MODERN LANGUAGES FRENCH 8 (MFR--08) This course is intended to be the end of a four-year sequence of introductory French which began in Grade 5. As some students have not studied French before, we will begin with an introduction to verbs, nouns and other grammatical tools to provide students with a strong foundation as they work towards developing communicative competency. Themes and topics introduced include description of oneself, leisure activities, hobbies, health, nutrition, friendships, travel and francophone countries. Grammatical concepts include: the conjugation of regular verbs, the partitive article, the possessive adjectives, the verbs, ALLER, AVOIR, ÊTRE, FAIRE, VOULOIR and POUVOIR, the prepositions À, AU, AUX and EN, the imperative and the comparative. Please note that if a student is entering Grade 8 in September with a strong French language background, it is imperative than an appointment be made with the Language Department Head in May in order to assess the French level for correct placement. It may not be possible to accommodate or change the student s schedule in September due to possible timetable conflicts or space being available. FRENCH 9 (MFR--09) Prerequisite: FR8 This course will provide students with several opportunities to strengthen their communicative skills. Topics include: the outdoors, sports, music, environmental and humanitarian projects. Grammatically successful students will become more proficient in using the comparative, the superlative, the imperative, the demonstrative adjective, the placement of adjectives, the verb VENIR, direct object pronouns, the near future and the compound past tense. FRENCH 9ADV (MFR--09ADV) Prerequisite: FR8 or departmental approval The 9ADV class will meet the same content as FR9. Course content will be enriched by providing students with more challenging reading and interactive activities. FRENCH 10 (MFR--10) Prerequisite: FR9 or 9ADV Students will be reintroduced to the compound past tense and acquire vocabulary based on themes which include home life, personal history, life in Canada, and films. The imperfect tense will be introduced slowly, and control of irregular past tense verb forms will improve. As students build upon their communicative competency their oral interaction will be more engaging and their written expression will be driven by creativity. 40
FRENCH 10 ADV (MFR--10ADV) Prerequisite: FR9ADV or departmental approval This course will cover essentially the same content as FR10, but with more attention to speaking activities and supplementary projects in keeping with the students' abilities. FRENCH 11 (MFR--11) Prerequisite: FR10 or 10ADV It is important that the passá composá be well-learned before attempting this course. Themes include world cuisine, memories of childhood, and coping with stress. Grammatical concepts include the comparative and superlative, the simple future tense, the conditional mood, relative clauses and the pronouns to introduce them, the interrogative pronoun lequel, the present participle and the past participle as adjectives. Also included will be special cases of agreement of past participle in passé composé of Aavoir@ verbs. Also, students will be exposed to the direct object pronouns (DOP), indirect object pronouns (IOP), y, and en with the indicative and imperative moods. There is increased emphasis on the contrasting use of the passá composá and the imperfect tenses. Activities include listening for general and specific information, reading for comprehension, pair and group conversation, and projects requiring team cooperation. FRENCH 11 ADV (MFR--11ADV) Prerequisite: FR10 ADV or departmental approval This course will cover the same grammatical concepts as Fr11, but will be further enriched with more challenging reading, writing and speaking activities. FRENCH 12 (MFR--12) Prerequisite: FR11 or 11ADV The goal of French 12 is for students to be able to use their prior knowledge of French more comfortably and fluently. Various themes will be used to offer students practice in reading, writing and speaking. Comprehension of spoken French will be reinforced by increasing use of the French language in instruction and in exchanges between students. Grammatical concepts include the pluperfect tense, the past conditional and subjunctive moods, the passá simple tense for reading recognition and the "si-clause" patterns. Preposition patterns, pronouns and all previously learned tenses will be reviewed and used in this course. MANDARIN NOTE: Mandarin courses are not intended to serve as "heritage language" courses. They are taught as a foreign language and students who already read and write Mandarin are not expected to enrol. MANDARIN 9 (MMAN-09) Students in Grades 9 or 10 should take this course if they have no significant background in Mandarin. The typical Mandarin 9 beginner might be able to say or write a few basic words, but is unable to produce connected sentences. 41
