At Epping Boys' High School students complete their mandatory 100 hours of study of a foreign language in Year 8.  In the Week A / Week B cycle, they will have four lessons, each 75 minutes long.  The two languages offered for study are French and German.

In the first four weeks of Term 1, students will be given samples of lessons in both French and German.  At the end of this time a class vote will be taken as to which of the two languages will be studied for the duration of the year.  If the class vote is not a clear majority, the final decision will be made by the class teacher.

The teacher's decision will be made by observing the students' reactions to each language in terms of degree of confidence in participating in oral work and overall response to the course content.  It is made clear to the students that not all who have a particular preference will necessarily be able to study that language.  There are other sources of learning of which the students can avail themselves.  For example, learning from CD Roms and participating in language learning courses outside of the school environment.

Contact address for The Alliance Francaise

www.afsydney.com.au

Contact for the Goethe Institute

www.goethe.de/an/syd