My daughter is taking Spanish 2 right now and isn’t loving it. Would it be frowned upon to have 2 years of Spanish and then maybe 1 year of Latin or should she just do the 3 years of Spanish even if it not her strength? Any thoughts? Pros/cons? I know some schools only require 2 years but some require 3 so figure she should do the 3 just in case…
Jenn
When colleges say “N years of high school foreign language”, they mean completion of high school level N of the language.
And they also mean “N years/reach level N” in the same language. So in this case. 2+1≠3. If any of her targets request/require 3, then she should suck it up and take the 3rd year of Spanish.
UGH! It is frustrating because she has been struggling with Spanish and she is getting A’s in pretty much everything else and looking like a solid B at best for Spanish for all the time she takes it. It is only going to get worse and don’t want to have a C anywhere… She has talked to the teacher who says keep working at it, her counselor says she can’t switch teacher this year and her instruction is seriously confusing, shows lots of movies in Spanish but doesn’t seem to teach what is needed. My daughter recognizes that some of the girls in the class are just using google translate so their scores are much higher, but my daughter is a rule follower and of course wants to EARN her grades. A life lesson I guess…
You say that like it’s a bad thing. Culture is almost as important to language learning as knowing the difference between por and para.
As a multilingual person, let me tell you: Google translate sucks for every language I speak. If used to translate a word into English,it’s fine. If translating an essay from English to Spanish, any semi-competent teacher will recogonze it for what it is.
That will not keep her out of a good college. On the flip side, an A would not guarantee admission. She/you should focus on improving her grade/learning, not the negligible impact it will have on admissions.
Does the same teacher teach Spanish 3? Maybe a different, more inspiring teacher could change her mind about the language. You could get her a tutor or try Rosetta Stone (or similar) over the summer to go over the areas where her instruction may be coming up short and to try to get her ahead so Spanish 3 is a little easier for her. If you want to go all out, arrange a trip to a Spanish language-speaking country. There is nothing like an immersion experience to jump start one’s skills.
I would actually suggest taking foreign language through the AP level if she can. A lot of colleges have a language requirement, and a good AP score can get her exempt from it.
I disagree with @Groundwork2022 …I would not recommend FL through AP if she hates it.
BUT! You then need to look for college with out a FL requirement. Many make you take a FL in college.
You have determine that many of the college she is interested in need 3 years of HS Spanish. I would let her know this…that you want her to have the best options for college for her, so she needs to get through Spanish.
You can also say that the Spanish teacher may not be effective for her. so you are going to help her get a tutor and supplemental materials so she can get through it.
Also see if she likes the Duolingo App or other programs.
Yes, @bopper is correct in that some colleges do not have FL requirements, and that may be the way to go. Other colleges, however, will require three years to get in, but still make you take a class or two more once you enroll. A good AP score might get you out of the requirement. So that is why I suggest sticking it out. That said, I don’t know if it’s the language itself she doesn’t like, if simply learning a foreign language is what she is finding difficult (in which case switching languages may or may not help), or if she isn’t clicking with her particular teacher.
If she is in Spanish 2 now, I’m guessing your DD is a freshman or sophomore. So it is early for her to know where she wants to go and where she can get accepted. Taking the minimum years could be closing doors or setting her up to have to take it in college (where it is more difficult and the classes go through the material faster). She may be okay with that, but it should be an informed decision.
As is so often the case, we really need context. I believe this gal wants a humanities major. We’d need some idea of targets, also-- aiming high or mid-range, public or private?
Dropping after 2nd year would be odd, unless a college only asks for 2 years. This is a little different for STEM, where, sometimes, to get in higher math, there’s a schedule conflict with FL.
If she doesn’t like Span because she’s got an underlying issue with lang study, I don’t know that taking Latin is going to change anything. Whether Latin can cont as a 3rd year does depend onthe colleges.
Once you get into college, so what, if there’s a lang requirement? You take an easy course or get a lower grade. It doesn’t impact things the way high school impacts college admission.
Also consider talking to the teacher about the teaching method…Watching films could be more interesting to the kids, or it could be lazy. you could say that your daughter doesn’t feel like she is being taught enough to understand the films or to do the quiz/test/homework.
THen escalate to the dept. head or GC if necessary.
