The ASMS sixth through eighth grade French curriculum engages students by means of interactive, student-driven activities such as impromptu role play and skit creation and by means of maintaining high motivation using varied student groupings to create an authentic need for communication. Students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills are further supported by the frequent use of engaging multimedia tools.  In 6th grade, in addition to student assimilation of the basics necessary for simple communication, instruction aims at the development of study methods and techniques that allow students to become increasingly independent in efficiently learning vocabulary and conjugations. Later grades focus on students’ capability to initiate and sustain conversation using a broad variety of idiomatic expressions and more sophisticated syntactic constructions. Cultural study is interwoven throughout the curriculum. At the conclusion of their French middle school experience, students take an in-house foreign language proficiency exam in order to help determine optimal placement in either regular or advanced language courses available to them in high school.