Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt
POLICY D1.010
LANGUAGE POLICY
Philosophy
Learning and speaking English on campus is important because it’s the language that unites FDR as a community, and parents’ expectations are that their children will become fluent in English. Fluency is defined as the ability to comprehend, read, write, and speak English spontaneously with ease.
At Colegio Roosevelt English is the primary language of communication and instruction. We acknowledge the importance of being able to communicate in a language other than English. We offer classes in Spanish for native speakers, Spanish as a second language, and French. Spanish for native speakers is offered to students who are enrolled in the Official Peruvian Program (OPP) and for some students not enrolled in the OPP but with very good Spanish language skills. Students in the OPP take 1-2 content classes in Spanish, depending on the grade level, as a means of maintaining the literacy and academic skills necessary for them to fulfill the curriculum requirements of the Peruvian Ministry of Education.
In addition to English uniting FDR as a community, the primary goal of the school program is to prepare students to meet the academic demands of colleges and universities whose language of instruction is English. Although a percentage of students go to Peruvian universities, the majority go to English-speaking universities, but all students will likely work in a multicultural, multilingual environment in their lifetime. The school provides an English as a Second Language (ESL) Program to non-English speakers and students who qualify for additional support. All students in grades 1-10 are required to study Spanish.*
To help maintain a high quality of English language use on campus, Colegio Roosevelt holds the following expectations:
Students are expected to:
• View English as the language that unites our campus.
• Use English in their classrooms to develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills thereby maximizing learning.
• Help create a risk-free accepting environment in the classroom and across the campus that fosters the learning of English.
• Be sensitive to the ramifications of not using English in class (i.e., the loss of time to practice the language; exclusion of others who do not share the language spoken).
• Be sensitive to the ramifications of not using English in on-campus interactions and off-campus school-sponsored activities where non-Spanish speakers are present (i.e., meetings, sports, after-school activities, on-campus social time).
Instructional and Administrative Staff Members are expected to:
• View English as the language that unites our campus.
• Promote a risk-free accepting environment in the classroom and across the campus that fosters the learning of English
• Conduct all lessons in English, with the exception of language classes (i.e., Spanish, French), as English is the language of instruction and teachers should not translate content into another language unless there is an exceptional need to do so (Note 1).
• Use English when speaking with students, colleagues and English-speaking parents and to speak English whenever students are present.
• Use English in all communication (i.e., signage, notes to parents; items in the bulletin; parent meetings and conferences, announcements and posters from school groups such as the PTA, coaches, etc.). When communicating with parents, Spanish translations should be included.
Note 1: When a student is experiencing some sort of crisis (i.e., is crying or is extremely upset), it may be appropriate to speak with the student in the student’s native language, if possible. This decision would be left to the discretion of the adult in charge.
*This requirement is waived in exceptional cases.
Adopted: June 25, 2002
Revised: August 21, 2007.
