For those who are teaching more than one language...

[prairie rose]

How are you doing it? Do you expect fluency in all languages or just exposure and fluent in one? Do you study them concurrently or study one in middle and one in high school?

 

I think Spanish will be useful to my kids. I grew up in the Southwestern US and I learned to understand Spanish but I speak only a little. I took French in high school and it has served me well when we visit my MIL in England but again I understand more than I speak. We lived in Japan for 4 years and my dh can understand almost anything spoken in Japanese and we all speak a little. One of my dd's is absolutely fascinated with all things China and knows a few words in Chinese (Ironically, this is the dd who was born in Japan :lol: We moved to the states when she was 18 months old though so she has no memory of it) One of my ds's is interested in German and another in Italian. We also study Latin but I count that as part of our language arts, not as a foreign language.

 

I think it would be fantastic for them to learn 2 languages or more if they desire. The logistics of learning two is holding me back. :confused:

[sweetTN]

:bigear:

[Nan in Mass]

We've done Latin and French. I'm hoping my son will get at least one more language before going to college, but that one will probably be when he goes to community college in 11th or 12th grade.

 

My goal isn't fluency, but functionality. I wanted my son to be able to watch a movie, hold a conversation, travel, and read a book, if it is a modern language in French. Now, at 15yo, he is able to do those things. If you want to read about the problems that has created as far as learning to write GRIN, you can hop over to the bilingual board and read my long posts there. In Latin, my goal is for my son to be able to read Latin. Latin has turned out to be a handy way to teach lots of other thing, like English grammar, but those aren't our goal. We are stalled in Latin at the moment.

 

My older one did some Japanese, some French, and some Latin. He isn't as far in the French as the younger one. He understands quite a lot of spoken French, doesn't read or write it, and speaks only a little. I can't tell how much Japanese he understands or speaks. And he didn't get all that far in Latin. I wish I were a better teacher. He's probably finished the equivalent of two years of high school Latin. He is in college now.

 

My general strategy so far has been to teach two languages at a time, one formally and one immersion-style. This keeps us from having to memorize too much material at once. Any language that you want to keep alive but not spend too much time on can be maintained by reading a bit every week. I managed to keep, and even improve, my high school French by reading one book a year.

 

My ideal would be to study a language immersion-style until you get to the point where you can use a textbook written for native children for another subject (my 15yo son, for example, is doing his history in French this year using a 6th grade French child's history book). When you get to the point where you don't want to actively study that language any more, you can switch to just reading literature in it and counting it towards your literature/great books study. Ancient languages would be studied formally until you can switch to reading them for literature. This would let you do multiple languages without them taking up too of the school day. Unfortunately, I haven't had the resources to do this well enough to be entirely successful. Sigh.

 

-Nan

[WyoSylvia]

How are you doing it? Do you expect fluency in all languages or just exposure and fluent in one? Do you study them concurrently or study one in middle and one in high school?

 

The logistics of learning two is holding me back. :confused:

 

I am teaching my ds French and German. He's only 6 so this may or may not be of use to you. I have a degree in French but am learning German just a step ahead of him so, of course, I am anticipating much more from French. We are studying them concurrently and what has worked out the best is to alternate weeks. We tried all kinds of combinations like 3 days of French and 3 days German (extending into Saturday) but just when we got in the groove of one language it was time to switch and one always got shortchanged. So now, we do foreign language 3 times per week and alternate the language each week. It's working out quite well. The logistics were tough for me as well and the key was having a complete lesson plan before the year began and looking over the specific assignments a week or two before so that I am sure all is in order. I think, with this schedule, if I were better in German I would expect fairly the same level of proficiency with each language. I don't think multiple languages are hard to learn, provided you have good teaching materials. Right now I'm looking into materials that use the TPR (Total Physical Response) method. The retention results for this are quite high plus it is fun for the student. We've used the technique a bit and we both love it and remember a lot.

[Jane in NC]

How are you doing it? Do you expect fluency in all languages or just exposure and fluent in one? Do you study them concurrently or study one in middle and one in high school?

 

 

 

My son began his Latin studies in middle school and added French in 9th. I had hoped that he would have four years of each in high school, but that just did not happen. He will graduate from high school in June with four years of Latin (ending with AP Latin Vergil) and two and a half years (five semesters) of French.

 

It seems to me that one needs to consider conversational opportunities in order to achieve comfort let alone semi-fluency in a modern language. This presented a bit of a problem for us in that we could not find others with whom to speak French. A friend of mine spent her high school years in West Africa. She worked with my son in French I, but felt that her memory of the language prevented her from continuing on. We then made a decision to make reading and aural skills our priority. Clearly one hour of conversation per week is not enough time to master speaking skills! I hope that some day my son will spend some time in a Francophone country to develop that which he could only begin in high school.

