World Language

Brookline High School offers world language courses in Chinese, French, Japanese, Latin, and Spanish. All students studying a modern world language are grouped in a way that develops as fully as possible their communicative competency and familiarizes them with other cultures. The language lab helps students acquire greater proficiency in listening and speaking for our students studying Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. 

At each level, the content of the modern language course is matched to the ability of the student to understand the spoken language, to speak it, to read a text or interpret a literary work, and to write the language in ways that are comprehensible. All courses meet four periods a week with homework and occasional language lab work. 

Our programs are designed to accommodate both those who had prior study and those who begin their study at the High School. Students with prior study or outside experience are placed in classes which continue the development of their level of proficiency. They may study the language through Japanese and Latin 44, and French and 5, Chinese 6, Latin 5 and Spanish 5, and Chinese 6 (if enrollment warrants). To graduate from BHS, students need at least 2 years of study in a World Language. Many colleges require completion of 3 years of World Language prior to admission and most students study a World Language for 4 years.