World Language Curriculum

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

World Language Curriculum

World Language Philosophy

At the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, world language study begins in the third grade. Students select among French, German and Spanish and continue with this same language through 8th grade. Upon entering the University High School, students may continue with this same language or choose a different language, with the additional choice of Latin as a possibility. From grades three through twelve, the World Language Program presents the study of the target languages through a multi-sensory approach that encourages students to develop increasingly sophisticated skills.

This multi-sensory approach includes an age-appropriate introduction to and continued practice in listening, speaking, reading and writing in the selected world language. Moreover, this approach is accomplished through the use of technology in both our stationary and mobile Language Learning Centers in a multitude of ways to enhance student exposure to authentic language and provide them with different ways for producing and demonstrating their understanding of the language they are studying.

Through the study of a chosen world language, each student develops an openness to and an appreciation of the target language, its culture(s) and history. Students are empowered to function effectively and appropriately in a language other than their native tongue. As they advance through the schools, students become disciplined and serious in their study of their selected language. Equally important, they develop a heightened awareness of the process of language acquisition.

Lower School World Language Experience

In the Lower School, students are introduced to the study of world language using several modalities. In their first year of studying their selected language, students learn to communicate in everyday social situations and acquire basic linguistic structures. Students in the Lower School World Language Program engage in group and individual oral exercises, skits, plays, games, songs, poems and rhymes. These activities are designed to help students learn and understand the sound system of the new language. By the end of the Lower School Program, students are able to pronounce learned words and phrases with a high degree of accuracy and are able to recognize and comprehend them as well.

An important aspect of the World Language Program is to instill in students an understanding and appreciation of foreign cultures. This is accomplished through the use of songs, dances, rhymes, games, folktales, celebrations of traditional holidays, show and tell, and food-tasting rituals.

Middle School World Language Experience

Our Middle School World Language Program offers a wonderful sequence of coordinated curriculum that builds upon the foundations laid in the Lower School and continues the scaffolding of a solid framework that provides the ultimate support for the final four years in the High School. The middle school world language philosophy is tied to the developmental stage of our students and acknowledges that adolescence is a time charged with formation of a sense of identity. Through the use of meaningful learning and age-appropriate instruction that encourages higher level thinking and multiple social perspectives, our programs assist learners in forming a sound sense of self in addition to forming a deeper level of cultural understanding and acquisition of all four major language areas: oral and written expression, listening and reading comprehension.

Middle School students in world language begin a systematic study of grammar and syntax as they begin to devote more attention to the four major skill areas of oral and written expression, listening, and reading comprehension. Students encounter increasingly complex linguistic structures, expand their developing vocabulary, and are introduced to formalized writing of increasingly longer compositions. They also begin to comprehend the cultures from the viewpoint of a teenager of the target language cultures with an emphasis on the daily life of students their age. This vantage point includes such themes as music, food, games, transportation, etc.

High School World Language Experience

Our High School World Language Program builds upon the foundational scaffolding of lower and middle schools as it encourages students' disciplined and serious attitude towards world language learning while enhancing students' appreciation of cultures and history. By the end of the high school program, students are able to function within the four skill areas of oral and written expression, listening and reading comprehension in a way that facilitates clear communication with speakers and writers of the target language. Students are capable of functioning effectively in a foreign culture in everyday situations.

Whether students pursue the regular track or the Advanced Placement track during their high school study of world language, they will engage rigorously in reading of culturally relevant texts, class discussion based upon the texts, and written work that challenges them to produce clear, coherent, original compositions in the target language. The opportunity to take Advanced Placement courses in world language allows for a deeper development of linguistic, cultural, and historical understanding of the target language and its associated geographic regions.