World Languages at Urban

With decades of experience and expertise, Urban’s language teachers seek to inspire and motivate students to become proficient in Mandarin Chinese, French, or Spanish by their senior year and to continue their language learning beyond Urban in order to participate effectively in a world made irrevocably smaller by technology, globalization, and immigration. 

The tools of proficiency encompass both form (grammatical precision, extensive and expressive vocabulary, near-native accent, and intonation) and message (authentic and spontaneous communication exchanges). We train our students to access and balance these two domains of language production from their first year onward by immersion in the target language, avoidance of English, and both student-centered instruction and assessment practices that require daily and active participation.  We use authentic and primary source materials to deepen students' knowledge of global issues and culture.  As students progress through the program, they continue to develop their linguistic range through engagement with increasingly diverse and complex cultural and social themes chosen for their relevance and challenge.