Foreign Language

The foreign language program in the Lower School focuses on developing elementary speaking and listening proficiency, and on exploring foreign cultures throughout the world.

Learning languages opens minds. It gets the brain working in different patterns and opens the spirit to new perspectives. Lower School students have language lessons twice weekly, where they encounter the richness and variety of world cultures.

Foreign Language Objectives

1. To develop elementary proficiency in spoken Spanish, including skills for use in everyday situations such as: greeting people; identifying people, places, actions and classroom items; asking questions; expressing needs, emotions and opinions; describing personal experiences; and counting.
2. To develop an awareness of the richness and variety of Spanish-language cultures around the world.
3. To identify similarities and differences between Spanish-speaking cultures and our own.
4. To improve students’ knowledge of English structure and vocabulary through comparison with that of Spanish.
5. To equip students with foreign-language-learning skills, in order to prepare students to study additional languages in later years.

Grades 3 - 5

The first years of Lower School Spanish introduce students to the study of foreign language and to the Spanish-speaking world. Students will develop elementary proficiency in basic sentence structures and vocabulary, designed to meet the needs of everyday life. Topics may include greetings; introductions; identification of people, places, actions and things in the immediate classroom environment; asking questions; eliciting and comprehending responses; describing colors, physical appearance, age, tastes, smells, shapes and moods; expressing needs, likes, dislikes, wishes and opinions; telling time; and counting. 

Students will increase their multicultural literacy by learning about Spanish-speaking peoples around the world. Activities will include both the study of, and participation in, Hispanic cultural practices, including music, art, food and holidays.

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