What is the world languages discipline?
The world languages discipline is much broader than just learning a second or third language. Learning a world language involves experiencing and knowing about the cultures of those who use it, in addition to knowing how to listen to, speak, read, and write the language. This framework emphasizes the integration of culture with the teaching of language skills. In the past, textbooks have tended to isolate cultural information in sidebar sections, as if culture could be taught in incremental tidbits. Through language, students should experience and learn about new ways of thinking and doing, believing and communicating. Authentic representations of culture should be at the center, not the periphery, of the world languages discipline. Authentic representations from the target culture(s), including dance, art, music, story telling, spiritual expression, history, print matter (comics, magazines, ads, children’s books, novels), video material (newscasts, commercials, sports, sitcoms), and c
