Foreign Language Department
Mrs. Peace and Rebecca Rice
Our Vision
The Foreign Language Program of Studies is designed to enable students to use oral and written language for meaningful and culturally appropriate communication in the situations they are most likely to encounter. The program helps students appreciate lingusistic and cultural diversity and the combinutions of other peoples to world civilizations. Students begin to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective participation in an economically, socially, and politically interdependent world.
MCPS Foreign Language Curriculum Framework
Goals
The goal of the Montgomery County Public Schools' foreign language program is to educate students in a language and culture in order to make them knowledgeable and active members of a global society. Students will learn to use foreign languages for meaningful communication in both spoken and written form. The foreign language program emphasizes language as it is used in real life situations that students are most likey to encounter. Through foriegn language study, students develop sensitivity to the cultural and linguistic heritage of other groups, understand their influence on American culture, and become prepared to participate in a society characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity.
Enduring Understanding
- As the world moves towards a global community, it is increasingly important to be able to communicate in languages other than English
- It is important to understan the cultural perspectives that generate patterns of behavior, ways of life, worldviews, and contributions
- Proficiency in a foreign language is a vehicle to gaining knowledge that can only be acquired through that language and its culture
- The study of a foreign language enables students to develop insights into the nature of language and culture
- Learning a foreign language enables an individual to particpate in multilingual communities
Organization of Content
Students of a forign language learn to use language for specific purposes in a variety of situations with ever-increasing linguistic and cultural accuracy. In addition to gaining communication skills, students acquire cultural knowledge and culturally appropriate interaction skills essential for communicting with native speakers of the language. They develop insights into their own language and culture through linguistic as well as cultural comparisons with the foreign language and culture they are studing. The interdisciplinary focus of relating the content they are learning in other academic areas to contect in their foreifn language class akso enhances their foreign language experience. Students become aware of the use of foreign languages in their community as well as the ability to access the foreign culture and people via technological connections.
Gifted/ Talented Spanish 1
This course follows the standard high school curriculum with a required standardized final exam. Students will receive high school credit after successfully completing the subsequent course in high school.