What Spanish Class would prepare you for a community college foreign class?

[sue]

We did 1/2 of the Rosetta Stone Spanish 1 for 8th grade. From what I've read here, Rosetta Stone may not be the best choice for 9th grade if we plan to take foreign language classes at a community college in a couple of years. I'm afraid if you finished Rosetta Stone 1 you would not be ready for community college Spanish 2 and would have to retake Spanish 1 and have Spanish 1 twice on a transcript. Is there a better program? We aren't ready for community college yet. What about Bob Jones Spanish ( used by The Potter's School) or Abeka Spanish?

[Pamela H in Texas]

BJU is a SOLID Spanish program. There is no doubt your student would be ready for the next level after successfully completing it.

[Colleen]

My older guys use Rosetta Stone for German, and I do plan to purchase RS Spanish. I definitely think another program needs to be used alongside RS to truly provide the necessary depth. In the case of German, the choices are slim to none; I may have to go with a distance course such as that offered by Oklahoma State. At the other end of the spectrum, there are a myriad of Spanish programs, but I don't have a clue which one would be the best fit. (This would be for an 8th or 9th grader, btw.)

 

I use and appreciate Galore Park's Latin books and have considered using GP Spanish, as well. My hesitation is two-fold: First, I worry about the user-friendly factor, given that I know no Spanish myself. Second, it's not Latin American Spanish, and while the differences aren't significant, I wonder if it just doesn't make more sense to use a program that teaches LA Spanish.

 

Since both you and Pamela mentioned BJU Spanish, I plan to check that out. Do you know if there are samples available online? I wonder if there's a Christian slant to the materials. We're Christian, but I'd rather not have that element in a Spanish program...

[teachmom3]

I've used BJUP's Spanish 1 with three children. Additionally, in the past year I've taken two semesters of college Spanish at one of our local community colleges (so that I could help my youngest, who has autistic spectrum disorder, with Spanish).

 

I agree with Pamela's comment in response to your question: BJUP Spanish *is* a solid high school Spanish program. That being said, it's not as rigorous as a college program. One year of BJUP Spanish (i.e., all of Spanish 1) is roughly equivalent to one semester of college Spanish. From what I've seen, BJUP Spanish 1 covered slightly more breadth-wise than one-semester of college Spanish ("Spanish 101"), but covered a lot less depth-wise. The same seems to be true of BJUP Spanish 2, although I have familiarity with only the first edition of BJUP Spanish 2: It actually covers a lot more breadth-wise than college Spanish 102 (second-semester college Spanish), but a lot less depth-wise.

 

A couple of caveats regarding BJUP Spanish 1: (1) It probably should be taught by someone familiar with the language, although it wouldn't take a huge amount of familiarity with Spanish. (2) Because it is a rigorous program, to do it thoroughly--i.e., doing all of the exercises--takes a nontrivial amount of time weekly. That is the only reason that I might have my youngest not do BJUP Spanish 2 next year (but I probably will anyway).

 

In response to Colleen's question about BJUP Spanish: Yes, there is a Christian slant to it. Some of it can easily be skipped (e.g., the memory verse in Spanish with each lesson), but some of it can't be easily omitted, e.g., a few of the key dialogues that contain practice with the grammar and vocabulary are about young people in the church.

 

I haven't used, but I have looked at, A Beka Spanish. It is pretty bad, IMHO.

[Miss Marple]

My son (just graduated) did Rosetta Stone haphazardly as a sophomore (after 2 years of Latin). He went right into university level Beginning Spanish 1 as a junior in high school (concurrent enrollment). He did great. He went on to complete 3 semesters of university level Spanish carrying a 4.0 GPA by the time he graduated form high school. He will begin intermediate Spanish 2 as a freshman in college. So, personally, I wouldn't worry too much about high school preparation - it seems that the university level (which oftentimes is more rigorous than CC) assumes no prior knowledge of the language. Any Spanish taken before the university/cc course will help the student.

[Reya]

Platiquemos/Let's Talk is great.

 

100-level university courses are for those with no or very poor high school backgrounds. One year of high school Spanish should allow a child to place up by one semester in college. I absolutely would NOT grant credit for a "Spanish" course that did not allow a student to place in the second semester of university Spanish after one year. It isn't an acceptable level for high school work--or for middle school work for that matter, where 2 years should equal one university course.

[Miss Marple]

Oops! Just noticed that you want to move your student in Spanish level 2. Then definitely, I would get a more rigorous course than Rosetta Stone. For us, using the concurrent enrollment option made the choice easy. He simply took all his foreign language requirements at the university beginning with the basic entry level course.

[Jan P.]

My experience with Spanish courses have been a bit haphazard. My ds took a Co-op course using Speedy Spanish. He didn't learn a thing! Then I tried to put him in SOS Spanish 2, but it was too rigorous for him. Finally I pulled out an old copy of Spanish is Fun by Amsco. I did most of the dialogues with him, and I supplemented a few online Spanish free courses that had videos. DS is now in college and has to take Spanish at the local community college. CAn you believe that he actually tested out of first semester Spanish!! I couldn't believe it. My ds hated Spanish, but he will be going into the second semester. I'm hoping he'll do OK. I would have started him over.

 

Now, Jean in Wisconsin has had tremendous success with Switched on Schoolhouse Spanish I and II. Her dd did great with that program. Hopefully she will chime in on this discussion. I think SOS Spanish is a good program, but it should be started with SOS I. IT is difficult to jump into an upper level language course from a different one. They all progress differently. I found that out with Latin, too.

 

HTH,

Jan P.

[Laurie4b]

Rosettastone is good for some aspects of Spanish, but does not tackle things like verb conjugation and grammar systematically, which I think is necessary for a high school course. You can use RS for high school, but I would use it in combination with a more standard type text. Use it as a supplement, in other words.

[Denise in NE]

Well....there just isn't a great deal out there to choose from if you don't have the language background yourself! I think your best bet would be Bob Jones with DVD or HomeSat - if you must do it at home.

 

Denise in NE

[LynnG in Arizona]

We've done 2 years with the BJU DVD Spanish, and been extremely pleased. It helps that I have a Spanish background, but is not necessary.

 

One person asked about Christian content. It is overtly Christian (prayers each day, Bible verses to memorize) - but with little to no theology thrown in there. I don't tend to like some of BJU's history materials because of the theology they throw in there, but haven't had a problem with the Spanish DVDs.

 

HTH,

 

Lynn

[Jean in Wisc]

My experience with Spanish courses have been a bit haphazard. My ds took a Co-op course using Speedy Spanish. He didn't learn a thing! Then I tried to put him in SOS Spanish 2, but it was too rigorous for him. Finally I pulled out an old copy of Spanish is Fun by Amsco. I did most of the dialogues with him, and I supplemented a few online Spanish free courses that had videos. DS is now in college and has to take Spanish at the local community college. CAn you believe that he actually tested out of first semester Spanish!! I couldn't believe it. My ds hated Spanish, but he will be going into the second semester. I'm hoping he'll do OK. I would have started him over.

 

Now, Jean in Wisconsin has had tremendous success with Switched on Schoolhouse Spanish I and II. Her dd did great with that program. Hopefully she will chime in on this discussion. I think SOS Spanish is a good program, but it should be started with SOS I. IT is difficult to jump into an upper level language course from a different one. They all progress differently. I found that out with Latin, too.

 

HTH,

Jan P.

 

Yes, my dd tested out of 3 semesters of college Spanish (equivalent of 3 years of high school) after doing 1.5 years of SOS I & II. It is a very solid Spanish program, but it is intensive. If you do a search, you will find other discussion on this.

 

J