I agree with getting a tutor. A lot of times language classes seem like they should be fluff courses but they can be very, very challenging and she may not know how to effectively study. I can’t see how Google translate could be helping anyone that much unless they are doing it during tests for vocab they haven’t actually memorized - that leaves me scratching my head. Using Google translate to search words for writing assignments or to remind of meanings is not cheating, although an online dictionary would be better. Maybe your daughter is confused about what her study skills should look like? And a B is OK. It’s really a fine grade. I have been told the AP exam is not appropriate for anyone but a native speaker but that is not the only way to avoid Spanish in college. If she takes the college placement exam - and I have never heard of any college that didn’t administer one - she can test out of the foreign language requirement.
See if she’s writing out flashcards by hand. See if she’s handwriting out every practice exercise in her book - if it’s fill in the blank, have her write the whole sentence, not just the fill-in word. Every time she does an exercise she should be reading the Spanish out loud to herself. It’s the little extra practice in reading, writing and speaking that make a difference in language learning.
Films are actually a great way to learn - you have to absorb vocabulary, grammar, culture. It takes a lot of work. You can’t just watch the way you’d watch a blockbuster - you have to pay attention and take notes, highlight sentences or expressions, ideas, things you notice, etc.
Actually, the AP Foreign Language exam tests roughly B1 level on the CEFR grid. (The Spanish Lit exam is another level entirely, closer to AP English Lit).
Thank you all for the info, it is really helpful. Bottom line after thinking about it… it isn’t going to change and it is not a match for my daughter, so we will try to help support her and she has been trying a few strategies that may help and it just may be that the language component is going to lower her GPA. I think watching movies is a fun enrichment, but when it constitutes about 20% of her instructional time not effective, especially when there isn’t teaching related to it. Watching Disney movies in Spanish!!! The teacher tests completely out of order so they learn unit 9 and then test on unit 6, because she forgot to test it a while back. She is the department head, only because she has been at the school for 30 plus years!!! I called around for a few tutors in our area and it looks like $65 an hour is the going rate which I am not willing to pay so trying to find some college kids who might be home for the holidays who might help. Was also considering letting her take intro Spanish at the local junior college so that way she might get instruction and then not use it for a grade, just cheaper than tutoring… She also has been going to last year’s Spanish teacher who was a good teacher and getting some help from her. She also is changing her schedule so that way she has a little time next semester to meet student tutors on campus that would be helpful also. (right now she has no free blocks and no time because we carpool, but they offer free student tutors on campus, just need time for her to use them!) So, there are a lot of goof leads.
The google translate I meant was meant for cheating… Some of the girls have it open and cut and paste the test sentences and then they respond, the testing is always on line and they have more than window open. I was appalled to hear of it, and while my daughter refuses to participate, she doesn’t feel right ratting the other kids out either. I guess some of the kids use it as a work around when they get this particular teacher, but obviously it won’t help when she gets to Spanish 3. She needs to LEARN it and she knows it!
We are trying to figure out which college route she wants, just at the beginning phases. Don’t want to close any doors yet.
Jenn
Any of her friends heritage speakers of Spanish? Perhaps she can try talking to them in Spanish on a regular basis.
I wish! I keep asking around for a cheaper way to get a tutor or more natural interaction, but I think the free high school tutors or possibly on line might work. This is her first real roadblock where she feels like she has to learn on her own without a teacher so it is a good learning experience, she has had fabulous teachers in past and it will not always be like that in future, she needs to learn how to struggle and learn to work around it.
Jenn
Is your daughter a sophomore or junior? If she is a sophomore, she can finish Spanish 2, then take 2 years of a different language. That satisfies the four year language requirement. My oldest son did two years of Spanish and two years of German, and was accepted to colleges that required 3-4 years of FL. You can’t do 2+1 for 3 years of FL, but you can do 2+2 for 4 years.
Another thought…my other son was in a similar situation as your daughter when he was a junior. He was making a C in his German 2 class and I knew there was no point in him taking German 3 in his senior year, so he didn’t… All of the colleges he applied to required only 2 years of FL, although some strongly recommended 3-4 years. He was accepted at all of them. So ultimately, it did not effect him.
^ actually, you can’t do 2+2 and exectbirbroxount as Level 4. Two low elementary do not equal an intermediate level.
This would considered a deficiency. How bad it is depends on the major, the school considered, etc. UCF won’t look at it the way Williams or Yale do.
It can be explained* (eg., school only offers two levels, or teacher for language 1 retired) or offset (depending on the school, it’d require a pretty strong spike) but it’s not recommended.