Language is a tool that enables us to understand and relate to one another.  When we are able to speak and converse with one another, we are able to communicate.  Communication draws people together in community.  Communication allows for “communion of the saints” which reaches beyond language barriers.

            Christ’s mandate to go into all the world (Matthew 28:19) requires knowledge of languages other than one’s native tongue.  The gospel of Jesus Christ must be proclaimed in every tongue.  The student of French at GDCS provides a basic foundation upon which a deeper study of another language can be built in future education in which students may participate in order to prepare them for their role of service to Christ and community.

            Canada is a bilingual country - English and French - and therefore, to build community within our country, the study of French, is a required component of study.  The study of French is one way in which GDCS attempts to prepare students to meet the challenge of the world and culture in which they live as young Canadians.

            Through the study of French, the students are challenged to gain a better appreciation and understanding of language itself, its structure and its role.  The study of French helps our students grow in the awareness that each language follows a set of laws and that it is indeed a wonderfully created orderly structure.  The study of French is one more way that students are challenged to grow and develop their God given gifts so that they can model God’s love in a broken world.

Goals of our Program:

1.         Students to develop a sensitivity to other cultures and people and gain an appreciation of the French presence in Canadian life and in God’s world

2.         Students to develop communication skills in the French language - reading, writing, listening and speaking, appropriate to their grade level and individual stage of development

3.         Students to begin to understand the structure and function of language