Foreign Language
“Every language is a temple in which the soul of those who speak it is enshrined.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Modern Language Program uses communicative and integrative methods that help to develop five important skills to learning a new language: listening, speaking, writing, reading and understanding the cultures. Students acquire skill in employing the grammatical structures necessary to carry out the chosen communicative functions; learn a selected lexical content; gain a cross-cultural perspective, and insights into their own culture.
The Classic Language Program’s goals are different because the study of Latin is strongly associated with its incidental benefits—the knowledge it gives one of English vocabulary and of the structure of language in general. Its primary goal is to provide the students with the knowledge that will allow them to read Latin literature. Its secondary goal is to move beyond the purely linguistic sphere in order to comment on questions of culture so that the students gain an understanding of Roman history and institutions.
All fourth-year language courses are at the Advanced Placement level. If a student does not plan to take the AP test, but wishes to continue their study of the language past the third year, they may have the option to take a single semester of the fourth-year course and opt out of the second semester, which is largely test preparation.
To see a complete listing of course descriptions please use the Curriculum Catalog.
