Opening Up a Wider World

In today’s global society, students need a deep understanding and appreciation of cultures different from their own. The Upper School foreign language department is dedicated to providing this understanding, as well as second language skills that will serve students for a lifetime.
 
We offer a full complement of courses in Spanish, French, and German, including AP classes in Spanish and French. As one of the first schools in the area to teach languages through immersion—instruction almost entirely in the language itself—we continue this approach today with an emphasis on speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
 
In addition to classroom lessons, students spend one period per week in a state-of-the-art, multimedia digital computer language laboratory. Here students can take advantage of electronic resources to improve their pronunciation, listening, and speaking skills, as well as benefit from the immediate diagnostic results of practice tests. 
 
Students are placed in class sections according to their background and level of achievement. We recommend the study of a foreign language as early as possible, ideally in the freshman year, if not in middle school, and that students complete three or more years of study in at least one foreign language.