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World Languages

21st Century Curriculum Design in ACPS Content and Program Areas: World Languages

Ideally, every student should leave ACPS with the ability to communicate with confidence and cultural sensitivity in more than one language. As a result of their language learning experience, students will develop a heightened awareness of and appreciation for world regions and diverse cultures. Proficiency in a second language will better equip students for success in a global community that is increasingly interdependent.

Key Curriculum Design and Learning Principles for World Languages:

  • An effective 21st century World Languages curriculum will reflect national and state standards, key end-in-mind backwards planning design process components, including clear articulation of unit-based understandings, knowledge, and skills; a range of balanced assessment tasks and performances; and a clearly-articulated unit sequence that makes recommendations for viable teaching-learning experiences.
  • Early language learning is a key to high levels of student proficiency in the targeted language.
  • The 21st Century World Languages classroom will consistently use the target language as a primary means of communication.
  • Students will engage in performance-based tasks to demonstrate mastery (i.e., participation in learning scenarios requiring the application of interpersonal, interpretive, and/or presentational communicative skills) of articulated skills, processes, and understandings.
  • World Languages instructors emphasize student-centered learning experiences, guiding the learning but ensuring that students are at the heart of the work and learning process.
  • World Languages instructors will infuse technology appropriately into the instructional process to enhance students' speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in the target language, as well as their knowledge and appreciation for cultural diversity.
  • Students are actively engaged in using the target language in authentic, real-world applications and processes, including simulations, dialogues, debates, and other forms of discourse.
  • Instructors use authentic resources that originate in the country or world region where the targeted language is spoken.
  • As a result of participating in a 21st Century World Languages program, students enhance their appreciation and understanding of their own language and the language(s) and traditions of other world cultures.

Exemplary World Languages Programs Reflecting These Principles:

  • Exchange Program: Secondary (grades 9-12) students studying German are afforded the opportunity to participate in a bi-annual exchange with a partner school in Austria, over a three week period during the summer. The exchange opens up the opportunity for the practical application and honing of linguist skills acquired in the classroom setting.
  • Dual Language: Taking advantage of the optimal window of second language acquisition during the primary years (grades K-5), this program allows students to develop high levels of proficiency in Spanish and English. This 50/50 Dual Language program model permits Heritage Speakers of Spanish and students with English as their first language to receive math and science instruction in Spanish, and language arts and social studies instruction in English. The program nurtures students' understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures. Students heighten their understanding of their own language and the target language they are acquiring.
  • Virtual Chinese: This online standards-based program is offered to students in grades 9-12. Developed by Fairfax County Public Schools and the Virginia Department of Education, students are given the opportunity to learn the Chinese language in a virtual setting. Although all lessons are archived online students have immediate access to teachers via technology, including one who occasionally visits with them in the classroom.