By Karen Phan, Staff Writer
At Fountain Valley High School (FVHS), students are required to take at least two years (three years recommended) of the same world language course. FVHS currently offers classes for Spanish, French and Japanese and is looking to introduce more options; however, the process of adding a language to the curriculum isn’t as easy as you’d expect.
Adding any language to the curriculum means creating a new program that has to be structured appropriately. The three language programs that are currently offered have classes for all levels of experience; students who are already familiar with a language often skip the beginner class and move to a higher level by taking a verbal and written test to determine which level is suited for them.
Any language course would need to have classes open to those with and without experience in the language. Because of this requirement, the school would need to find enough teachers to instruct these classes.
Employing enough teachers and planning out the program is only one part of the equation; the school also needs to make sure they have enough students enrolled in the course. Most classes have around 30-37 students so, if the size of the class does not meet this expectation, it would be harder for the class to grow and run smoothly.
The cost and budget of the course also has to be taken into consideration. The cost of textbooks, workbooks, desks and other supplies is piled on top of the cost to employ new staff members and the school would have to find available classrooms if additional language are added as well.
Once we get past the structuring and cost of the course, we see the toll adding another language takes on current language teachers.
Some students will drop their current language course and sign up for the new language class, which causes language teachers to lose students and affects their jobs. Although giving FVHS students a greater variety of languages to choose from is ideal, there are consequences.
The school wants to expand the world language department and include Vietnamese and sign language but, a hefty amount of planning has to be done before they can be added. So for now, it seems like FVHS will be sticking with Spanish, French and Japanese.
