Foreign Language Education at Fairfield Warde High School

Contributed by Tara Lerman (Fairfield County)

At Fairfield Warde High School, we have a wonderful foreign language department. Students have the option of taking Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, or Chinese, and some people even choose to take more than one. As a junior in High School, I am in my third year of Latin, and I absolutely love it. I have learned so much in so little time.

There are also clubs and honors societies in which many students choose to participate. There is a Spanish Club, a French Club, a French Honors Society, a Latin Club, an Italian Club, and an Italian Honors Society. Each foreign language club at Fairfield Warde sponsors and pays for exciting trips and activities for students to engage in. For example, we have Italian Day , where Barlow's, our school restaurant, cooks a delicious all Italian meal to share with the whole school. Our Latin club pays for Latin Day every year, where we join Latin Students from all over the state who dress up in togas and spend a day at Holiday Hill. Not only do we get to miss school on this special day, but we have the opportunity to play games like soccer, tennis, and volleyball, and enter academic contests on topics such as geography and mythology. The Latin Club is also saving up for a trip to the Metropolitan Museum later this year.

If I were to change one thing about the Foreign Language Department at my school, it would be to have more honors societies. There are many Chinese and Latin Scholars who aren't recognized simply because recognition isn't available. Even still, I am very impressed with the Foreign Language Department at Fairfield Warde High School. Almost all of the teachers offer extra help, and the textbooks are straightforward and easy to follow. I hear about many schools in Fairfield County having poor foreign languages departments, but I guess we just aren't one of them.

Foreign Language Education at The Woodstock Academy

Contributed by John Bartolotta (Woodstock, Windham County)

My high school tends to several smaller middle schools, from the towns of Brooklyn, Canterbury, Eastford, Pomfret, Union (Tolland County), and Woodstock. The Woodstock Academy offers Spanish, Italian, Latin, French, Mandarin, and Japanese. I come from Brooklyn, and the middle school there has only one Spanish class that starts in the 8th grade. I honestly remember nothing from it.

At my high school, one must take two years of a language to graduate, and we have a wide variety of languages. However, much more needs to be done at the middle school level. I think it should be brought to the attention of my middle school that other middle schools have much broader programs for languages. For my high school, others might like to know the variety of languages we teach, all going up to five levels except for Mandarin and Japanese.

Foreign Language Education at The Norwich Free Academy

Contributed by Hunter Kodama (Norwich, New London County)

My school has a relatively large foreign language department, but I do think it could grow and improve. We offer French, Chinese, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, and Italian.

My personal experience has been in French. I started taking French in 7th grade at the private school I went to before NFA. Because of the honors tracking at my middle school, I was always a class ahead of my classmates in high school. i.e., as a freshman I was in Honors French 2 with all sophomores, sophomore year I was in Honors French 4 (the honors track splits French 3 between 2 and 4) with all juniors, and as a junior I was in AP French Language. Unfortunately, there are no french classes offered after that, so I am currently foreign language free.

That is where I would like to see an improvement. The languages at my school are rather lopsided. Some languages offer 6 classes per track, while, as in my case, others only offer 4. As an advanced student, I simply ran out. There is talk about soon adding Sign Language and Japanese to the Foreign Language department at NFA, which I would love to see.

The Norwich Free Academy does not require students to take a foreign language to graduate.

Foreign Language Education at The Gilbert School

Contributed by Jennifer Hunter (Winsted, Litchfield County)

My school only offers Spanish and Latin. We also had Greek, but the teacher who taught both Greek and Latin retired. The new teacher does not know Greek, only Latin. My school could not afford to hire another language teacher because of budget constraints. Two years ago, the school began offering Spanish in sixth grade and going through high school. Latin starts in ninth grade.

The Gilbert School does not require a student to take a foreign language to graduate.

The biggest thing that my school needs to improve on is the variety of languages they offer. Spanish and Latin should not be the only options! I took Spanish 1-3. I would like my school to offer Italian or French.

Foreign Language Education at Trumbull High School

Contributed by Shervin Etemad (Fairfield County)

Trumbull High School recommends that its students complete four years of one language. The THS Program of Studies says: "Historically, the World Language Department has recognized the significance and the importance of world language study. As the global community becomes smaller through advances in technology and business, learning a language has evolved as a direct avenue linking the cultures in a changing society. Our program is designed to inspire students to pursue career opportunities using a world language. As students progress through the program, a renewed cultural awareness is heightened and emphasized to encourage, to explore and to define career paths."

My school offers Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin. We also have clubs for each of the languages offered. We have AP Spanish and French, but not AP Italian. Honors level foreign language courses start at the third year. Typically, students start either French or Spanish in 7th grade. 7th and 8th grade combined represent one year of that language, so students will be in Spanish 2 their freshmen year of high school. There is also ELL - English Language Learners. This class is for students whose native language is not English or who need help with English. The school offers Latin through Latin V, and also a course called Latin-Building Your Word Power. I took it last year. It is a half year course focusing on Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes.

Trumbull High School does not require a student to take a foreign language to graduate.

The foreign language education could be improved by starting foreign language instruction earlier. I would like to see our school offer Chinese or Japanese. Spanish and French are important, but in today's society and world economy, it is important for students to be able to have the opportunity to compete with people all over the world and have opportunities out of our country.

Foreign Language Education at Darien High School

Contributed by Nicole Granath (Fairfield County)

There is no doubt that learning a foreign language should be an important part of every student's education. Foreign languages provide insights into and familiarity with cultures besides our own.

The Darien school district recently began to offer Mandarin Chinese at the High School. The program is now in its third year, and it will go through Mandarin 4. In Darien, students are offered Spanish and French in the middle school, and Latin starting in the high school. Middle school languages cover "Spanish 1" or "French 1" over three years. At the high school, AP Spanish 5 and AP French 5 are the highest courses offered in those languages. Education in Latin extends to Latin 3.

Darien High School's website recommends that "four years be the minimum amount of time devoted to the proficiency based program" in a world language. However, it goes on to say that students "should set aside part of their unscheduled time for this purpose." Foreign languages are to be taken in students' "unscheduled time" because a student does not need to take a foreign language to graduate from Darien High School.

Although it is unlikely the foreign language department will be expanded any time soon, I believe that the Darien community would benefit from having the option of taking Arabic. So much of our current foreign policy centers around the Middle East that even a basic understanding of the culture and language will go a long way when making decisions that affect the future of our country. On a more short-term scale, the district should look into making Chinese courses Honors level. Not only is the language very difficult, but many high-level students are deterred from taking the course because an A in a 300 level class will bring down their GPA. Additionally, I think that world language education should begin earlier, so students have a stronger basis in a foreign language before going to college or starting a career. The first step is to offer Chinese and Latin in middle school, and the eventual goal is exposing elementary school children to a variety of languages.

While considering the languages offered at Darien High School and areas in which it could be improved, I became interested in what other schools' world languages departments look like. Here is information and perspectives from students from schools across the state of Connecticut.