The Summit aims to produce high-school graduates with strong proficiency in French or Spanish. To do that, the World Language Program begins at age 3 and continues through the senior year – giving students the opportunity to study French or Spanish continuously for 13 years.
The World Language Program was the culmination of research by Summit educators looking to develop a best-practice curriculum. Their aim was to define 21st Century foreign-language competency of students living in a global world. The program is designed to give Summit graduates a competitive advantage in foreign language proficiency when they reach college.
The Summit is one of the few schools in Cincinnati that offers Spanish and French as early as kindergarten. Foreign language study is started at age 3 because young minds are able to absorb information at an incredible rate. Younger children can learn a second language easier because they are not as dependent on the first. Early learning also takes advantage of the developing brain and stimulates the development of neural connections, which explains the higher achievement rates of bilingual and trilingual students in areas such as Math and Language Arts. Research shows learning a foreign language at such an early age fosters a lifelong appreciation of communication, diversity and the English language.
In the World Language Program, parents of kindergarteners are asked to choose either French or Spanish for their children, with the option of keeping their children enrolled in study of that same language every year until they graduate. All students are introduced to Latin in the sixth grade and can continue their World Language studies in French, Spanish, Latin or Mandarin Chinese through the senior year.
"If you learn another language, you can learn more about people, what they do and what it looks like in their country. You learn about other countries and you can talk to them."
Christian Orse
Fourth grade
