and add immeasurably to personal growth. Thus, the World Languages Department urges participation in cross-cultural experiences and coordinates with the International Program to provide a myriad of ways to experience another culture firsthand. Among the possibilities are three-week partner school exchanges in France, Spain, China and Germany. We also support academic year or semester abroad programs, as well as numerous summer abroad programs.

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