You don't know how to speak a foreign language, but you taught your kids to... how???

[VBoulden]

For those who have managed to teach your kids to use other languages, even though you didn't speak those languages already, how did you do so? I studied a little Latin in high school, a little Spanish in college, but never retained anything more than what I needed for the tests. Can I teach my daughter languages? I am willing to learn along with her... How do I do it??! :confused:

[8filltheheart]

My kids are all studying French which I don't know and their little elastic brains left me in the dust 2 yrs ago! I use a combination of multiple programs to compensate for my lacking abilities. They use Tell Me More for interaction with listening, Breaking the Barrier for the grammar, and French in Action for more conversational listening.

 

FWIW, I have had to generate high school transcripts with French. I did not give a letter a grade, only a passing one. For the course description I wrote that I could ascertain that they had above avg mastery in written grammar (which I can grade w/an answer key), but that I did not feel qualified to evaluate their oral expression. So far we have not encountered a problem with that approach.

[Momling]

In the field of second language acquisition, it's generally accepted that people won't be able to *speak* a language better than the input that they are exposed to and interact with. That is, without a fluent speaker to communicate with, it's not possible for a learner to become fluent themselves.

 

It is certainly possible to learn vocabulary and grammar and useful phrases to say from a book or computer program or audiotape... but I can't imagine you would be successful in teaching a person to communicate in a language you don't speak.

 

If you don't speak a language, but want to teach it, I'd suggest you either change your goals towards translating or having a 'reading knowledge' of the language (Latin or Greek are good for this). Alternatively, you might consider enrolling your child in a language class with a fluent speaker (or hire a tutor, send your child overseas, etc...).

[regentrude]

I do not think one can teach something one does not know. I can facilitate my child's learning of a language (by providing materials and guidance) but I can not teach it.

 

DD is studying French, and our approach is to learn together. We used a book/CD set designed for adult independent learners and we worked through the book from the beginning, doing all writing and listening exercises. She is also watching the French in Action videos which are available free through Annenberg.

We hired a tutor (French native speaker) who gives us a weekly lesson where we can practice conversation, and where he corrects our writing assignments. We are now at the point that we begin to read literature and French news websites etc.

For grading, I defer to our tutor and have him give DD a letter grade at the end of the year.

[8filltheheart]

In the field of second language acquisition, it's generally accepted that people won't be able to *speak* a language better than the input that they are exposed to and interact with. That is, without a fluent speaker to communicate with, it's not possible for a learner to become fluent themselves.

 

It is certainly possible to learn vocabulary and grammar and useful phrases to say from a book or computer program or audiotape... but I can't imagine you would be successful in teaching a person to communicate in a language you don't speak.

 

If you don't speak a language, but want to teach it, I'd suggest you either change your goals towards translating or having a 'reading knowledge' of the language (Latin or Greek are good for this). Alternatively, you might consider enrolling your child in a language class with a fluent speaker (or hire a tutor, send your child overseas, etc...).

 

I really don't think that standard approaches to studying a foreign language lead to real fluency. My dh and our oldest were completely fluent in portugese, but it is from immersion. The rest of us lived in Brazil along with them :lol: but none of us became fluent. Why? Simply b/c we were speaking English most of the time. Dh spoke portugese at work and all of ds's friends were Brazilian. I could communicate enough to get by and survive, but by no means could I have in depth conversations. I spoke English 99.9% of the time.

 

I think we can help our students get to the point where they can communicate. But true fluency (where they actual think in the foreign language) requires immersion (and that immersion really means not being able to spend most of your time in your native language!)

Edited August 7, 2011 by 8FillTheHeart

[Hedgehog]

I do not think one can teach something one does not know. I can facilitate my child's learning of a language (by providing materials and guidance) but I can not teach it.

 

:iagree:

 

I learn along with my dc. We do Latin this way. I don't find learning languages difficult, so it seems to work fine. We use audio CDs for all our languages.

 

I did French and German at school, and did well at both; I should have carried on with at least one of them but such was my life at the time, I chose to do other subjects instead. I'm teaching my older girls French now.

 

I'm also learning another language myself, just for fun. I have a teacher who is a native speaker, although she's not a born educator, we are managing okay at the moment. I also have a grammar book, and a colloquial book with an audio CD.

[regentrude]

I really don't think that standard approaches to studying a foreign language lead to real fluency. My dh and our oldest were completely fluent in portugese, but it is from immersion. The rest of us lived in Brazil along with them :lol: but none of us became fluent. Why? Simply b/c we were speaking English most of the time. Dh spoke portugese at work and all of ds's friends were Brazilian. I could communicate enough to get by and survive, but by no means could I have in depth conversations. I spoke English 99.9% of the time.

 

I think we can help our students get to the point where they can communicate. But true fluency (where they actual think in the foreign language) requires immersion (and that immersion really means not being able to spend most of your time in your native language!)

 

:iagree:True fluency requires immersion.

It is possible, however, to develop very good language skills, including listening and speaking, from a traditional model of language instruction. I learned my English in school (with teachers who were not even native speakers) and acquired enough language skills to be able to move to an English speaking country and work there. What is often underestimated, however, is the amount of time this will take - I took 9 years of English (10 years of Russian, my first foreign language, gave me similar results).

A few high school years are nowhere near enough (unless total immersion is possible).