Spoken Fluency: Foreign Language I
SKU:
$300.00
$300.00
per item
In this 36 week guided and interactive online high school course, students will develop spoken fluency in one "world" foreign language (defined as being the national language of at least three countries.) Please see the list of offered languages below. They will do this by using various free resources to tell a joke, tell a Bible story, and deliver 9 different elevator pitches for products, services, and organizations, to native speaking strangers in their target language. The students will conduct 4 speaking sessions per week with native speakers of their target language. There will be no writing requirements in their target language for this course, as it is entirely focused on speaking fluency. Please scroll down for more information.
"They were amazed and astonished saying, 'Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?'" -- Acts 2:7-8
Languages Offered:
Below are the languages that are currently listed as the nationally recognized languages of at least 3 countries. Since you will have to arrange multiple speaking sessions with native speakers, if you want to learn a language not on this list, but have regular access to native speakers who can help you with this, contact me (dmugg@thefrontierchristian.com), and we can make an exception. (These languages are in no particular order.)
1. French
2. Arabic
3. Spanish
4. Portuguese
5. Hausa
6. German
7. Serbo-Croatian
8. Italian
9. Russian
10. Swahili
11. Dutch
12. Hindustani
13. Persian (with variants)
14. Tamil
15. Chinese
16. Sotho
17. Albanian
**** PLEASE NOTE: Just because a language is on this list does not mean that it is a good choice to learn. You will need to think through your ability to access a community of native speakers, as well as what your purpose is for learning the language. A good place to look to see if you will be able to access native speakers is Italki. Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, etc. will probably have a robust community to work with you. Hausa, Tamil, Sotho, and Albanian might not. If you cannot find native speakers in the language of your choice, you will be asked to choose a different language.
1. French
2. Arabic
3. Spanish
4. Portuguese
5. Hausa
6. German
7. Serbo-Croatian
8. Italian
9. Russian
10. Swahili
11. Dutch
12. Hindustani
13. Persian (with variants)
14. Tamil
15. Chinese
16. Sotho
17. Albanian
**** PLEASE NOTE: Just because a language is on this list does not mean that it is a good choice to learn. You will need to think through your ability to access a community of native speakers, as well as what your purpose is for learning the language. A good place to look to see if you will be able to access native speakers is Italki. Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, etc. will probably have a robust community to work with you. Hausa, Tamil, Sotho, and Albanian might not. If you cannot find native speakers in the language of your choice, you will be asked to choose a different language.
Additional Resources Required:
- The ability to establish the necessary accounts to interact with your native speaking partners. You will receive information about possible places to find these speakers during the first week(s) of the course.
So, what's the story?
Did you ever take a foreign language course in high school?
Were you fluent when you finished?
Foreign languages have always fascinated me.
My mom taught Spanish. My sister teaches Spanish and French. I majored in German and Arabic in college, and was fluent in Spanish, while I could speak a little bit of Hebrew, self-taught Irish, and self-taught Russian.
I later commanded the Army Special Operations Language School, teaching 10 different core languages to military professionals. Learning and teaching foreign languages has always been a part of my life, and I have tried all sorts of things to learn more languages.
You see, I collect them. I have materials for dozens of languages in which I can only say a few words on my shelves at home. Some are good teaching programs. Some are not.
Then I discovered Benny Lewis, who taught himself Polish on the way to Warsaw.
He opened my eyes to all of the free and more efficient language learning resources available. In his book Fluent In 3 Months, he outlines how to learn and use foreign language to change your life.
I really started to realize the importance of language certification when I was living in Germany, and my sister-in-law’s boyfriend was an American who wanted to study in Germany. But if he wanted to study in the German universities, he had to achieve a certain score on the CEFRL. Several of my civilian friends also had to score a certain level before they could work there.
So this got me thinking: rather than have a normal high school foreign language course, why not focus on speaking (the skill that most people want anyway) any world foreign language (the official language of at least three countries) to fluency (so that it would actually be transportable outside the walls of the school.)
Welcome to Foreign Language I!
Were you fluent when you finished?
Foreign languages have always fascinated me.
My mom taught Spanish. My sister teaches Spanish and French. I majored in German and Arabic in college, and was fluent in Spanish, while I could speak a little bit of Hebrew, self-taught Irish, and self-taught Russian.
I later commanded the Army Special Operations Language School, teaching 10 different core languages to military professionals. Learning and teaching foreign languages has always been a part of my life, and I have tried all sorts of things to learn more languages.
You see, I collect them. I have materials for dozens of languages in which I can only say a few words on my shelves at home. Some are good teaching programs. Some are not.
Then I discovered Benny Lewis, who taught himself Polish on the way to Warsaw.
He opened my eyes to all of the free and more efficient language learning resources available. In his book Fluent In 3 Months, he outlines how to learn and use foreign language to change your life.
I really started to realize the importance of language certification when I was living in Germany, and my sister-in-law’s boyfriend was an American who wanted to study in Germany. But if he wanted to study in the German universities, he had to achieve a certain score on the CEFRL. Several of my civilian friends also had to score a certain level before they could work there.
So this got me thinking: rather than have a normal high school foreign language course, why not focus on speaking (the skill that most people want anyway) any world foreign language (the official language of at least three countries) to fluency (so that it would actually be transportable outside the walls of the school.)
