| Foreign Language electives; Middle School, High School offerings | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 15 2006, 12:32 PM (253 Views) | |
| Mrs.M | Mar 15 2006, 12:32 PM Post #1 |
Principal
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Foreign Language All middle schools Emerson, Frost, and Riley currently offer: World Language** elective for one semester in 7th grade. It is a sampling of French, German, Japanese and Spanish. Foreign Language elective for one year in 8th grade. This is a high school course offered at the middle schools. A student may choose French or Spanish. These courses are indeed high school courses as they are recorded on the student's high school transcripts as such. The letter grade, however, is not calculated into the final GPA of the high school transcript. **The current World Language was referred to as General Foreign Language, GFL quite a few years ago in middle school. 5 years ago this course was offered to 6th graders. 6th graders were to choose between Instrumental Music or Foreign Language. All High Schools Churchill, Franklin, and Stevenson currently offer: French 1 - French 5 Spanish 1 - Spanish 5 German 1 - German 4 Since a high school course of German is not offered in 8th grade, obviously a student could not take German 5 in high school. Stevenson is the only high school to offer Japanese (for 2 years). It is listed as Japanese Beginning and Japanese Advanced. The course descriptions states.. Beginning Japanese provides a strong base in the areas of speaking, listening, reading, and writing through standards-based lessons. Japanese culture is introduced in relationship to the language. Proficiency is promoted through active interaction in the classroom; consequently, students must demonstrate a willingness to perform and participate. Upon completion of Beginning Japanese, students will be able to read and write Katakana, Hiragana, and some common Kanji. Students will also be able to choose appropriate behaviors to accompany their speech. Advanced Japanese provides additional reinforcement and expansion of the four skills: listening, reading, writing, and speaking through standards-based instruction. Students will gain further awareness and understanding of the Japanese culture and its people. Proficiency continues to be promoted through teacher-guided use of Japanese in the classroom. Complexity of language use, both written and verbal, will increase. Upon completion of Advanced Japanese, students will be able to read and write at least 75 Kanji and hold short conversations on a variety of general topics. The Japanese course does not appear as extensive as the other 3 foreign language offerings. French 5 Continued development of conversational skills, some literary analysis, formal writing, as well as specialized interests or area studies and projects suggested by students, will provide the general format for the course. At this level, the student is encouraged to communicate exclusively in the target language with communicative proficiency as the expected outcome. Spanish 5 Spanish 5 encourages creative application of oral and written skills through independent projects and group discussions. Review and refinement of grammar skills are emphasized as the student moves toward mastery of the Spanish language. Communicative proficiency is an expected outcome. German 4 This course introduces students to longer readings of literary value. Journal writing and discussion questions in German supplement practice in writing skills. |
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| TigerMom | Mar 15 2006, 07:25 PM Post #2 |
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Principal
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While all the high school catalogs list 1-5 in a particular foreign language it does not mean that class is always available. As with most electives, if there is not enough interest...the class is dropped semester/year. In past years French 4 & 5 classes have had to be combined due to the low number of participants and I think CHS had to drop French 5 altogether this year due to low numbers of students enrolling in this class. For those of you still a few years away from the high school experience, most colleges are strongly suggesting and some are requiring two years of high school foreign language. |
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| Administrator | Mar 15 2006, 07:34 PM Post #3 |
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Administrator
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Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World Language Approx. number of speakers 1. Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000 2. English 514,000,000 3. Hindustani 496,000,000 4. Spanish 425,000,000 5. Russian 275,000,000 6. Arabic 256,000,000 7. Bengali 215,000,000 8. Portuguese 194,000,000 9. Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000 10. French 129,000,000 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html |
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