Foreign Language Department

The Foreign Language Department offers college preparatory curriculum in the acquisition of French, Latin, and Spanish from beginning to Advanced Placement levels. 

• Standard 1: Clear & Effective Communicator – By focusing on the student's acquisition of proficiency in the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing language within individual levels of accomplishment from novice to near native students become clear and effective communicators. 

• Standard 2: Creative & Practical Problem Solver – Instruction in language acquisition centers on the creation of common real life situations or historical contexts in which language is applied to resolve problems through the application of critical thinking

• Standard 3: Critical Thinker – In a variety of daily activities, the student is challenged to manipulate simple to complex communications skills from Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Students in the upper division classes are challenged to apply critical reasoning skills in the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of themes and metaphors in literature and film within the context of acquired linguistic constructions

• Standard 4: Integrative Thinker – The application of language skills involves associative reasoning in the formation of new ideas or previously learned concepts in new linguistic forms. 

Drawing on our Jewish heritage, language students learn the historical and social roles of Jews within the culture and society of the language studied. Students at Milken may enroll in language courses in Grades 8-12. Close to one-third of students in those grades enroll in a language.