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DepEd to offer Mandarin, Arabic language courses to HS students


To produce more internationally-competitive graduates, the Department of Education (DepEd) will introduce two more foreign languages in pilot schools: Mandarin and Arabic. Deped Bureau of Secondary Education chief Director Lolita Andrada said the Special Program in Foreign Language is for schools whose students master English early. Courses in Mandarin, widely used in world economic power China, and Arabic, spoken vastly in the Middle East market, will be offered in the coming school year. “Studies have shown that facility in just one foreign language is now perceived as a disadvantage in a global market that is culturally and linguistically diverse," Andrada said in a news release posted on the DepEd website. Andrada noted that while English is a major language, English-speaking countries account only for around 30 percent of the world gross domestic product and likely, even lesser in the future. The DepEd piloted foreign languages in selected high schools starting with Spanish, Japanese and French in school year 2009-2010. German was introduced the following year. “Currently, Spanish is being taught in 54 high schools across the country, Japanese in 13 high schools, French in 12 high schools and German in nine high schools. The program is piloted in public secondary schools (preferably with speech laboratory) for students who are in the last two year levels of high school where they are allotted four hours weekly to learn the language," the DepEd said. “We believe the last two years of high school is the most appropriate time to learn a second foreign language because that is the time they are most ready," Andrada noted. To prepare the teachers in teaching the foreign languages, DepEd has made an arrangement with the Instituto Cervantes for the teaching of Spanish, with the Japan Foundation Manila for Japanese, the Alliance Francais for French and Goethe Institute for German. – VVP, GMA News

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