World Languages
World Languages Program Philosophy
Learning a world language is integral to understanding other people, cultures and ideas, and developing cultural empathy, leading to global citizenship, and an appreciation of diversity in our society. In alignment with the ACTFL World Readiness Standards, the World Language Program:
- Integrates communication, culture, connections, comparisons, and communities.
- Provides purposeful interaction across the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
- Provides a variety of authentic opportunities to practice and explore the language.
- Offers course that are designed for non-native speakers, as well as courses that encourage Spanish heritage speakers to further proficiency and literacy in their first language.
- Prepares students to become global citizens in a diverse, interdependent world.
World Languages Beliefs
We believe in high-quality world language instruction that:
- Integrates becoming a global citizen, developing cultural empathy and understanding other people, cultures and ideas.
- Incorporates an understanding of the culture to include cultural products, perspectives, and practices.
- Promotes the use of proficiency-based assessments in reading, writing, listening, and speaking as well as cultural components that measure the student's ability to perform authentic tasks.
- Is authentic and taught in a manner that is meaningful to students and connects to real-life experiences and to other curricular areas.
- Understands that the acquisition of a language is a process and that students acquire proficiency at different rates and are provided opportunities based on their abilities, varied learning styles, and interests.
- Prepares students to use language for functional communication through a focus on real-life applications of authentic language as an effective way of promoting proficiency in a language.
- Encourages students to develop a greater understanding of their own language which strengthening their cognitive and linguistic skills.
World Languages Long Term Transfer Goals
- Communication
- Effectively communicate with varied audiences and for varied purposes while displaying appropriate cultural understanding.
- Willingly take risks with language, both within and outside of the classroom.
- Communities
- Seek opportunities to collaborate globally, improve language skills and cultural understanding, and be civically engaged in an increasingly interconnected world.
- Comparisons
- Apply prior knowledge, perspective, and critical analysis of media in target languages to form an educated opinion on a variety of contemporary topics.
- Connections
- Expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems.
- Evaluate information and diverse perspectives that are available through the language and its cultures.
- Culture
- Understand and appreciate the cultures of target language communities by looking at the products, perspectives, and practices of different cultures.