Studying a content subject in the Weaker Language?

[Gil]

If your kids study a content subject in their weaker language, what sort of extra support do they require?

I'm thinking of trying science OR social studies in Spanish for 6th grade and am wondering what that would entail.

 

Do your students require extra support in their weaker language when studying content or am I dreaming up issues that (probably) won't  even occur in real life?

 

 

I'm leaning towards science, because we have some English based background knowledge for "school science" already to build on and because I'm thinking that it'd be easier to be spontaneous with in real life too, but that's just hypothetical.

 

[Rosie_0801]

We didn't get to do much of this, but I had just started having dd do maths review worksheets in her non-native language. That was much more basic than you are talking about, but It was cool.

[wintermom]

I think once the student gets to a high enough level, they can study a content subject in their second language the same as with their native tongue. Keep in mind that the subject specific vocabulary that the student learns will be in that language. When they later student the subject in the native tongue, they will have to learn the vocabulary in that language. People do this all the time, though.

 

In the higher levels of education (e.g. university and college), students often make the choice of which language they prefer to take specific courses in. Sometimes there are benefits to taking courses in English, for example, rather than French. Sometimes there are financial reasons to take a certain number of courses in French. I'm just using a couple examples from Canada, where French-language students can get financial support taking courses in French. Other parts of the world may have different situations.

Edited February 14, 2018 by wintermom