 

I think that Nan has some great ideas for studying French (or another modern language).

 

Jane

[Ester Maria]

Well, technically speaking, English too is a foreign language to my daughters (though they don't recognize it as such as all, they came here too young ;)), but I have been homeschooling them bilingually from the very beginning, doing schoolwork in English alongside Italian and studying both languages on a native level. My goal was perfect, balanced bilingualism for them, and we seem to have done it right, since both of our daughters are impeccable, native-like in both languages (their English is much better than mine!) and they pass for natives of their age in both cultures. I believe this will be a very valuable experience for them.

 

But, English aside - since we don't really "count" it as a foreign language - the languages we study are Hebrew (modern), Latin and Greek.

 

Hebrew is very important for us due to our heritage and friends/family in Israel (and the fact they go there every year). However, my daughters differ in interest regarding Hebrew. DD12 is practically trilingual - she spends a lot of time on Hebrew, watching Israeli TV, reading books and she has even begun using Hebrew-language materials aimed at native Israeli kids for her schoolwork - and by the time she hits high school age, provided this interest continues, I assume she will have internalized so much Hebrew that it will become her third "native language". ;) So with her, I absolutely aim at near-native fluency in Hebrew and if possible, we will even arrange some extended stay in Israel in order to help her with that.

DD11 is not passionate about Hebrew. She's okay with it - but not genuinely interested, she does it because she has to and because she grew up with the exposure to the language. I'm not going to force her to attain the results her sister will attain, unless her interest increases as well - for me it's enough if she's conversant on a plethora of topics, can easily get by in Israel and doesn't feel at unease when dealing with any situation that might arise, has a decent level of literacy (such as needed to fill in various documents, be able to read a book or some materials related to her interests and write a shorter paper on some topic, etc) and has good foundation to build on later if she, hopefully, wishes. I also want her to have basic "religious literacy" regarding Biblical language and texts. So with her, I'm going to work on attaining that level and I will not force the "extra" things her sister is into - basic fluency and cultural literacy is enough, she doesn't have to be able to pass for a native.

 

Regarding Latin and Greek, I want them to have what is referred to as "reading fluency" - the ability to read a Latin/Greek text with the minimal help of a dictionary (i.e. to have a pretty wide vocabulary), as well as the analytical skills needed to analyze the text from grammatical/metrical point of view. I also want them to have an overview of Roman and Greek history/literature in their mind, as well as to actually have read most of the important things in its original language. I don't aim for active knowledge, writing compositions in Latin or alike - but if they'll want to "upgrade" their level, I will provide them with competent instructors.

 

We study Latin and Greek analytically, and Hebrew "immersion style", though I have added elements of analytical study as I want them to "know the rules" in addition to knowing the things by "what sounds good".

 

It's important not to quit studying a modern language at some point and then just allow it to rot. You have to maintain it by using it in some way - books, movies, music, correspondance, travels, etc. - and by doing it frequently. Otherwise, a language once "learned" in middle school will be forgotten till graduation if there's no input and output during high school.

[Rosie_0801]

Most of this is hypothetical because my kids are tots, but we are bringing them up bilingually in English and Auslan. The Auslan is not coming along as well as I'd hoped, for various reasons, but I think we'll make better progress next year. The goal for Auslan is functionality, really, so they can talk to Daddy even if it is noisy. We think we'll probably do a little bit of formal study during their school years, but not a whole lot. Dh will probably have to give them some instruction in story telling, because he's much better at it than I am, then it is a matter of creating reasons for them to use it because I don't want to teach using it.

 

My goals for their Latin is to enhance their English, and dh wants them to learn because he thinks it's cool :) I'll start them with School Song Latin when dd is four or five, depending on her English development. She started talking early, then took a year off and is only starting to get back to it. I'd like them to work through to the end of Cambridge Latin, and would be delighted if they chose to maintain it by participating in one of their online reading groups or something. I want them to learn Arabic, also, and intend to send them to Saturday School for it starting in grade one, and work on it at home. Both Latin and Arabic are important enough to me that they will be daily core subjects.

 

Really, though it's too early to have enough perspective to say when the languages will stop being mandatory and become electives. We have different graduation and college electives than you do too.

 

Rosie

 

Edit: Oh great. This thread and some time mooching on the UN websites this morning have had me re-assessing my decisions. Now I think I want the kids to take Latin through Cambridge and then two years of French.

Edited November 23, 2009 by Rosie_0801