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SPANISH

Philosophy

         Traditionally people from the United States are not obligated to learn another language besides English, but times have changed and more and more people are seeing the need to learn a second language.  Economic globalization, multi-cultural awareness, future careers, and outreach opportunities are all reasons behind the increasing interest and importance of being able to communicate with people from other countries.  For obvious reasons the foreign language Lansing Christian has chosen to teach is Spanish.

        Spanish is spoken by almost 400 million people worldwide.  About one half of the population of the Western Hemisphere speak Spanish.  Within the United States Spanish is the second most widely spoken language after English, and Spanish is gaining importance in Europe as well.  Overall, it is the fourth most commonly spoken language in the world.  In addition to being able to communicate with people from other countries, understanding a foreign language also allows our students to gain an awareness and appreciation of other cultures, which will result in the ability to better participate in our ever-changing global society.

Lansing Christian’s Primary Goal:
     Every student* who graduates from Lansing Christian will be conversationally bi-lingual in Spanish. (*has been enrolled for a minimum of 4 years)

To Reach our Primary Goal, the Spanish Curriculum will seek:

 

  1. To develop speaking and conversational skills, including:
    1. Basic vocabulary (numbers, body parts, colors, objects, etc.)
    2. Using phrases and words in predictable conversation (greetings, simple questions, classroom related sentences, simple interrogatives, etc.)
    3. Ability to express one’s own thoughts in simple sentences
    4. Learn basic verbs, descriptive words and other parts of speech
  2. To develop writing skills, including:
    1. Writing short, informal messages
    2. Learn basic spelling rules, use of the Spanish alphabet, Spanish punctuation, generate phrases with gender and number agreement
    3. Complete simple sentences; use simple verbs, simple singular conjugation
    4. Write messages in cohesive paragraphs in present and future times
  3. To develop listening skills, which include:
    1. Understanding simple questions, simple commands, and directions
    2. Comprehend oral classroom directions and requests
    3. Answer questions about a story after hearing it read in Spanish
    4. Be able to follow verbal directions given in Spanish
    5. Be able to distinguish gender in common words
  4. To develop the ability to read Spanish text, including:
    1. Read simple words and phrases
    2. Understand Spanish phonics and be able to pronounce unfamiliar words
    3. Comprehend main ideas from written passages
    4. Read aloud with some fluency and accuracy