Jenny in Florida Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Sigh. My son has been trying an assortment of foreign languages with an even wider assortment of programs and curricula for several years. He's tried Latin, Greek, Spanish and ASL, and I honestly have forgotten all the resources we've used. Nothing seems to stick. He's now part of the way (less than half) through the FLVS Spanish 1. He's making decent grades, but only seems to actually understand anything when I sit with him and go through the lessons and re-explain what's being taught. We chose FLVS because he doesn't really like me to teach him anything these days. But he really hates the class. And, I have to say, I don't especially blame him. FLVS has been re-designing a bunch of their classes and inserting all kinds of totally superfluous graphics and cutesy elements, all of which seem to do more to distract my kid than to entertain or educate him. He needs two years of some language. He doesn't care much which one and decided on Spanish pretty much because that's what my daughter and I took. I don't think we want to put him in the second FLVS next year. So, I'm now looking at alternatives I can teach. We've tried and bombed on (not all in Spanish): - The Learnables (went well at first, but not in the long run) - the "For Children" series - Rosetta Stone - Elementary Greek - FLVS So, what other options would we have for Spanish 2? I can't afford to spend as much for next year as I have in the past. So, cheap is good. I had several years of Spanish in high school and college and am perfectly capable of baby-sitting him through Spanish 2, but we need a structure, since I have no idea what is taught when and am a little rusty, myself. We use secular curricula, too, if that makes a difference. I'd love to hear any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtmcm Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 (edited) We've been using BJU French and there's not enough instruction for the student in the text. DD was getting an A with an outside class, but her pronunciation is abysmal and her usage is shaky. I just ordered and received Breaking the Barrier French and it looks like exactly what I was hoping for. It is self-teaching and includes clear explanations of each new grammar concept. Each chapter starts with a new list of vocabulary words and the CD includes pronunciations for all of the new words. There's a well balanced emphasis on grammar (verb conjugation, how to ask questions, verb tense, etc...) and conversation (written & auditory dialogue). I took French for 4 years in high school so I'm pretty comfortable with the basics, but I found a tutor through VerbalPlanet.com to help with pronunciation and specific French nuances. We're very happy with the tutor and I can't wait to dig into Breaking the Barrier. I read about BTB on this forum, so maybe some one else who's already using it will respond. Edited January 29, 2012 by amtmcm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74Heaven Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I'd like to help but I am on the fence about BTB SPanish I, which we are taking. Jenny, I have a similar Spanish background to you. However, I also sat thru (2 diff daughters) 3 years of Spanish 1/2 with a co op teacher using A beka Spanish (this is in recent years, so it is fresh). BTB is weak on explanations, imho. My kids are advanced 6th grade and 8/9th. Both have 3-4 years of Latin. Both are pretty good with languages. The older does pretty well - but still needs more direct instruction than the book offers, the adv. 6th gr boy needs the exact hand-holding your son needs. (which is okay since he is only just turned 12yo). BTB has 3-4-5-6 words every chapter that are new vocab and not introduced. YOu can usually do the exercises w/o knowing the (new, undefined) words, but that is frustrating to a newbie child & it seems like a poor textbook style for a beginner. I'm guessing that BTB is trying to be more "conversational" based and less just grammar. It does that okay. Overall, I like it - but we are doing a lot of hand-holding. I think it would be better with more CD-teaching or a DVD component. It is annoyingly secular with frequent references to Ricky Martin and Elvis and who-knows-who else. Annoying because we don't care about pop culture and I find it a ridiculous way of making a curriculum relevant! Hope that helps. We will not be doing it again for Span. II. I am not sure what we will do next year? My main problem is I'd like the text to be more self-explanatory. Less hand-holding. Less popular culture references. Lisaj Overall, it is okay, but nothing wonderful in my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amtmcm Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 BTB has 3-4-5-6 words every chapter that are new vocab and not introduced. YOu can usually do the exercises w/o knowing the (new, undefined) words, but that is frustrating to a newbie child & it seems like a poor textbook style for a beginner. I'm guessing that BTB is trying to be more "conversational" based and less just grammar. It does that okay. This was even worse in BJU. There was no vocab list at all - we finally found one on their website, but not in the book. So BTB looked like a huge relief to me. I've also purchased two secular/public school texts and they seem to be the same as the BJU text - assuming there's a daily teacher and more conversational than grammatical. It is annoyingly secular with frequent references to Ricky Martin and Elvis and who-knows-who else. Annoying because we don't care about pop culture and I find it a ridiculous way of making a curriculum relevant! I hear you! Except in the French text it's Celine Dion instead of Ricky Martin. LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I would be tempted to try Breaking the Spanish Barrier, as it's supposed to be good for self-teaching. If you really are willing to teach it yourself and want to do it cheaply, you could try a used Realidades 2 (Prentice Hall) from Amazon or ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandigirl Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Hello. Ugh I feel your son´s pain I just saw a lesson from FLVS the other day and I almost died. The fake cheeriness was torturous. I have taken Spanish 2 and 3 with keystone and have done fairly well in the class. I got a 92 in Spanish 2 and I currently have like a 98 in Spanish 3. The lessons are hard in the sense that you really have to teach yourself. Maybe it would be a better fit for him. On a side not please make sure he knows how to use accentos. It will kill him if he does not learn that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 (edited) Destinos: http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html The videos are free. You can get the text book fairly cheap if you buy it used. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0070020698/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used (you might want to check to see that I got the right page) He can get a lot of Spanish with just the Destinos videos and the text. If you want more listening practice and grammar, you can get the workbooks (also used). The audio tapes are online for free. I don't have the link handy, but I'll dig it up if you decide to do Destinos. The whole package seems to go through about Spanish 3, based on what the schools around here are doing. So you could just do part and call it Spanish 2. After just doing half of Destinos, my daughter placed into the 4th semester of college Spanish. We tried Breaking the Barrier. It did NOT work for my kids. They found it dry and more a package of "things to memorize" that didn't really relate to actually knowing a language. Others may have a different experience. There are also now a lot of podcasts for teaching Spanish. Some get quite advanced. Google for them if you're interested. There might also be some resources on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ We did the Mi Vida Loca series. It's probably more Spanish 1, but it might be nice review. It was somewhat entertaining. They also have a Spanish test on the BBC site, and I think they suggest the next thing to do at their site based on your score. This was also a useful book: http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Spanish-Reader-Three-Part-Beginning/dp/0844270512/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327850336&sr=1-2 I don't think it had much grammar, but it was a good, graded book for reading practice. It says it's for the first year, but the latter half of the book covered stuff that isn't done until 2nd year Spanish in the high schools near us. Edited January 29, 2012 by flyingiguana Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cathmom Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 I second Destinos! I love this program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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