Spanish

Our Spanish curriculum employs Teaching with Comprehensible Input (TCI), a collection of approaches, techniques, and strategies that prioritize the delivery of understandable and compelling messages in the target language. This style of instruction is based on the Comprehension Hypothesis which says that we acquire language when we understand what people tell us and what we read. In other words, there is no need for rote memorization of vocabulary or grammar rules; instead, a firm knowledge of grammatical rules and a large vocabulary gradually emerge as language acquirers get more comprehensible input.

Material used in this method often introduces students to Hispanic culture through a variety of activities, games, stories, music, and videos that reflect the everyday use of Spanish within the Hispanic world. An example is playing the Spanish version of “The Price is Right" to acquire vocabulary and numbers. Students read stories and short novels about cities/towns and their traditions in Spain, Central America, and South America. You can also often find students singing and dancing to the lyrics of a song in Spanish in a variety of music genres such as salsa, merengue, reggaeton, flamenco, or tango. After all, it is a collection of research-based principles that informs us what we do in our classrooms and the belief that input must be compelling, not just comprehensible.  

Our Lower and Upper School teachers strive to teach at least 90% of the time in the target language. At TCS, students begin their Spanish studies at a very early age and may choose whether to continue Spanish or switch to Latin during 6th grade.