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WORLD LANGUAGES
Lowell High School offers nine languages: Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, and Spanish. A student may pursue a given language for three years, and with sufficient enrollment, a fourth year language may be offered.
Lowell has an Honors program in Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. An Advanced Placement Program is offered in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
The only high school in the San Francisco Unified School District that has a comprehensive language/computer laboratory, it is available to students throughout the day where students can practice compositional skills in the target language as well as individual drills.
The highlight of the World Languages Department, the annual Kermesse Festival, is one of the largest events staged at Lowell that promotes and celebrates the multicultural heritage of our students. Organized entirely by students, the Kermesse Festival also raises money for the language laboratory that serves over three hundred world languages students daily. In addition, many of our students are member of extra-curricular clubs that promote cultural awareness and understanding in our global society. Club members also perform service projects for the school and community.
THE WORLD LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT
By language with teacher voicemail numbers and links to faculty photo album |
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CHINESE FRENCH GERMAN HEBREW ITALIAN |
JAPANESE KOREAN LATIN SPANISH LANGUAGE LABORATORY |
Students are expected to learn to communicate in the target language by using the four basic skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. Teachers employ a variety of teaching methods as well as classroom organization models to attain this goal. Students will be expected to communicate in diverse ways in the target language rather than merely showing knowledge about the language. Students learn and practice receiving, formulating and sending real oral messages in the target language. The purpose of world language study is to prepare students in such a way as to make them both linguistically competent and culturally aware, and to enable them to experience personal fulfillment that comes through developing these skills.
Lowell offers Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, and Spanish.
(The following descriptions are generic and applicable to all world language course offerings. However, Latin does not have an oral or conversational component.)
FIRST YEAR WORLD LANGUAGE 1-2
The beginning level course emphasizes the development of communication skills and awareness of cultural difference through materials and activities. Emphasis is placed on listening and speaking skills as well as the initial development of reading and writing. Students are expected to respond spontaneously and orally to simple, real life conversational cues. World Language laboratory attendance for forty minutes is required.
Grade Level: 9 – 12 Prerequisites: None
SECOND YEAR WORLD LANGUAGE 3-4
The intermediate course continues to build upon structures and skills developed in the first year. There is continued emphasis on listening and speaking skills. Students begin to use the language to be creative, in both spoken and written formats, and by incorporating and expanding upon learned, high frequency linguistic patterns, which include daily activities, common events, and narrations in the present, past and future tenses. Attendance in the World Language laboratory is at the discretion of the instructor.
Grade Level: 9-12 Prerequisites: World Language 1-2
THIRD YEAR WORLD LANGUAGE 5-6
In this advanced-intermediate course, the student continues to develop more advance linguistic skills and to expand on vocabulary as well as to review previous material. The class is taught in the target language. Students are expected to be able to understand and sustain more complex conversation, to formulate more complex question-answer patterns and to begin writing in the target language with coherence and correct grammatical application. Besides daily oral grammatical exercise, students will develop critical thinking skills upon reading and discussing short stories, poems and dramas written in the target language. Students will give brief, oral presentations to the class on a variety of topics which may be assigned or of their own choice. Attendance in the World Language laboratory is at the discretion of the instructor.
Grade Level: 9-12 Prerequisites: World Languages 3-4
FOURTH YEAR WORLD LANGUAGES 7-8
Emphasis is placed on advanced work in all skills. Students read, comment on, criticize and present from authentic language newspaper and magazine articles, broadcasts, videos, films and literary selections. Students will enhance their cultural awareness and appreciation for historical and contemporary society while further refining skills in the target language. The class is conducted in the target language.
Grade Level: 11-12 Prerequisites: World Languages 5-6
SECOND/THIRD YEAR HONORS
The Honors course is an accelerated course designed to prepare students for the Advanced Placement coursework. Students learn to communicate using more complex language structures, and are exposed to the process of writing short descriptive, reflective and interpretive essays. Students further develop their interpersonal, interpretational and presentational language skills within appropriate cultural contexts, and gain a deeper understanding of the perspectives behind cultural practices and products.
Lowell offers second and third year Honors courses in French and Spanish, and third year Honors courses in Italian, Japanese and Chinese.
Grade Level: 11-12 Prerequisites: Permission of teacher
FOURTH YEAR ADVANCED PLACEMENT
The College Entrance Examination Board designs and specifies the coursework
requirements in the world language courses. The curriculum prepares the student to take the annual Advanced Placement examination in May. Upon passing the examination successfully (with a grade of 3, 4, or 5), the student receives one year of college credit equivalent to a third year college course in the target language.
Lowell offers Advanced Placement courses in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
Grade Level: 11-12 Prerequisites: Permission of teacher
Kermesse is one of the largest events staged at Lowell that promotes and celebrates the international and cultural spirit of our school and brings together the multicultural heritage of our students. The Kermesse festival, organized entirely by students, also raises money for the World Languages Laboratory that serves over two thousand students who study in one or more of the nine languages offered at Lowell. Donations from students, parents and the business community to the Kermesse silent auction and food sale enable the World Languages Department to purchase materials, make repairs, and buy new equipment and software for the language laboratory.
About the World Languages Laboratory…
Mr. Georges Tchikovani, now retired from teaching, was hired in 1969 to develop a foreign language laboratory at Lowell High School. It started in room 141, and owing to its success, the language laboratory was moved the following year to a larger space in room 209. The desire to be on the cutting edge of technology had prompted teachers in the World Languages Department to replace its thirty-four year old traditional analog lab with a digital lab that would allow us to integrate modern day technology with language study. Thus, the language laboratory was moved once again in 2003 to its current location in the new Science Wing.
Today, the new Georges Tchikovani World Languages Laboratory houses 47 stations and provides students with audio, video, and computer integration at each student workstation. Students can explore digital media, play back Internet clips, synchronize text with audio and video, and record their own voices on a student track while simultaneously listening to or watching a digital audio or video-programmed file. In addition, students use the lab’s technology to supply the Educational Testing Service with digital files for oral Advanced Placement testing.
Lowell is the only high school in the district that has a fully functional language laboratory. Open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the World Languages Laboratory is staffed by a paraprofessional consultant and parent volunteers. It is a dynamic place that accommodates over a thousand students each week in nine language programs.
CLUB |
WHEN |
WHERE |
FACULTY ADVISOR |
| Chinese Club | Thurs | 110 | Ms. Xiaolin Chang |
| Chinese Cultural Arts | Mon | S102 | Ms. May Choi |
| Espanol Club | Tues | 142 | Ms. Carole Cadoppi |
| French Cultural Club | Wed | 256 | Mr. John Raya |
| German Club | Mon | 215 | Ms. Ah-mi Cho |
| Italian Club | Tues | S102 | Ms. Judith Branzburg |
| Japanese Club | Wed | 218 | Ms. Kiyoko Takemoto |
| Korean Cultural Club EO | Mon | 215 | Ms. Ah-mi Cho |