Copywork and Dictation in foreign language?

[MeaganS]

I was just working on my Latin, and as I was copying down a sentence to translate, I had the thought that there might be some value in teaching copywork and dictation in Latin alongside a regular program. It seems to me the same logic applies to it as it would to other arguments for copywork and dictation. Has anyone ever thought through this or done it? I'm just curious about the idea.

[Aquinas Academy]

My kids do copywork and dictation in all the languages they learn (English, French, Latin, Greek, and Icelandic) and have found it to be an excellent way to improve language skills. CM talks about doing this, if I'm remembering correctly.

[hs4ze]

yes, we also do both copywork and dictation in latin. The dictation, however, is given in English, and dc then writes it in latin (only a sentence at a time right now.)

[stripe]

I think it's a great idea.

 

Translation seems like an entirely separate skill.

[In The Great White North]

Someone (Joan maybe? on the Bilingual board?) mentioned using idioms for foreign language copywork. Sounded like a great idea.

[crazyforlatin]

Sometimes I use short proverbs or mottoes in Latin for copywork. I found those here. I'm not sure about the benefit, but it's a way to learn more Latin other than the Latin found in Henle.

[Guest]

I do copywork in Greek with my son and intend to add dictation eventually.

[cathmom]

Yep we do this as well!

[Luckymama]

Next school year we'll be adding dictation in French. Since dd and I are learning together, I'll do one sentence for dd and she'll do one for me :)

 

I don't see a need for copywork as we already write answers to some of the exercises.

[missmoe]

My dd is taking an outside Spanish class and copywork and diction are components of the class. I think it is a very important part of learning the language.

[historymatters]

Yes, I thought about that this year, too. So I'm going to start incorporating Hebrew copywork and dictation next year from the Siddur (prayer book) and from the Bible; possibly from the Hebrew version of the Jerusalem Post that we will be using next year. I'd love for them to use famous speeches and sayings from past statesmen and Rabbis as copywork just as we do for English.

 

When they get to a good place in their (future) Latin and Greek studies, I'll use those methods also.

 

Rachel

[Deniseibase]

My dd does copywork and dictation in Mandarin with her tutor (I am not qualified to help her with this, seeing as I know about 15 words of Mandarin :) ), and I have to say, not only does it help with her Mandarin skills, it helps with English too. You are still working those core skills of memory and neatness.

[HejKatt]

My dd does copywork and dictation in Mandarin with her tutor (I am not qualified to help her with this, seeing as I know about 15 words of Mandarin :) ), and I have to say, not only does it help with her Mandarin skills, it helps with English too. You are still working those core skills of memory and neatness.

 

I remember this from school (Mandarin as a second language).

 

We didn't have copywork as I understand it (copying passages), but whenever we learned a new character we wrote it down multiple times (I seem to remember 10 times/character? That really adds up when you have multiple new characters!) in an exercise book as homework. The teacher would grade the book the next day, and if a character was miswritten, we would rewrite more lines of it.

 

As for dictation, definitely. That was 1x/week, with a passage from the text, and turned in to the teacher.

 

And yes, the teacher probably liked when students had neat handwriting.. can't blame her seeing the class size was 40 students, and she had to see the same character written so many times. :blink:

[Spock]

I was just working on my Latin, and as I was copying down a sentence to translate, I had the thought that there might be some value in teaching copywork and dictation in Latin alongside a regular program. It seems to me the same logic applies to it as it would to other arguments for copywork and dictation. Has anyone ever thought through this or done it? I'm just curious about the idea.

 

We have always done copywork and dictation in Spanish, leading into eventual written narration in Spanish. This is in addition to Spanish reading, grammar, etc. (We do occasional translation, but less of that.)

 

When I tried to do a little self-study of beginning Biblical Hebrew last summer I also did some copywork in Hebrew. It was very helpful in learning the alphabet, cementing the right to left direction, and even in learning something of pronouncing the word. I never got beyond the single word stage, so I didn't get to the level where it could have helped reinforce grammar. However, copywork and dictation in Spanish has helped my children (and me) a lot in placement of accent marks and in reinforcing grammar patterns.