World Languages

The goals of the Spanish program are to introduce and improve upon the students’ speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills and to expose students to Spanish-speaking cultures, so they can explore the similarities and differences among people across borders or even just across the room. Students learn vocabulary and dialogues through cooperative activities, games, songs, projects, and assignments. Returning Stevenson students have a solid Spanish foundation, a working conversational vocabulary, and an understanding of the basic structures of grammar. Students new to Spanish will work closely with their teacher in order to meet their needs as new language learners.

The ability to communicate in Mandarin is a distinguishing skill for American citizens in our global economy. By introducing Chinese at an early age in a fun and engaging way, our students will be more prepared as they begin to choose their learning and career paths. The curriculum is designed to help students with no prior background in Mandarin develop functional communication abilities in spoken and written Mandarin. By using the standard phonetic system, a variety of authentic materials, and vocabulary and sentence patterns, students learn to make statements, ask and respond to questions, and engage in conversations based upon culturally authentic situations.