My son has completed his three years foreign language requirement for college in high school. Should he continue with Spanish as an incoming freshman or take a different language course? He can enroll for only one semester due to the school’s policy. Any thoughts on this?
What does he want to do? My DW took french in HS and german in college. Doesn’t really remember a lick of either language. I don’t know if she would remember french if she had continued but it would have a higher probability.
It really depends on what his interests are. I can tell you IME a first year college language course moves fast - it may cover the three years he’s had already. Personally, if he needs or wants to take a language course I’d work on solidfying the Spanish. In this country it can be very useful and there’s lots of great literature out there once he’s gotten past the mechanics of just learning the grammar and vocabulary.
Does he want to continue with Spanish? If so, he could likely study abroad in a Spanish speaking country relatively early on in his college career.
Also, can you clarify what you meant by
Does this mean that he can only take one more semester of Spanish in college?
Spanish has been useful for my D. Because of her strong HS Spanish background, she was able to place in 3rd year of college Spanish and that class enabled her to speak. Spanish opened more opportunities during medical school and beyond.
It all depends on your S’s goal.
@“Erin’s Dad”, S wants to continue with Spanish. However, I am concerned about that it is Spanish II and the rapid pace. I want him to maintain a good GPA.
@whenhen, he can continue with a foreign language but it will not fullfill the liberal arts requirements.
Someone who took Spanish throughout high school should be more than prepared for Spanish II. The school almost certainly offers a language placement test if he wants official confirmation that his high school studies are adequate for the course.
@whenhen, thank you. He had 3 years of Spanish in high school.
D’s college did placement tests for language classes. D had studied Spanish all four years of HS plus one of those years had spent 3 months living and attending school in Mexico.
The recommendation for her was Spanish 201 or 202 (1st or 2nd semester of 2nd year college Spanish). She was told that her speaking and vocabulary would place her in 202 but she was weak on subjunctive or some such tense for which proficiency was expected when starting 202.
She is actually starting a different language this year (freshman year) so will not actually enroll in Spanish till next year, so can’t give you any feedback on how it all pans out.
Everything in college will have a rapid pace. If he likes Spanish and wants to continue, I would encourage him to do so. Many interesting and rewarding classes and opportunities may be missed if one becomes overly concerned about GPA.
Spanish is more about amount than difficult of materials to study. If you mean Level III by 3 years of Spanish in HS, he should be able to do well in the 2nd semester course, but will have to allocate big chunk of time to study. If you mean 3 “years” of study ending at HS, but at higher level such as AP Spanish due to previous study, it would be much easier.
Still, it might be easier than switching to another language anyway, even at the 1st semester level.
D had 3 years of daily private tutoring. The last book the tutor used, which they covered 25% was 2nd semester college level. At placement test, the professor recommended taking 1A, 1st year - 1st semester course, anyway, due to D’s lack of vocabulary, even though she had good accent and understanding of grammar structure.
It was a great advise. She sort of cruised 1A. But still had to work 3 hours/wk outside of class because the progress was really rapid. Other students often worked 10~15 hours/wk, and if D took the 2nd semester course, she would probably had to work 10~15 hours too, or more. And D didn’t have that extra hours for study during that semester.
I’d check the college syllabus of the foreign language courses concerned and compare it with the pacing of your child’s high school.
The pacing of each individual college or high school foreign language course can vary dramatically.
One instance of this was what a college classmate at my college(Oberlin) found when he considered taking second year Chinese at a directional public college in his home state over the summer so he can go straight into 3rd year Chinese after taking the first-year course at our college after taking and passing our college’s language placement exam.
He found it was a non-starter as that directional’s foreign language course pacing proceeded at half the pace of those at Oberlin and comparable colleges. Taking a full-second year course there in the summer or even as a full-year student would have meant he’d miss the equivalent of HALF the material covered in Oberlin or comparable college’s equivalent full-year language course and thus…be a waste of time for his intended purpose.
Also, you can buy the college’s actual textbook - used, previous edition, cheap - and compare it with the high school’s.
I would also recommend that you or your S check the graduation requirements at the college (can be done online). At my D’s college students had to take 2 semesters of a foreign language so she started a new language that she always wanted to learn but wasn’t available in her HS. At my S’s college students had to reach a certain level of a foreign language so starting a new language in college would have meant taking something like 4 semesters of that new language instead of taking only 2 semesters if he continued with the HS foreign language.
I agree it’s hard to know exactly how a college and a high school language course will line up. Way back when I took German at Harvard and then several years later as a refresher I took the second semester at Pasadena Community College in CA. The CC covered all the same grammar in the same length of time, and covered far more useful vocabulary for actually being a tourist in the country. What it didn’t do was have us read a novel on the side before the end of the year. At the end of the Harvard course, I could read a mystery by a well-known writer, but I could barely ask for a hotel room without looking up the words. All of which is a long-winded way of saying there is no way of knowing exactly which Spanish course he might take until he takes the college placement test. (I assume they will have one.)
I’m almost positive though that taking the next level of a language he’s already studies will be less work and probably more rewarding than starting a new language. And if he’s only going to take one semester of a language, I think starting a new one is pointless.
- Does he have to take a foreign language to graduate? Then I would continue Spanish. If not, then
- Does he love learning languages? Then whatever he wants.
One semester only of anything is practically useless. Only two semesters, for that matter, is not much better, unless the student already knows a bunch of languages and has a facility for learning them.
If the OP’s son is going to take only one semester of foreign language in college, then by far the most valuable thing would be to take an additional semester of Spanish. If he switches to another language, it should be with a commitment to take more than one semester (or two) of it.
@SculptorDad, I purchased a used textbook and compared it with his high school’s. The readings are very advanced.
@bopper- Yes, he has to take a foreign language to graduate and he has completed the requirements already in high
school. He wants to maintain his Spanish but can take it for one more semester in order to receive credit. at this point,
should he even bother with Spanish or move on to other subjects?
@Excellent1 , if I were you, considering everything was said, I would advise him to take the second semester Spanish and be done with foreign language within the college. If she is worried about grade, she can adjust other curriculum and/or get outside help to make this happen.
Whenever my child wants to take a challenge, I cannot be happier. That’s when the real learning and growth happens. And I won’t discourage her for anything. Life is short. College is short. Just cruising is waste of the only youth the student gets per life. That’s a bigger cost than a possible B.
Taking one semester of another language is useless. But he took HS Spanish, and can continue with outside source either during or after college if he wants. Or else the three years HS Spanish will be lost and wasted too.
@SculptorDad, thank you.
Is ASL an option? My D has had 6 years of Spanish and 4 years of Latin but has to fulfill one semester of language at her college regardless. She thought she might like to learn sign language but they don’t offer it 