With the school year quickly coming to a close, many students are looking to the future and what it holds. Those in middle school are no exception, yet next year things will be different at those grade levels when it comes to choosing a foreign language.

As anyone who has been at NA since middle school knows, in 7th grade students are introduced to two languages.  The selection is made in 6th grade, and after nine weeks of each language in 7th grade, students choose the one they like best to pursue for the next five years.

That, at least, was the process.  Next year, two languages will be reduced to one.

According to a recent district e-blast, “Beginning in the 2020-2021 school year, the first level of world language courses will no longer be taught as a stand-alone class in 8th grade. Instead, the first level of a world language will be instructed over the course of two years and will be offered every other day in 7th and 8th grade.”

Senora Good, the World Languages Department Chair, stated,“The change in student choice of language is a temporary one that was necessitated by the new change in the middle school day schedule. The administration proposed the idea for 2020-2021 to have level I of languages split over 7th and 8th grade every other day and add an exploratory element in 6th grade.”

Latin student Emma Sieminski sees both side of the issue.

“I would say I always knew I wanted to take Latin,” she said. “Personally, I would have enjoyed more time with my language, but I understand why others would want to try more than one language.”

But not everyone was as Sieminski when it came to picking languages.

“I always thought I wanted to take Spanish, but I didn’t get it when we were scheduling in 6th grade,” Aleni Antalis said. “Instead, I got to try French and I loved it. It was nice to get to test out different languages rather than only take one and be stuck with it without knowing if I would have loved another one more.”

While Sieminski and Antalis are both concerned that 7th graders will have trouble making such a decision, there are decisions still to be made about how the middle school language curriculum will be adapted.

“Beginning with the 6th grade in 2020-2021, students again will have the opportunity to explore languages and make the choice of their formal study of language,” Good said. “We are hoping that, contrary to the past years, students will be able to explore all four of our languages offered in the future.”

Spanish student Morgan Cima said, “I hope that 6th graders will get to experience all four languages that NA has to offer. I wish that I had the option when I was in middle school!”

It remains uncertain whether middle schoolers will have exposure to multiple languages, as the future 6th grade exploratory course has yet to take shape.