Northwest Academy offers courses in Spanish, French, and Mandarin, ranging from Introductory Level to Fluent Level. The Fluent Level is designed for students coming from language immersion programs who have attained near-native fluency in the target language. High School students are required to complete Level 2 (second year) proficiencies of a World Language to graduate from Northwest Academy.
The Northwest Academy World Languages Program follows a natural/communicative language acquisition model. This approach emphasizes immersion in the target language and a student-centered classroom in which students eventually produce more language than the teachers.
The World Language Program seeks to help students reach a level of functional fluency in the target language at the conclusion of four or more years of study. Students must demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking before advancing to the next level. The program’s curricular benchmarks and standards come from the Proficiency Guidelines established by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
