Gil Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 We are at the point in our Spanish studies where the boys know hundreds--several hundred--words in Spanish, they can make sentences and understand enough to watch little kid shows in Spanish, like Nick Jr and Disney Jr. They can follow Pocoyo but are tired of watching him. They get frustrated watching more sophisticated shows in Spanish, because they miss too much of the plot. They can survive a day or two in a Spanish speaking environment by communicating about food, bathroom, needing help, lost, seperated from dad, but they get language fatigued easily. They can ask questions with the 5 Ws and get the gist of the answer if the person speaks very slowly or doesn't mind repeating a few times. They can and do read in Spanish several times a week, but its frustrating to read interesting books because many times they are confronted with grammar and vocabulary they don't know. they hate the Spanish dictionary because they can't understand the definitions. Easier simpler books are not interesting so reading them is frustrasting also. We've read pretty much everything that the library has to offer in the early readers section in Spanish. We have worked so, so hard to get to this point and are genuinely proud of where we are and what we can do with the lanugage, we are scared to take a break from Spanish for more than a few days, because every day you're not using a language is a day that you're losing that language. We've worked hard to get where we are and the only thing worse than being stuck where we are would be to lose ground. We review vocabulary regularly, we have been inserting Spanish into our every day conversation to the best of our ability. But we are only on the tip of the cusp of speaking the language and...we are stuck. There is not anyone that they can practice conversing in the language with currently, and my Spanish isn't sufficient to teach them by example. For a while, we used LSLC successfully, but it gets Boring after a while. Capital B boring and is slow going. Should we go back to that, suck it up and continue through it? The boys want to be able to speak, but now were at the point where its a lot of work for a little payoff and it sucks. How do you help your self and the kids persevere through the plateau phase of learning? As far as I can tell, there is no clever-trick to get to the next step. We need to seriously improve our grammar, and I don't know how except through workbooks and practice aimed at getting us using what we learn from the workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knitmama Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Gil, We're teaching our DD 10 Spanish, too. When we lived in a heavily-Spanish-speaking area of the country, it was easy to practice--just go out to the store or the park and interact with folks. But now that we live in a predominantly English-speaking area, that's out of the question. We read bilingual Spanish/English books together, and also listen to Spanish language stories on CD. Pimsler in the car is good (and the only audio lessons I'd personally recommend.) We found a Spanish translation of a book she was interested in (Ciudad de las Bestias), and are slogging through that page at a time--which is challenging, having to stop and look stuff up in the dictionary (Spanish/English so we can understand the definition), but it's really been helpful at building fluency and stretching her vocab. And sometimes we just do drill-and-kill verb conjugations and vocabulary, because those are necessary to get to the next step. Nobody's favorite, but if you want to make an omelette, ya gotta break some eggs. As you mentioned, it's frustrating not to have conjugations and vocab at your fingertips--and sitting down and bulling through them both is the only way I know to do build fluency. FWIW, I specifically keep her away from all visual media; I think hearing suffers when there's something to watch. I realize this is the opposite of most people's approach, but it's worked for us. Our DD is a reluctant Spanish speaker but understands and reads well on her own now. (The last time we went to a Mexican grocery store, one of the other customers complimented her in Spanish and asked her a question, and without hesitating my daughter thanked her and answered the question--in English, though. D'oh!) I'm also not impressed by "boring." I get "It's hard!" from time to time, too, and I don't let that slow us down, either. Boredom and difficulty are constant companions on the road to learning; we might as well make friends with them now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 My dd has self-taught herself French. One thing she has done is watch movies in French. She started watching children's movies that she was very familiar with in English. She has now progressed to watching ones she doesn't know and it is more difficult. All of the movies don't speak at the same pace, either. Planes 2, for example, the characters speak very quickly. Brave was one of the easiest to understand bc the vocabulary is more limited and they repeat themselves quite a bit. Fwiw, we check out the movies from the library. Almost all of the kids' movies are dubbed in Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 My dd has self-taught herself French. One thing she has done is watch movies in French. She started watching children's movies that she was very familiar with in English. She has now progressed to watching ones she doesn't know and it is more difficult. All of the movies don't speak at the same pace, either. Planes 2, for example, the characters speak very quickly. Brave was one of the easiest to understand bc the vocabulary is more limited and they repeat themselves quite a bit. Fwiw, we check out the movies from the library. Almost all of the kids' movies are dubbed in Spanish. I like the idea of checking out movies you already know and listening in a different language. Great idea! I'm going to do that for my son who is learning Spanish. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 We used easier Spanish books like Sapo y Sepo, moved to Geronimo Stilton (it was bearable with the added challenge of translating) and have the Allende books on tap. We also use the book El Español con Juegos y Actividades which is colorful vocabulary activities with some grammar interspersed. Also, if you are open to media, RTVEclan.es has a bunch of shows available on it's website, including some kids documentaries. We haven't used it much, I just discovered it via a link from... 121Spanish.com and languageconvo.com are two different sites that facilitate skyping with a native Spanish speaking tutor. 121 also had a link to BBC Spanish-learning resources. Lastly, the Annenberg Foundation has some videos of classes. We watched one where high school seniors were discussing Guernica, which we had recently studied in history. They also have a mystery/telenovela series for language learners I thought we might try. In our house, as you may have noticed, using a variety of resources helps keep up enthusiasm levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 121Spanish.com and languageconvo.com are two different sites that facilitate skyping with a native Spanish speaking tutor. As you seem to really need some conversational work with a native Spanish speaker, I was going to suggest this as well for the ages of your kids. Another one to look into is Homeschool Spanish Academy. I know they allow two students in the same class together with a discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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