Harriet Vane Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 Hi folks, My daughter has been taking Latin for a number of years through a co-op. She likes the co-op class and has a knack for language, so it's been a good choice for her. She is also learning Spanish, and keeps the two languages separate in her mind just fine. My plan has always been to give her a good grounding in Latin, then switch to a different modern language. Therefore she will graduate high school fluent in Spanish and proficient in a second modern language as well. Dd is in 7th grade, and will be taking the National Latin Exam this spring. While she does enjoy Latin, she and I are thinking of having her stop Latin this year. She would focus in her 8th grade year on really beefing up her Spanish and on beefing up her English grammar (she's always studied English grammar but it's not gotten the attention I would like it to have since we are also juggling Spanish and Latin). Dd and I both like the idea of a year to solidify in English and Spanish before tackling her second modern language in high school. However, I wonder if she should take one more year of Latin and get one more National Latin Exam under her belt. I know that technically you're not allowed to credit non-high-school classes on a high school transcript, but I am planning to somehow include the information that she has had years of Latin in her college application packages, even if she cannot show actual high school credit for it. Would a second NLE certificate be worth the hours it would take out of our year? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 How much is the jump between one level's exam and the next. We're taking it for the first time this year so I don't know. How much time does she spend on Latin? 15 min. a day? An hour? I think it would be fine to drop it and move on as you had planned but I wanted to ask some questions to perhaps fine tune your decision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 How much is the jump between one level's exam and the next. We're taking it for the first time this year so I don't know. How much time does she spend on Latin? 15 min. a day? An hour? I think it would be fine to drop it and move on as you had planned but I wanted to ask some questions to perhaps fine tune your decision. I'm not sure how much of a jump there is between one level's exam and the next. Dd is using Henle, and the NLE website does not say how their exams correspond to Henle. Dd's co-op teacher does have a chart of some sort, and my understanding is that Dd would continue working through Henle I for next year's exam. It's also hard to say how much time dd spends on Latin each day because it varies widely. If she's really motivated she might work an hour--if not, she might force herself to squeeze out one exercise. I would say she averages 2-3 hours a week, in addition to her weekly class (90 minutes). However, I think she will end up spending more time in the coming semester (and her 8th grade year if she continues) because it gets harder and because there is more vocabulary she has never seen before. (There is overlap between the vocabulary in Latina Christiana and Henle in the earlier parts of Henle I.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brightside Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 IMHO, I would have her continue with the Latin, preferably at a higher level. I am not sure how Henle corresponds to Wheelock (which is the text we prefer). In Wheelock's Latin you are learning a lot of English grammar. If she wants another modern language, she could easily pick up another Romance language with a strong latin background. It will also help with her SAT scores (vocabulary) down the road. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammy Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 because I highly doubt she will ever become 'fluent' in Spanish! I have never seen anyone become fluent in a language unless they 'lived' it....KWIM? . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted December 27, 2009 Author Share Posted December 27, 2009 because I highly doubt she will ever become 'fluent' in Spanish! I have never seen anyone become fluent in a language unless they 'lived' it....KWIM? . By the time she graduates from high school, she will have had ten years of Spanish instruction. At this stage she has also traveled twice to Spanish-speaking countries, and we do plan to do more of this type of travel. She reads Spanish quite comfortably. She practices Spanish daily with her father and speaks a couple hours a week with native speakers. We have plans to send her to Concordia Language Camps for more immersion. Yes, I think fluency is a reasonable goal with the type of investment we have put into this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 bump We had to make some decisions and changes here for high school simply because of the time demands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latinteach Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 I'm not sure how much of a jump there is between one level's exam and the next. Dd is using Henle, and the NLE website does not say how their exams correspond to Henle. Dd's co-op teacher does have a chart of some sort, and my understanding is that Dd would continue working through Henle I for next year's exam. The NLE doesn't correspond to any one curriculum, but you can take a look at the syllabuses that they provide for each level of the exam and compare that to the syllabus for the program that you are using. The NLE site now has a chart to help you figure out which level your student should be taking: http://nle.org/syllabi.html This is the syllabus for the second year exam: http://nle.org/pdf/Syllabus2009-_II.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latinteach Posted December 27, 2009 Share Posted December 27, 2009 IMHO, I would have her continue with the Latin, preferably at a higher level. I am not sure how Henle corresponds to Wheelock (which is the text we prefer). In Wheelock's Latin you are learning a lot of English grammar. If she wants another modern language, she could easily pick up another Romance language with a strong latin background. It will also help with her SAT scores (vocabulary) down the road. YMMV. Both Henle and Wheelock are grammar-translation textbooks, with a significant focus on forms and syntax. Henle wrote his text in the 1940s. Wheelock wrote his in the 1950s, aiming it primarily toward the large non-traditional college population that resulted from the GI Bill in place after the soldiers returned from WWII and Korea. The Henle text hasn't really been revised since it was written, though there are several guides to accompany it by different authors. The Wheelock text has been through six updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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