Foreign Language
GRADE SEVEN | GRADE EIGHT
Foreign language study is offered to grades seven and eight in either French or Spanish. Learning these languages helps students communicate in a third language, which will hopefully sensitize them to and make them more aware of the world at large. The language classes meet twice a week. At the end of the eighth grade, the students will have completed a first year language course.
Classes focus on listening skills, reading and writing comprehension, oral communication and written expression. Great emphasis is placed on almost total use of the language being taught. Allowing for a variety of learning styles among students, different activities are included which encourage successful language learning. Vocabulary is centered on authentic language in situations of daily life, with the cultural context in mind. Through word games, worksheets, varied listening, speaking and total physical response activities language is acquired in new and exciting ways.
Culturally, the students learn of the various foods eaten in their "language world, " as well as many of the customs and the leisure activities of these worlds. Students focus upon the subtleties that will give them deeper insights into the daily life and cultural diversity of the native inhabitants of these foreign lands. Students read and hear of historical figures from the worlds of art and politics. Where possible, authentic materials such as photos, newspaper clippings, and foreign hotel information are shared to help expand the horizons of foreign language study. Students also study maps to develop their knowledge of the world where the foreign language being studied is spoken.
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Grade Seven
The seventh grade classes learn conversational themes and the supportive grammatical structures of such topics as classroom activities, personal greetings, meeting people, time, weather, and numbers. Students also study family relationships, an introduction to food, daily activities, the calendar, countries and nationalities, animals, and physical appearance. Students learn the present tense of regular and a few irregular verbs. An end of the year project is assigned which may involve a multi-dimensional artwork in the target language.
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Grade Eight
The eighth grade classes continue to sharpen, refine and develop their conversational skills. They begin the year with a detailed review of the work that they completed in seventh grade. Their topics for the year include: descriptions of home and surroundings, vacation plans and shopping for clothes, foods and meals - both within the home and ordering in a restaurant, and health and the human body. In grammar, students learn the correct use of direct, indirect, and emphatic pronouns; the past tense; expressing future thoughts; and negative expressions.
Selected readings and worksheets are used to further clarify language usage. The students expand their general vocabulary, and carefully study the use of a number of irregular verbs, as well as several irregular adjectives.
An end of the year project is assigned - of a more sophisticated nature than the one in the seventh grade - which also involves a multi-dimensional theme.
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