If you've achieved foreign language fluency w/o immersion...

[CrunchyGirl]

One way or another, we'd like our kids to be fluent in Spanish before they graduate from high school. Fluency including speaking, reading, and writing. 

 

If you've managed to make this happen but 1) couldn't move to accommodate immersion anytime soon (or possibly ever), and 2) neither parent was fluent...what worked?

 

We are willing to start early and be consistent but I'd love to hear about systems that produced results. For example, how many hours a week did your child work with a native-speaker tutor? Did they also use a reading and writing curriculum on top of that? Any other methods that helped?

 

We strongly suspect our oldest has a knack for languages given the incredible progress he's currently making in both English and Latin. Hoping to start Spanish with him soon! 

[Gil]

I started this thread a while back, but its been awhile since I read through it but I'm trying to formulate a new plan. It might be somewhat helpful to read through it though and see what some of the other families do/have done.

[CrunchyGirl]

Thanks Gil!

[madteaparty]

We are working towards the same goal. I became fluent in English before moving to this country so I know what it takes to achieve that level of fluency. It's a lot of work but for French with DS we are doing: a weekly online class, weekly sessions with a native speaker via Skype, and lessons each other day as well. So we basically study a little bit of French 5 days a week, year round. We try for immersion opportunities (did a week this summer) but those are expensive obviously.

[regentrude]

I believe for developing fluency, many years of instruction by fluent teachers are required. I find this the hardest subject to homeschool.

 

I myself achieved fluency in two foreign languages that were taught in school. I studied each language for ten years, beginning in 3rd and 5th grade, respectively (I continued English at the university). We had between 4 and 6 hours of class time per week, and classes were taught by instructors who were fluent in the language. The most effective was one lady we had in Russian; she was a native speaker, but spoke Russian only, so the entire lesson was conducted in Russian. 

 

My DD achieved reasonable fluency in French. She began in 6th grade. We used a European self-study course designed for adults, with workbook, textbook and CDs. We had a private tutor for several years who met with us once a week for conversation and feedback on writing assignments. This was sufficient for DD to test out of French 1 at the university, but we were unable to progress beyond that on our own. So she started taking classes at the university beginning in 10th grade and took five semesters of French there.

 

 

[Tracy]

I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and then got a Bachelor's degree in Spanish.  I was competent at that point, but not really fluent.  And then I served a Spanish-speaking mission, and it took about 2 months before I felt fluent.  So even though I didn't have the immersion experience earlier on, the in-depth study of the language still allowed me to take full advantage of the immersion experience once I had a chance to do it.  

[G5052]

I believe for developing fluency, many years of instruction by fluent teachers are required. I find this the hardest subject to homeschool.

 

I myself achieved fluency in two foreign languages that were taught in school. I studied each language for ten years, beginning in 3rd and 5th grade, respectively (I continued English at the university). We had between 4 and 6 hours of class time per week, and classes were taught by instructors who were fluent in the language. The most effective was one lady we had in Russian; she was a native speaker, but spoke Russian only, so the entire lesson was conducted in Russian. 

 

My DD achieved reasonable fluency in French. She began in 6th grade. We used a European self-study course designed for adults, with workbook, textbook and CDs. We had a private tutor for several years who met with us once a week for conversation and feedback on writing assignments. This was sufficient for DD to test out of French 1 at the university, but we were unable to progress beyond that on our own. So she started taking classes at the university beginning in 10th grade and took five semesters of French there.

 

Yes, I agree.  I can "get by" in Spanish because I grew up surrounded by Hispanics, but in German I got to the point that I was reading German novels that my relatives sent me and giving tours at a National Park.  That was after formal study from 7th grade through AP German and a German minor in college.  I was far more comfortable with German than Spanish because of all of the formal study.

 

"Getting by" is doable by a homeschool family with the programs available but to build fluency you need formal study with a tutor or teacher that will push you.  I remember being terrified in college when I picked up the stack of novels for my first German literature class.  No time to go line-by-line, and I had to read and comprehend at a good clip, and then come to class to discuss what I read in German and to write papers about the literature in German.

 

And I'll note that the same is true with Latin.  I did fine with mine through the first high school class with Henle I, and then we went to online classes.  I just couldn't go any further without dropping everything and completely devoting myself to Latin.  My oldest did AP Latin last year, and there is no way that I could have handled his questions and pushed him hard enough to perform the way that he did.

[Ad astra]

I agree with others who said fluency in foreign language would be very difficult to achieve without immersion and fluent teachers. I was born and raised in East Asia where people learn English at school but rarely speak it in real life. Both of my parents do not speak any English and I started to learn from ABCs in middle school. My teachers were mostly non-native speakers with bad accents and poor understanding of the language, and the instruction and tests were mostly focused on grammar and reading comprehension. Immersion (or even the first visit to the U.S.) did not happen to me until I was in my late 20s. To make it worse, English and my native language are starkly different syntactically and semantically. After all these years, I'm still not perfectly fluent in English myself.

 

So it was not an easy situation but I still enjoyed learning English and sought out every opportunity to practice it. These are what helped me most to stay on track back then:

 

1) Self-motivation and strong interest in the language and culture

2) Daily exposure to the language in any way of reading, listening, writing and speaking

3) Making friends and keeping in touch with many pen pals and native speakers in real life (and NEVER speaking my first language to them)

4) LOTS of books, pop songs, movies, shows and other resources in the language

5) Finding an experienced and qualified native-speaker as a tutor/teacher

 

I had also self-studied Japanese and German for years, but I forgot these mostly or never even reached beyond the intermediate level because I failed in 2) and 3). IMO, semi-self-immersion in Spanish can happen in the U.S. depending on determination and effort that you put into it. Good luck!