The goal of the second language instruction at Hunter College High School is the development of communication competence. In this regard, the foreign language program here will differ from the traditional programs in which study and drill of grammatical structures are stressed.

Instead, instruction is essentially student-centered and focuses on the performance of the basic functions of communication: socializing, providing and obtaining information, expressing opinion, and persuasion. All classroom and homework activities are structured in such a way as to prepare students to perform these functions with realistic and culturally authentic contexts. As such, they resemble the types of interactions that students can expect to encounter in career-related activities, in the pursuit of personal interests, in daily interactions with other individuals in this country and/or abroad, or in learning about the cultures of antiquity.

To reflect that focus, the instructional materials used include the textbook and accompanying workbooks as well as teacher-prepared materials, tape and video recordings, newspapers and magazines, and selected literary texts that represent the cultures of the language being learned.