Languages

Middle School language courses offer a broad introduction to language learning and culture. The courses develop the students' speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, introduce basic grammar concepts, and lay the foundation for proficiency in the target language. As preparation for communication in real-life situations is stressed, teachers design tasks and activities to give students opportunities to use the language in a variety of meaningful ways, and to promote cultural understanding and discovery.

Middle School students typically complete a three-part series (Levels A, B, and C) in grades 6-8. The program covers material equivalent to Levels 1 and 2 in the Upper School curriculum. The pace of the Middle School sequence allows for greater exploration of topics and cultural themes, as well as development of general study skills and good habits for language learning.

Our Upper School language classes encourage understanding of our world's many interrelated languages and cultures. Courses aim to equip students with functional and culturally appropriate interpersonal, interpretive and presentational skills for proficient communication in the language of study. Students continually exercise all four skills of language learning, reading, writing, speaking and listening, and progressively expand their grammatical and lexical knowledge. The curriculum includes opportunity for in-depth exploration of the culture(s), literatures, and history associated with the target language. Students are also encouraged to pursue cultural and linguistic experiences outside the classroom.

Detailed learning objectives are communicated frequently in both the Middle and Upper School programs. A system of ongoing formative assessment provides valuable feedback as students work to meet learning and performance goals, while summative assessments gauge their overall language acquisition. Activities such as in-class conversations, question and answer sessions, round-table writing and editing, vocabulary and grammar games and drills, ungraded quizzes, and self-evaluation help teachers and students to track the students' progress.

Faculty

• Alma Andrade, Spanish Language Teacher
• Yayoi Brown, Japanese Language Teacher and Asian Languages Department Head
• Bradley Gosche, French Language Teacher and Romance Languages Department Head
• Juei-Chuan Hung, Mandarin Chinese Language Teacher
• Mario Juves, Spanish Language Teacher
• Adria Katka, Japanese Language Teacher
• Paloma Martinez-Carbajo, Spanish Language Teacher
• Anne Saliceti-Collins, French Teacher
• Sybille Stadtmueller, French Teacher
• Elena Tello Portoles, Spanish Language Teacher
• Irene Yang, Mandarin Chinese Teacher