Second Language Study
UNIS believes that all students should have the opportunity to experience learning a second language. Such study provides a significant experience in international education, enabling students to understand the thinking and culture of another people through the learning of their language, which is ultimately the key to understanding. Through effective communication in another language, students are sensitized to cultural diversity and are better able to understand the global world in which they live.
Further, UNIS believes that achieving proficiency in a second language evolves over time through a high-quality program supported by a comprehensive, developmentally appropriate written curriculum dispensed by native language teachers who are professional teachers in their countries and very often trained as second language teachers. In Manhattan, all students begin the study of either French or Spanish in Junior A (kindergarten) and another second language (Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese or Russian) in Middle Three. At the Queens Campus, all students begin the study of French or Spanish in Junior A and then begin the other language in Middle Three. In Manhattan, both languages are studied until Tutorial Two, when the students choose one language for the International Baccalaureate in Tutorial Three and Tutorial Four. The school even provides students with an opportunity to continue both languages through Tutorial Four.
Goals of the Second Language Program
The goals of the UNIS second language program are embedded in the strands or standards of the Junior A to Tutorial Four curriculum and are represented by five interconnected circles: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. These goals are:
- To develop communicative competence in languages other than English.
- To gain knowledge and understanding of another culture on “its own terms.”
- To connect with other disciplines and acquire knowledge in the school’s core curriculum.
- To develop insights into the nature of language and culture in relation to each other and to oneself.
- To participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.
Mother Tongue Study
Mother tongue classes in Manhattan are offered during the school day in French and Spanish from Junior A to Tutorial Four and from Middle Three to Tutorial Four for the other six languages. At the Queens Campus, French mother tongue classes are offered from Junior One through Middle Four, whereas Spanish mother tongue classes are offered from Middle Three or earlier, as scheduling permits. In these classes, students receive instruction which, in content, is as close as possible to what they would receive in their home country. The French mother tongue Program is known as the Francophone program. In addition, UNIS fosters the study of other mother tongue languages through an after-school program with UNIS-approved tutors.