MANDARIN 10 (MMAN-10) Prerequisite: Mandarin 9 Students in Grades 10 or 11 who have some Mandarin skills or who have completed Mandarin 9 should take this course. The typical student might have had only 2 or 3 years of elementary education including Mandarin, and might possess a limited vocabulary for self-introduction and family-centred topics. Over the two years of Mandarin 9 and 10, the student will learn the sounds of Mandarin, with the pin-yin system of romanized spelling. The characters of about 500 words will be learned, and the vocabulary of daily situations will be practised: classroom expressions, self-introduction, the number system, time, foods, clothing, pastimes, weather and seasons, sports, household items and parts of the body. Students will practice reading aloud and reading for comprehension, formulate questions and create dialogues and a short personal letter. MANDARIN 11 (MMAN-11) Prerequisite: MAN10 or MAN-10LA This course will suit those who have completed Mandarin 10, or students who have had Chinese language education but who do not yet speak Mandarin. The student will gain increased understanding of Chinese values and customs and of the importance of Chinese language and culture to Canada and the world. Conversation practice will focus on making arrangements, giving instructions, description, complaints and compliments, stating preferences and intentions, and describing feelings and emotions. Reading will include Chinese literature and culturally interesting stories. Students will respond to comprehension questions, make inferences and paraphrase what is read. In writing, both simplified and traditional characters will be used. Calligraphy lessons will include brush writing. Composition skills include informal note-writing, personal letters, short paragraphs and simple compositions based on familiar topics and folk-tales. MANDARIN 12 (MMAN-12) Prerequisite: MAN11 This course is for those who have completed Mandarin 11, with very few exceptions. Native speakers of Mandarin are not expected to enrol in this or any other Mandarin course. By the end of this course, students should be able to understand conversational exchanges and function well in daily situations, and to a lesser degree discuss cultural differences and current social and political issues. They will hear recorded narrations of short stories and view films. They will compose dialogues, advertisements for real or imaginary products, commentaries on current events, and reports on weather and sports. They will engage in debate and make individual presentations to the class. Reading will include a variety of poems, essays and articles, and writing will include both simplified and traditional characters, including brush-writing. Compositions will be required in the styles of some of the reading studied. 42
MANDARIN ACCELERATED PROGRAM Students in this program should have completed the Mandarin bilingual program from grade 4 to grade 7 at Jamieson Elementary School. This program offers two separate courses in grade 8 and one course in grade 9. The students are required to take all courses in order to remain in the challenge program. MANDARIN 8 ACCELERATED (Language) (MMAN-08LA) This course further develops Mandarin literacy and communicative proficiency using Chinese Made Easy, Book 2. Exploration into the Chinese culture will include history, art appreciation and selected literature. Students learn to read and write the simplified characters and may use the traditional characters as an aide during this transition. Pinyin is also introduced in the beginning of the year and is continuously used throughout the course of the whole program. The emphasis is on proficient verbal communication with reading and writing complimenting verbal fluency. MANDARIN 8 ACCELERATED (Communication) (MMAN-08CO) This course builds on the language skills acquired in elementary school. Students continue to develop their oral communication skills through a variety of creative works (ie. songs, films, artwork, presentations and news reporting). At the end of the course students should be able to express themselves orally in basic Mandarin. MANDARIN 9 ACCELERATED (Language) (MMAN-10LA) This course is a continuation of Mandarin 8 Accelerated (Language). Students continue to acquire Mandarin language proficiency through communicative and a more literature-based approach using Chinese Made Easy, Book 3. Creative writing and personal writing will be explored. Transference of a more literal writing style will be encouraged in written expressions. Exploration into the Chinese culture will continue to include history, art appreciation and selected literature. At the end of the course, students should be able to read comprehensively and express themselves in writing in more meaningful contexts, such as notes, letters and descriptive paragraphs. Students will proceed either to Mandarin 10 or Mandarin 11 the following year. This will be based on teacher s recommendation and result of final grade. SPANISH 9 (MSP-- 09) In this introductory course students will learn to exchange greetings, describe people, exchange school, family and personal information, make plans for the weekend, express likes and dislikes and discuss the weather, everyday activities and more. Students will also gain an understanding of hispanic culture, acquire reading skills and learn some grammar. Through exposure to video and audio recordings, they will develop an ear for spoken Spanish modelled by native speakers from around the Spanish-speaking world. The class will listen to a number of Spanish and Latin-American songs reflecting a wide variety of musical styles. 43
