Belleville Township High School - Bellevinois Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

Page 25 text:

French, German, and Spanish are the modem languages taught at B.T.H.S. Now the student may take four years of his chosen language. If the student choses to do this, upon completidon of high school he will have basic knowledge of the language. Should he visit the country sp eaking the language he studied in high school, chances are good that he will be able to converse with its people. I lowever, being able to speak a language is not the only value of foreign language study. The stu¬ dent is also taught to read and a new and rich literature is opened to him. The student can read foreign books with the meaning intact and little lost in translation. Latin can also be taken for four years. However, the goals of studying Latin are not the same as those of studying a modern language. Because Latin is no longer spoken, all emphasis is placed on reading. The Latin student learns to dissect sentences and to ferret out their meanings. He reads works of Julius Caesar, Cicero, Ovid, and Virgil, and learns about the Roman civilization and about its influence on our lives. Larry Burro decorates the Spanish room by hanging a travel poster. Spanish, German, and Latin are taught here. Senior Shelia Barber, dressed as a Roman patrician, explains Roman customs to a freshman Latin class.

Page 24 text:

Using the new French film-and-text course, Mr. Stover helps Nancy Greenwood and Randy Birdsell to improve their accents. French students use the language laboratory. Students of a second-year honors French class made masks showing various characters of Jean de la Fon- tains ' s fable, Le Corbeau et e Renard. Showing the masks are, Michelle Fass, Patty Whitsell, Leslie Brooks, Linda O’Neill, and Cheryl Engler. Foreign language study is the key to the under¬ standing of people of other countries. It also helps us to better understand the grammar and usage of our own language. A main goal of learning other languages is to establish an over all cultural and social bond with other peoples by studying the structure of the language and reading the literature of the people. In the modern study of languages, more and more emphasis is being placed upon the spoken word. Government grants are given to individual schools so that they can establish language laboratories. This vear, a modified lab is in use for the first time at BlHS. About one hundred and forty first-year French students are using it. Through regular use of new lip-synchronized color films, tapes, texts, and oral drills, students gain an over all, natural contact with the language. By seeing films of real-life situa¬ tions and by learning what is said in these situations, the students learn to speak French in the same way they learned to speak English, by hearing it.

Page 26 text:

Students learn about Mr. Gilligan, with the aid of graph, explains the function of supply and demand to an economics class. Miss Payne, assistant librarian, helps Jim Clemons, Nancy Bott, Judy McCann, Frank Rogers (seated) and Margo McKinley use the conference library for magazine reports. The student who has a wide knowledge of social studies is an informed, alert student. I Ie is aware of the world around him. The learning of social studies provides the student with an understanding of man and his environment. He learns of man in his various stages of progress from earliest to modern man. His study goes back to the very roots of society, to the ancient civilizations and their way of life. Through his quest for facts, the student learns that the past is not emphasized for its own sake, but as a key to the future. 1 hrough geography, he discovers the physical characteristics of the world and inquires about the earth as a home of man. I Ie is informed of mans advancement, through both the mistakes and the improvements of the past as he studies world and American historv. Civics students, Janet Heskett and Phil Holeman, learn about our great country ' s history in viewing the flag of the United States of America.