The following Modern Language selections are available to JAIS students:
French I:
In French I, students are introduced to the basic grammatical concepts necessary to develop reading and writing skills in French. They become acquainted with French culture through a variety of readings in both French and English. Students can also develop speaking and listening skills by hearing and speaking French themselves. The course covers basic sentence structure of positive and negative statements, commands and questions, and present and future tenses.
French II:
French II reinforces and augments the grammatical concepts presented in First Year French. Students build new vocabulary, learn more advanced grammar concepts, increase their reading writing, and listening skills, and develop their knowledge of many essential parts of speech including the past tense and direct object pronouns and a number of commonly used French idioms and expressions.
French III:
In French III, students take an imaginary tour of Paris and examine the United States from this vantage. After reviewing the grammar and rules presented in First and Second Year French, students study indirect objects; emphatic, interrogative and reflexive pronouns; and verbs in the reflexive voice, the imperfect tense and the conditional mood. Students continue to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.
French IV:
In French IV students are introduced to famous people and events, and study the broad social, economic and political forces that shaped French culture. Students study the subjunctive voice and are introduced to the past perfect tense. They also increase their awareness of the subtleties of the language as they learn specific strategies and helpful techniques for reading and listening.
Spanish I:
In Spanish I students develop a good grasp of fundamental Spanish grammar that enables them to read simple stories and compose simple paragraphs. Basic sentence structure, parts of speech and regular and irregular verbs in the present tense are covered in this course, and students will develop vocabulary related to clothing, the home, time, weather, the calendar, numbers, and family relationships. Audio files allow the students to listen to words and phrases as they are used in everyday life. Students also develop an understanding of the culture and geography of Mexico and other Spanish-speaking areas.
Spanish II:
In Spanish II students increase their vocabulary, their understanding of grammatical constructions, and their ability to read and write Spanish during this second year course through discussions of such diverse topics as entertainment, food, geography, and travel. Audio files and interactive activities help students study stem-changing and irregular verbs, possessive adjectives, comparison of adjectives, and the preterit tense.
Spanish III:
Spanish III provides a thorough review of regular, irregular, and stem-changing verbs in the present and preterit tenses in this course leads smoothly and naturally into a study of reflexive verbs and the imperfect, present progressive and present perfect tenses. Students expand their ability to write complex sentences using reflexive verbs, direct objects, and indirect object pronouns. Third Year Spanish students will increase their ability to read, write, and also speak and understand Spanish using an audio CD recorded by native speakers. They will increase their knowledge of Hispanic culture as they read and hear about special occasions, holidays, and practices observed by Spanish-speaking people.
Spanish IV:
In Spanish IV students thoroughly review regular, irregular and stem-changing verbs in the present, preterite and imperfect tenses before beginning a study of the future, conditional, and present subjunctive tenses. Fourth Year Spanish students will increase their ability to read, write, and also speak and understand Spanish using audio files created by native speakers.