Foreign Languages

All students at the Rudolf Steiner School take two languages, Spanish and German, from first through eighth grades. Each language is taught in two forty-minute periods a week. The study of these two languages, from two different language groups, Romance and Germanic, allows students to absorb knowledge of life from two different points of view and to develop an understanding and appreciation for other cultures.

In first, second, and third grades, language lessons consist only of oral work. At this age, children are easily able to acquire correct pronunciation, rhythm, and patterns of speech. Very little English is spoken in class, but the time is filled with songs, poetry, tongue-twisters, verses, and word games. Students create lesson books, filled with drawings taken from the lessons. By the end of third grade, they have a basic working vocabulary. Classes often perform short plays in Spanish or German at assemblies or for parent audiences.