SPANISH 10 (MSP--10) Prerequisite: SP9 Students will build upon their communicative skills, enabling them to: shop, ask for and give directions, say the right things in a restaurant, describe their daily routine, give orders, talk about sports, understand recipes, describe health problems to a doctor and guide their family through a vacation in a Spanish-speaking location. Students will also be able to talk about what they have done, trips taken and adventures experienced. Reading skills and listening skills will be developed, and students will read several short stories. BEGINNERS SPANISH 11 (MBSP-11) This is an accelerated course, which covers the full curricula of Spanish 9 and 10 in one year. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have an understanding of basic grammar as well as aspects of the Spanish culture. This course is offered to students who have no experience in Spanish or those wishing to improve their basic Spanish language skills before entering Spanish 11. As this is an accelerated program, preference will be given to students in grades 10, 11, or 12 who are highly motivated. SPANISH 11 (MSP--11) Prerequisite: SP10 or BSP11 Students will study Spanish-centered themes of teen activities, geography and cultural diversity, the communications media and Athe way things were@. Students will be able to discuss more extensively the topics of school and classes, leisure activities, the family, summer vacations, the environment, geography and much more. They will learn to make comparisons, persuade, give orders and talk about the past. The cultural focus is on the Southwestern U.S., Venezuela, Chile and Peru, their regional geographies, people and their traditions. Reading and listening skills will expand through hearing and reading numerous short stories, poems and songs. SPANISH 12 (MSP--12) Prerequisite: SP11 The second half of the Spanish 11/12 text introduces such themes as health, a camping trip, jobs/careers and making travel plans. Students will communicate hopes, opinions and emotions, give advice, give directions, tell stories, extend and accept or decline invitations, speculate, assess probability, express doubt and make suggestions. The cultural focus is on the regions and people of Spain, Costa Rica, Mexico and Argentina. Reading and listening skills will continue to grow through intensive practice. JAPANESE 9 (MJA--09) Japanese 9 is an entry level course. In this class, students will learn Katakana and Hiragana, components of the Japanese writing system. Students will also learn simple greetings, school vocabulary and how to describe their daily routines and favorite activities. The textbook Ikiteiru Nihongo, volume 1 and accompanying workbook will be used daily in class. Chapters 1 through 5 will be covered in Japanese 9. 44
JAPANESE 10 (MJA--10) Prerequisite: JA9 In Grade 10, the second half of the Ikiteiru Nihongo, volume 1 (Chapters 6 through 12), and the first chapter of volume 2 will be covered. Topics include; describing objects and people, expressing likes and dislikes, talking about family and health, and locating objects and people. Students will be expected to read and write Hiragana and Katakana fluently. Some basic Kanji (Chinese characters) will be introduced later in the year. Also included are an introduction to Japanese geography as well as cultural components such as holidays, seasonal customs and events. BEGINNERS JAPANESE 11 (MBJA-11) This is an entry level course which will cover the Japanese 9 and 10 curricula in one year. Due to the accelerated nature of the course, students are expected to have good work habits. This course is for senior students who want to learn a new language. After completion of this course, those who want to continue can take Japanese 11. JAPANESE 11 (MJA--11) Prerequisite: JA10 In Grade 11, some of the previously covered topics will be further developed. Students will learn verb "te" forms which will enable them to express gratitude or sympathy, to make requests, and to congratulate someone. Students will also learn principles of paragraph organization in order to give directions, write messages and compose letters. About 60 additional kanji will be introduced. Textbook chapters are chapter 3 to 7 in Ikiteiru Nihongo, Volume 2. JAPANESE 12 (MJA--12) Prerequisite: JA11 Ikiteiru Nihongo, volumes 2 & 3 is used in Japanese 12. The students will practice forming combined and compound sentences to write well organized paragraphs. Students will learn to manipulate Japanese to perform several language functions: to express cause and effect, to give and receive favours, and to communicate in different social registers using different politeness levels. They will also learn to communicate ideas that are conditional. 45