Foreign Language Club Activities in High Schools
Integrating Activities with Curriculum Goals and Global Awareness
Jun 27, 2009
There are many opportunities for fun, creative, and educational language club activities in a high school. Turning a language club into a real adjunct of classroom foreign language studies is not difficult and opens the door for students to see and experience the language in another, more personal dimension.
Almost all high schools offer Spanish and French as a foreign language. However, many also offer Latin, German, and Italian. Schools involved in the IB program frequently offer Chinese and Japanese. Each language brings with it unique opportunities to further explore a foreign language through a student club.
Language Club Local Field Trips
High schools located in larger metropolitan areas benefit the most from traveling exhibits at local museums to musical events. German language students might benefit from attending an operetta like Fledermaus, sung in German. The showing of a foreign film presents excellent opportunities, even if students are far from fluent.
Foreign films can also be shown at the school during one evening or on the weekend. Such events should incorporate parents and include food refreshments unique to the culture being studied. These kinds of "social" events also unify and strengthen the group, particularly if parents are also involved.
Inviting Foreign Exchange Students to Share
Most high schools facilitate foreign exchange programs in which students from abroad spend a year in the United States with a local host family. Language clubs can benefit by inviting these students to share what their culture and home life is like. How is Christmas celebrated in France? How different is Americanized Chinese food from what everyday people eat in Hong Kong? What do you miss most about your home country? (for many Europeans, the answer here will be good "bread").
Middle School Tutoring
Students involved in a high school language club might develop an outreach tutoring program in the middle schools where many of the same languages are taught. This has the added benefit of easing the middle school student transition to high school.
Language Club School-Wide Concerts
Many high schools facilitate concerts through their music departments, particularly around the Christmas holiday. If feasible, language clubs can participate by singing local carols in the native language or by being integrated into the program in some manner. One high school French Club spent the morning before the holiday break wandering the high school halls singing Noels.
Planning a Language Club Fair
Facilitating a language club fair for the entire school community meshes the goals of foreign language curriculum within overall goals of multiculturalism and global awareness. Setting up booths that highlight the history and culture of nations represented by the languages offered as well as selling samples of food is not only educational but can act as a fund raising event for the clubs.
Language club bake sales can also accomplish fund raising goals, money that can be used to fund field trips, bring in guest speakers, or be used as a charitable donation. Fund raising can also serve the purpose of helping to pay students costs for the ultimate field trip, a spring break or summer trip to the country being studied.
Language Trips Abroad
Although one and two week trips abroad may not boost language skills, they do expose students to the culture, encouraging further study of the language and perhaps wetting the appetite for future, longer-term immersion programs during college years.
Such trip preparation should include the mastering of a useful trip vocabulary that is more than just “hello,” “good-bye,” and “how much does this cost?”
Using Language Clubs to Further Curriculum
Current trends in Education dictate that everything is curriculum, from what is on classroom walls to the teacher’s desk. Toward that end, language clubs must be structured to complement classroom studies. Although teachers may see this as yet another “prep,” the long-term benefits to students far outweigh the extra time spent to fashion a viable and successful language club.
