Foreign language courses are available for students in grades 3-12. Currently, we are offering Spanish and Turkish languages. Spanish language starts from elementary school, as soon as 3rd grade. Turkish is introduced during middle school. Every middle school student has to choose one (out of two) foreign languages once they are in 7th grade – Spanish or Turkish.
Students immediately will begin communicating in the foreign language through learned greetings and introductory expressions. This serves as the foundation for building their language fluency. The greetings and introductions will continue to become more in-depth conversations as students learn to describe; themselves, their characteristics, likes and dislikes, and their favorite hobbies and activities. The conversation will be reciprocated when students learn to ask questions, resulting in students getting to know one another, and also communicating in the learned foreign language.
Students will read and write small essays and other works in order to learn and develop their fluency of the grammar. Strong emphasis will be placed on developing the correct pronunciation and developing a native accent. Students will be introduced to specific vocabulary throughout the semester and learn present tense verb conjugations and a bit of the past and future tenses. The cultural differences and similarities will be studied and discussed using stories, music, and visual aides. Students will continue to acquire a larger vocabulary on a weekly basis, along with developing writing, reading, and speaking in the foreign language. Fluency at the beginning level will be achieved by the end of the year. Students will be able to go directly into a second year foreign language course in their freshman year of high school. This is time saving and a way to earn high school graduation credits.