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Welcome to Kingsford High
School's Language Department!
Studying a
foreign language is becoming a very valued skill day by day.
As millions of immigrants enter the United States every day
speaking languages other than English, the need to know
another language grows and grows. At Kingsford High
School, two different foreign languages are available to
each student in the classroom, years one through four, where basic language
skills such as listening and comprehension, vocabulary
acquisition, and reading and writing are taught at a more
advanced level each year. In addition to our excellent
classroom-taught foreign languages, Spanish and French, many
other languages are available to take as a class via the
internet. For more information
click
here.
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The Spanish Language is taught by
Mr. William Cummings
(Señor), who has taught at KHS for over
35 years, and is also supervisor of the Kingsford High School Chapter #1507 of the
National Honor Society.
Mr. Cummings is a Kingsford High School alumnus, class of 1965. He also
attended Michigan State University for four years, graduating in 1969.
Señor
Spanish, the world’s second most
influential language, is spoken by 320 million people.
Spanish is the official language in 21 countries. In the
United States of America there are 30 million Spanish
speakers and Hispanics make up 12 percent of the population,
making them the largest minority group in the country. The
United States has the third largest number of Spanish
speakers in the world. Predictions are that this number will
increase significantly during the first half of the
Twenty-First Century.
Learning Spanish can increase career opportunities in
foreign service, law enforcement, education, travel/tourism,
social services, foreign trade, medicine and business, just
to name a few. Spanish is easy to practice through Spanish
TV and radio stations and native speakers. It is also easy
to learn due to phonetic spelling and numerous cognates
(words which are the same or almost the same as English).
All four levels of Spanish center on the highly acclaimed
new Corporation for Public Broadcasting production
Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish. Adapting the
format of the highly popular Hispanic telenovela
(soap opera), this innovative approach to language
acquisition is comprehension-based. In 52 half-hour
episodes, the students follow a fictional lawyer’s quest to
unravel a mystery that leads her from Los Angeles to Mexico,
then to Spain, on the Argentina, north to Puerto Rico and
finally back to Mexico. Students learn through context and
action, building on the listening and speaking skills that
are easiest for students to learn in the early stages. As
the series progresses, so does the students’ understanding
of the conversational Spanish spoken by the characters, who
are portrayed by professional actors from each country
represented.
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The French Language is taught by
Mrs. Mary Moore (Madame),
also advisor of the Student Council, French Club, and Drama Coach. Mrs.
Moore has also taught Math I and Math II at Kingsford and currently has
after-school tutoring in her room every day until 4:30 pm. She graduated
High School in Chippewa Falls, WI and then pursued her BA at the University of
Wisconsin, Eau Claire and later her MA at Northern Michigan University,
Marquette.
Madame
Learning any Foreign Language is helpful in satisfying
greater global understanding. It is also true that after a person learns one
language they are much more adept at learning another. But why French?
French is the language that is spoken closest geographically to us here in
Michigan. French is spoken in all of the world’s continents. French is used in
many international organizations such as the Red Cross, the United Nations, and
at the Olympics. It is taught as a second language throughout the world.
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If you have any questions or comments
please feel free to contact either
Sr. Cummings (wcummings@kingsford.org)
or
Mme. Moore (mmoore@kingsford.org).
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