K-12 schools

Hoboken High School

A French teacher rebuilt her curriculum around authentic audio, and students started testing her in the hallway.

Inspiring students to speak with confidence

French teacher Susan Kobylarz wanted her students to hear French spoken by someone other than her, and to keep speaking it once they left the room. What followed was better academic performance, students using French outside class, and a curiosity about the culture that had them studying on their own time.

Students writing at their desks with a teacher alongside them, beside the Hoboken Board of Education seal

The challenge

Varying proficiency levels and limited access to authentic content

Susan Kobylarz had twelve years of French instruction behind her and a healthy skepticism about language-learning software, having tried programs that left students feeling the language was beyond them. “They were hard to use, and way too expensive.”

What she wanted was authentic French audio. “I felt like it was a disservice to my students to have me be the only French speaker they ever heard.” In a school that emphasises world languages and sends students abroad, she needed them prepared for real conversations, which meant real French, delivered in a form that would actually hold a teenager's attention.

What they did

Authentic content, built into the curriculum itself

When Hoboken partnered with Mango in 2016, the ease of use, the variety of activities and the interface design were what stood out, something she could see students not merely using but enjoying.

Going deeper into the lessons, she found them comprehensive enough to write the school's entire French curriculum around. Mango's content is aligned to international standards, which meant students' proficiency would travel with them wherever they went next. “It's completely standards-driven.”

A Mango French lesson showing the expression 'un froid de canard' beside its meaning, 'bitter cold'

In their words

What they told us

Susan KobylarzFrench Teacher, Hoboken High School

What changed

Increased student engagement and cultural competency

Using the Mango Admin Portal, Ms. Kobylarz tracked assessment scores and progress, and began posting individual progress reports on a competition board to see who could get furthest. Students' competitive instincts did the rest: average time spent learning rose 52% between the 2016 and 2019 school years, and a good number started working ahead on their own.

Interactive features like voice comparison and phonetic pop-ups gave them somewhere private to practise pronunciation, and students who did not normally speak in class started speaking aloud. “Students would come up to me and start speaking French, testing my knowledge about words I hadn't taught them yet.”

What followed

School-wide integration and broadened horizons

Culture notes woven into the courses turned out to carry weight of their own. They explain, for instance, that the expression un froid de canard refers to the cold France endures in the months when duck hunting season is open.

Students preparing for study abroad used Mango to get ready, and the cultural material gave them a reason to learn more about the places they were going than the phrasebook required.

About Hoboken High School

Hoboken High School is a four-year public high school in New Jersey with roughly 426 students and a two-year world language requirement. In 2017 it applied to join the New Jersey State Seal of Biliteracy program, expanding its world language options and adding pathways toward the recognition.

A Mango customer since 2016, using Mango Classroom.