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Languages – Expanding their World
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Curriculum Update
Languages – Expanding their World
Languages give learners the world by expanding their minds to other cultures and opening doors to new possibilities.
The acquisition of an additional language and associated intercultural skills is key to how young people develop, both intellectually and emotionally. The ability to speak another language also gives them greater confidence and choice when it comes to future study and work.
At Brigidine we have 338 students currently learning a language. Through this, our students are able to develop their first language literacy, problem-solving, intercultural and communication skills, equipping them for a wide range of careers.
The College offers two languages, French and Italian. The prerequisite language study hours occur both in Years 7 and 8. In their first year, the girls study the two languages and in the following year they can continue with one of these.
In the classroom, our philosophy is to immerse our students in the target culture by teaching the content in creative and engaging ways. We speak the target language as much as possible and allow our students to have numerous authentic experiences. These include eating traditional foods, brought in or homemade. Further, each year all French and Italian students enjoy films in the target language. We are anticipating that in the very near future we can continue the linguistic and cultural excursions that have been held in previous years. In the past, our girls have also been encouraged to go on exchange which has consistently been a positive and life changing experience for our students.
