French and Spanish Courses

Unlike other programs, which either concentrate solely on reading and writing or on speaking, Calvert's foreign-language courses have it all. Detailed pronunciation instruction, examples, and practice. Dialogs. Spelling. Vocabulary. Plus the famous Calvert step-by-step instructions, perfected in their day-school classrooms since 1897, which make it possible even for a parent who never learned French or Spanish to offer this course!

You do not have to be enrolled in the Calvert K-8 curriculum to sign up for Beginning French or Spanish.

Children taking Calvert's Beginning French or Spanish courses learn the French or Spanish alphabet and pronunciation. They listen to taped dialogs and pronunciation examples. They learn to follow directions in French or Spanish, acting out such commands as, "Go to the table. Touch the eraser." They make their own Pronunciation Notebooks, listing the rules of French or Spanish pronunciation. They do workbook exercises that drill vocabulary and grammar in a fun, visual way. They pick up tidbits of French etiquette or Spanish culture. What more can you expect from a beginning language course you can use with your fourth grader?

Beginning French Level I and Beginning Spanish Level I comes with five audiocassettes, a set of crayons, an eraser, a 166 page spiral-bound workbook with exercises in front and tests in the back, a Lesson Manual with detailed teaching instructions, a Tape Script with every word on the cassette tapes, and an answer key to everything except the tests. The theory is that if you want to get your tests graded, you should sign up for the Advisory Teaching Service. However, grading the tests is a snap for anyone who has followed the lessons, especially if you already have a grasp of the language. Save even more by using the course with several of your children at once.

Beginning French Level II includes all the same ingredients, at a higher level of course, plus an illustrated children's book in French. Caroline Visite À Paris. The Beginning Spanish Level II, just introduced, is not as closely patterned after the French Level II course. It comes with two books: Getting to Know Spain and Spanish, and the Spanish book, El Señor conejo y el Hermosa Regalo, written by a famous children's author and illustrated by a popular children's illustrator.

Each course has 96 lessons, plus review lessons and tests. Calvert suggests a Monday-Wednesday-Friday teaching schedule, which would make each course fit precisely into one school year. Together, the two levels of one language are equivalent to one year of high school French or Spanish.

— Mary Pride