Welcome to Foreign Language I!
Adult Accomplishments:
- Fluency in speaking a world foreign language (defined as a language that is the national language of at least 3 countries)
- Joke told in your target language to a native speaker
- Bible story told in your target language to a native-speaking stranger
- 9 different "elevator pitches" given in your target language for different products, services, and organizations
Transferable skills:
- The ability to speak your target language fluently (defined as having a conversation where neither member needs to "break the pace" to let the other catch up)
- Ability to communicate with people from a different culture effectively about a wide range of topics
- Comprehension that allows you to identify and correct a native speaker's mistakes in understanding what you are trying to say in his/her language
Which careers will this course give me a leg up on?
- International Marketing Manager - Average Salary: $131,180 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- International Business Operations Specialist - Average Salary: $69,040 (https://www.careeronestop.org)
- Diplomat/Politician - Average Salary: $88,628 (www.payscale.com)
- Military Contractor - Average Salary: $71,700 (https://www.paysa.com)
- Missionary - Average Salary: $33,829 (www.indeed.com)
General Syllabus (Subject to change as needed)
- Course Start: 21 August 2023
- Week 1:
- Identify 4 venues where you can have native-speaking conversations in your target language
- Set up accounts as necessary
- Week 2:
- First conversations with speaking partner
- Start building your "cheat sheet"
- First Weekly Language Log (WLL) due (record of daily conversations with speaking partner)
- Week 3:
- WLL due
- Continue to build "cheat sheet" for conversations
- Week 4:
- WLL due
- Week 5:
- Special Session Video #1
- WLL due
- Week 6:
- Joke written in English
- Special Session Video #2
- WLL due: focused on increased vocab - nouns
- Week 7:
- Special Session Video #3
- WLL focus: verbs, prepositions, adjectives
- Week 8:
- Special Session Video #4
- WLL focus: more complex sentence structures
- Week 9:
- 3 "elevator pitch" items described in English
- Special Session Video #5
- WLL focus: more vivid descriptions
- Week 10:
- Special Session Video #6
- WLL focus: expressing conditionality
- Week 11:
- Special Session Video #7
- WLL focus: your joke
- Week 12:
- (Optional) Initial video takes on joke with speaking partner
- WLL focus: your joke
- Week 13:
- Limits Bounding Analysis (LBA) #1 (three month mark)
- WLL focus: your joke
- Week 14: Thanksgiving Week
- Joke video with your speaking partner
- WLL focus: your joke
- Week 15:
- Special Session Video #8
- WLL focus: elevator pitches
- Week 16:
- Special Session Video #9
- WLL focus: elevator pitches
- Week 17:
- Special Session Video #10
- WLL focus: elevator pitches
- Christmas Break: 18 December 2023 - 7 January 2024
- Week 18:
- Bible story written out in English
- Special Session Video #11
- WLL focus: Bible Story and elevator pitches
- Week 19:
- Special Session Video #12
- WLL focus: Bible Story and elevator pitches
- Week 20:
- Special Session Video #13
- WLL focus: Bible Story and elevator pitches
- Week 21:
- Special Session Video #14
- WLL focus: Elevator pitch videos
- Week 22:
- (Optional) initial takes on elevator pitch videos
- WLL focus: Elevator pitch videos
- Week 23:
- Special Session Video #15
- WLL focus: elevator pitch videos and Bible Story
- Week 24:
- Special Session Video #16
- WLL focus: elevator pitches and Bible story
- Week 25:
- Special Session Video #17
- WLL focus: Bible story and elevator pitches
- Week 26:
- Special Session Video #18
- WLL focus: Bible story and elevator pitches
- Week 27:
- Special Session Video #19
- WLL focus: Bible Story and elevator pitches
- Week 28:
- Special Session Video #20
- WLL focus: elevator pitches and Bible Story
- Spring Break: 25 - 31 March 2024
- Week 29:
- Elevator Pitch Videos (9 of them) turned in for grade
- WLL focus: elevator pitches
- Week 30:
- Special Session Video #21
- WLL focus: Bible Story
- Week 31:
- Special Session Video #22
- WLL focus: Bible Story
- Week 32:
- Special Session Video #23
- WLL focus: Bible Story
- Week 33:
- Special Session Video #24
- WLL focus: Bible Story
- Week 34:
- Bible Story Video turned in for grade
- Final LBA
- WLL focus: Bible Story
- Week 35:
- Journey of Learning Narrative (JOLN)
- Week 36:
- Socialize all performance videos and engage with social network on their comments
- Course End: 25 May 2024
Expected Work load
- Four speaking sessions of around 20-30 minutes per week with a native speaker of your target language
- One of the speaking sessions is a Special Session Video where you will record it and submit the video of the conversation (topic will be given to you)*
- Completing the Daily and Weekly Language Log forms to reflect on your speaking sessions
* Frontier Christian Academy (in accordance with the Terms of Use) may use these recordings in future marketing efforts (the student names will be removed for privacy)
***All of this is designed to take you about 5 focused hours per week, which is less than you would have if you were attending class in a traditional school.
How can i write this course up on a high school transcript?
- As a Foreign Language credit, given the level of fluency that the student gains, which is higher than anything out there at the high school level today. You could make the argument that this meets the full Foreign Language requirement for high school, given the level of fluency gained.