Gil Posted January 19, 2019 Share Posted January 19, 2019 If so, how do students "earn one"? Has any one done this? We're US based, so I'm not sure that this is a widely accepted "thing", let alone accessible to homeschoolers, but I figured that it's worth investigating. I honestly have no idea about transcripts/diplomas since my kids are only in the 6th grade, but the question has come up and given the nature of the question, it is worth asking now, not later. My eldest has asked what he has to do to get a "Multilingual Diploma", we homeschool bilingually and The Boys are working to achieve fluency in a 3rd language by the time that they finish 12th grade. I've looked and found that the Seal of Biliteracy is a thing, but I can't tell if Homeschoolers can use it, however it doesn't seem to allow for the idea of achieving high levels of proficiency in 2 non-native languages. My eldest really wants to be able to earn a Tri-or-Multiliterate diploma, (he aims to become trilingual and triliterate by the time that he graduates 12th). We have just under 6 years, so how could we approach this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 (edited) The seal of biliteracy does not equate to bilingual. The actual level necessary for that is on par with 4 yrs o high school language instruction and more on level with functional proficiency than bilingual. This is from CA's requirements Quote Quote The criteria for proficiency in a language other than English is one of the following: Passing a World Language Advanced Placement examination with a score of 3 or higher Passing an International Baccalaureate examination with a score of 4 or higher Successful completion of a four-year high school course of study in a world language and attaining an overall grade point average of 3.0 or above Passing a school district language exam that, at a minimum, assesses speaking, reading and writing passing at a proficient level or higher Passing the SAT II world language examination with a score of 600 or higher[/quote] I personally don't think it holds enough value to pursue. You could have your kids take an OPI test to validate an even higher level of language skill. https://www.languagetesting.com/pub/media/wysiwyg/manuals/actfl-assessments-brochure.pdf You might find this article interesting: https://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1493&context=honors Up to this semester my Dd refused to call herself fluent in French. She was taking a bilingualism class and realized that there is no universal definition of bilingual and that people with far lower levels of proficiency considered themselves bilingual! When looking at ACTFL levels, she is probably advanced high or according to CEFR levels C1 with a slight plus side on both. By comparison, typical AP level students are going to be in the intermediate ranges with some advanced low. Obviously, languages don't have clear cut guidelines, but the seal of biliteracy is not one that jumps out and says, wow, this student is fluent in 2 languages, but more on par with the student having taken 4 yrs of high school language. Edited January 24, 2019 by 8FillTheHeart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 No idea why my post is quoting that way. It won't let me edit it to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 Does English have to be the language of instruction for a credit-earning highschool course taken in the US? We can't tell. Buddy asked if it's possible to earn high school credits completing core and elective courses in different languages? Assuming we can acquire the resources, can he legitimately earn high school credit for core classes taken in Non-English languages? (ie Taking his HS math courses in Japanese, his HS science in Spanish, etc) Is it "cheating" if he splits the credits to cater to his language abilities? (ie Earning credits in Art/Drawing, Speech and Math in Japanese since those subjects aren't as linguistically demanding?) In Florida he'd need 24 credits, and he's wondering if he can graduate If he took 8 credits in Spanish, 8 credits in Japanese and 8 credits in English? Prior to this question coming up, I'd been thinking about ways to assess/validate their language skills before graduation and was thinking that I'd create some sort of metric/guidelines specifically for our homeschool. I don't know if that'd be viewed as legitimate though. I'm still coming up with ideas for what that might look like, but am open to suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Sure. It's your homeschool. You can do what you want. My Dd studied one of her history credits in French. It is mastery of content that determines the cr, not the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted January 26, 2019 Share Posted January 26, 2019 22 hours ago, Gil said: Does English have to be the language of instruction for a credit-earning highschool course taken in the US? We can't tell. Buddy asked if it's possible to earn high school credits completing core and elective courses in different languages? Assuming we can acquire the resources, can he legitimately earn high school credit for core classes taken in Non-English languages? (ie Taking his HS math courses in Japanese, his HS science in Spanish, etc) Is it "cheating" if he splits the credits to cater to his language abilities? (ie Earning credits in Art/Drawing, Speech and Math in Japanese since those subjects aren't as linguistically demanding?) In Florida he'd need 24 credits, and he's wondering if he can graduate If he took 8 credits in Spanish, 8 credits in Japanese and 8 credits in English? Prior to this question coming up, I'd been thinking about ways to assess/validate their language skills before graduation and was thinking that I'd create some sort of metric/guidelines specifically for our homeschool. I don't know if that'd be viewed as legitimate though. I'm still coming up with ideas for what that might look like, but am open to suggestions. Don't come up with metrics, other people have come up with them for you 😋 You can certainly earn high school credits in foreign languages, that's what immersion schools do. Florida's homeschool requirements are based on portfolio evaluation or standardized testing, so you should have no problems there. The seal of biliteracy can "sometimes" be awarded by an individual school instead of a district or state, so maaaaybe they'd approve a homeschool? But I think that it would be easier by far to just get language testing done and note that on the transcript. Our local French Alliance does DELF/DALF testing ( diplomas awarded by the French Ministry of Education to prove the French-language skills of non-native speakers). They correspond to the six levels of the Council of Europe' s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL). I'd be surprised if Florida doesn't have something akin to both the alliance and the testing (assuming you're studying Latin American Spanish; otherwise Spain has CEFRL level testing also). Colleges are never going to see the diploma, only the transcript, so I'd do whatever I wanted to with custom seals for the diploma and go with testing results on the transcript. Regarding 8 each in English/Spanish/Japanese: I wouldn't be overly discouraging just yet, but I do think it might be hard to have 16 out of 24 credits at the correct level of challenge when the course is entirely in another language. It would certainly be very impressive to do so no matter what, but it might not be the route to go unless languages are the end game. For example, if science is of high interest, I would probably go with a higher level of biology as opposed to a somewhat lower level in Spanish. In some courses, you may not have to make that choice, but in some you will. It's simply a lot more work for most people to study in a non-native language, and even more so when you are not immersed in the non-native language (living in France and studying every single course in French). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 On 1/25/2019 at 6:11 AM, 8FillTheHeart said: Sure. It's your homeschool. You can do what you want. My Dd studied one of her history credits in French. It is mastery of content that determines the cr, not the language. So I've decided that since it's my homeschool and my rules that if I give a diploma that distinguishes the kid for being fluently trilingual, then he will have to be trilingual. I've told Buddy that he will need achieve genuine fluency so that he can learn and live fully in either of those languages without extra accommodations or "gimmes". So no taking art and math in Japanese so that he can skirt the need to develop fluency in the language. Hopefully this won't come back to bite me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arctic Bunny Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 (edited) I would also be aware that terminology is concurrently learned in any future language of study. For example, between French immersion in grade 8 and switching to an English high school, I spent the whole summer going over an English math text book. The nuances in word problems can be particularly tricky. On the other hand, all that intuitive French grammar knowledge made English grammar a breeze! Edited February 4, 2019 by arctic_bunny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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