Students in our courses develop the skills necessary to express themselves in and comprehend another modern language. To do so, students must take risks and accept challenges that strengthen their capacity to communicate their thoughts, ideas, hopes, and needs. Interwoven with language acquisition exercises are cultural lessons to help students understand that language and culture are inseparable concepts. By learning to appreciate these cultural differences, students also expand their horizons and broaden their experience. To this end, we value and reinforce respect for the “other”—whether another culture, community, or individual—and see it as essential for effective com–munication, personal growth, and interpersonal con–nections. We also seek to help students develop effec–tive strategies for learning languages as well as strengthen and expand their linguistic skills.
All courses in the World Languages Department are conducted entirely in the target language from the first day of level one through to the highest levels offered. Because we believe that all other language skills flow from the ability to speak, we emphasize active and engaged participation in all courses. Forty percent of the final course grade in all courses is derived from oral participation and skill. Because language learning is cumulative, students must pass all World Language courses with a C (74%) or above before being permitted to pass on to the next level. Incoming students who have already taken coursework in a world language must take a written placement test so that they can be placed in a level that provides the appropriate challenge. Placement tests can be found here .
World Language Courses
Spanish 1/French 1
The aim of the level one course is to develop the students’ ability to communicate about and comprehend their immediate world through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the target language. Such top–ics as food, family, school, clothing, the body and health, homes and furnishings, and leisure activities are covered. Students also learn about these topics from the viewpoint of a native speaker and develop a sense of the immediate world in the target culture. Students learn to communicate and comprehend situations that occur in the present and future. Students are introduced to optimal approaches and behaviors for immersive language learning.
Spanish 2/French 2
The second-level courses seek to develop the students’ ability to communicate about and comprehend their daily routines and needs through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the target language. Vocabulary groups built around childhood games, vacations, and daily habits relate directly to our parallel development of communicating about and comprehending past situations in the target language. As in the first level, students also explore these topics from the perspective of a native speaker, furthering their appreciation of a target culture. In the second level, we place a special emphasis on the students’ ability to edit and correct their own writing and speaking. In addition, students begin to hone correct pronunciation and intonation in the target language.
French 3
In the third level of French, students learn to communicate about and comprehend the world of Francophone culture as portrayed in film, literature, and song and accomplish this through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the target language. Through their cultural studies, students at this level are able to compare and contrast activities in their daily lives with those in the lives of Francophone characters in films and short stories, and the students do so in the past and future tenses. In terms of language acquisition, students at this level are encouraged to broaden and deepen their written and oral expression by pushing themselves to use rich and colorful detail. By employing increasingly complex sentence structures in the target language and by developing more effective strategies for learning, strengthening, and expanding language skills, successful and motivated students in this course can achieve an intermediate level of fluency in French.
French 4
In the fourth level of French, students further their abilities to communicate about and comprehend more sophisticated Francophone literature, including poetry, short stories, and plays. Building upon this study of literature, students begin to develop the skills for critically analyzing films, television ads, magazines, and other cultural mirrors of the Francophone world, and they also begin to develop their ability to communicate and comprehend opinions, beliefs, and doubts in French. Through written exercises, the students in French 4 learn to create strong and varied sentences, paragraphs, essays, journal entries, and descriptions. Through class discussion and participation, students learn to talk easily and freely about their lives and events in school, the community, and the broader world.
French 5/6
The study of literature at this level of French focuses on poetry, short stories, plays, and novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At this level, students come to understand and analyze the structure of sentences and verse, focusing on sound as well as meaning, and develop an appreciation for a variety of writing styles. They also develop broader, deeper, and more analytical work. Students are asked to put this understanding and appreciation into practice by creating art through writing. In order to accomplish this, students learn to communicate about and com–prehend situations of regret, doubt, and belief in both the past and the present tense. This necessitates a deep appreciation for the fine points of grammar and syntax well beyond the basic structures of the language. Throughout the course, students learn to employ their critical thinking skills through reading and writing about Francophone culture.
Spanish 3
In the third level of Spanish, students learn to communicate about and comprehend the world of Hispanic arts, entertainment, and literature through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the target language. Through studying cultural artifacts from target cultures (paintings, movies, short stories, television, etc.) and analyzing these artifacts, students also begin to develop their ability to communicate and comprehend opinions, beliefs, and doubts in Spanish. In conjunction with learning to express themselves subjectively, students begin an in-depth study of the Spanish sentence structures that govern this kind of communication. Successful and motivated students in Spanish 3 can achieve an intermediate level of fluency.
Spanish 4
In the fourth level of Spanish, students begin to explore greater challenges in their study of literature, learning to take on longer and more complex works, including poetry, short stories, and plays. In doing so, they develop their ability to communicate and comprehend situations that are hypothetical, condi–tional, concessive, unique, and contrary-to-fact. They further hone their analytical skills by utilizing films, television, magazines, and other Hispanic cultural artifacts and learning to create strong and varied sentences, paragraphs, journal entries, and descrip–tions. Through class discussion and participation, students learn to talk easily and freely about their lives and events in school, the community, and the broader world.
Spanish 5/6
The study of literature at this level of Spanish focuses on recent and current Latin American and Caribbean works and the realm of Magic Realism. This type of literature requires students to develop their higher-order thinking skills and calls upon them to express themselves in sophisticated and complex ways. Through these exercises, students necessarily must develop a finer grasp of grammar and syntax and learn to appreciate how subtle changes in expression can have a profound impact on meaning. In order to accomplish this, students learn to communicate about and comprehend situations of regret, doubt, and belief in both the past and the present tense. Throughout the course, students learn to employ their critical thinking skills through reading and writing about Spanish culture.
