USP will empower students by providing opportunities to develop as compelling communicators and to build confidence in the use of language. USP will recognize the linguistic diversity of its student community and strive to meet their educational needs including those associated with language acquisition and development.
USP offers a trilingual education: English, Spanish and Mandarin.
The primary language of communication and instruction at USP is English. USP will encourage students’ understanding and appreciation of the host country’s language (Spanish) and culture. Mandarin language and Chinese Culture will be offered within our curriculum in all grade levels.
All USP students should have expectations for thinking, inquiring communicating in English. USP embraces learner diversity; however, it will only enroll students whose educational needs can be met by the school. Therefore, upon admission, students must meet the English language requirements to ensure academic success.
English proficiency at USP is measured in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to the following:
USP will provide a variety of instructional strategies, including but not limited to, intensive instruction, in class assistance, pull-out, support classes and program modifications.
All students will be required to study 2 additional languages: Spanish and Mandarin. However, students requiring pull-out and/or support classes may be required to not join the Mandarin Language program until they exhibit sufficient proficiency of academic English and thus no longer require support. Each case will be handled on an individual basis striving to fulfill the student’s needs.
Spanish and Mandarin will be provided in continuum. Social studies classes required by the Ministry of Education of Panama will be offered in Spanish.
First language/Mother Tongue maintenance is the responsibility of the USP parent community. However, USP understands the importance of Mother Tongue Instruction as a means to helping students maintain their first language skills. Where academic performance and improvement of English proficiency is a key program objective, the school may consider to offer other languages as part of the ECA Program.
The USP mission statement is the foundation for our language policy guidelines. As language forms the basis for learning, these guidelines are critical for helping the school to achieve its mission.
In keeping with the USP mission: “We are dedicated to promoting literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills through creative and intellectual engagement and communication”, we educate our students to think and communicate with a holistic world-view. We foster USP students’ development as open-minded and compelling communicators, to encourage them to understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, to be open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals, to seek and evaluate other points of views, and to grow from these experiences.
As compelling communicators, USP students develop their skills in effective collaboration, and in the confident and creative understanding and expression of ideas in more than one language and in varied modes of communication.