<p>Could anyone, please, explain me, why students learn second language in college? I do understand that it may be a sudden passion (to learn Mayan language, for example) or a career path (to major in Spanish and become a Spanish teacher, for example). Any other reason? </p>
<p>I think the best time to learn a new language is childhood. I would suggest reserving college years for some advanced stuff. </p>
<p>We speak Spanish at home. I was surprised how well my D. passed Spanish at school (A++). In fact, she passed an exam (A+) that says that her Spanish is at 4-year college level. All without any structured lessons in HS and college.</p>
<p>My younger girls are learning Mandarin as their third language at pre-school age. It is so cheap and efficient! Chinese "grandma" - mother of my colleague - 1 hour per day, 4-days a week - $20 per lesson for all 3 kids. The progress is enormous! I am sure that my younger kids would be fluent in Chinese by the time they approach HS.</p>
<p>Why, why, why anyone is waiting until HS or college to learn second - third language?!</p>
<p>Also, priorities change. What might interest you in college might not have interested you as a child. Perhaps second-generation children want to rediscover their heritage a bit more. </p>
<p>I highly doubt anybody goes out of their way to wait until college to learn a language if they could have learned it earlier. Maybe the emphasis on learning early isn’t there though, agreed.</p>
<p>Schools districts rarely have decent math curriculum in my experience, let alone foreign language instruction of any depth, especially before high school.
Even my Ds top comprehensive public, struggles with offering Spanish past the 2nd year.</p>
<p>There are a lot of languages taught at college that are not generally available in middle and high school. Italian, Arabic come to mind. Anyone interested in an area of the world, whether for business, travel, politics, etc., where they were not able to learn the relevant language in high school might well want to study that language in college.</p>
<p>Many schools don’t have the funds to include language instruction. Unfortunately, most Districts gear their teaching towards standardized testing which does not include languages. Teachers usually don’t have much leeway to include a 10 or 15 minute session of Spanish or music as they did when I was in school in the '60’s. it is very unfortunate since you are 100% correct that languages are learned more easily as young children.</p>
<p>I do understand an argument of “sudden passion”. </p>
<p>I really don’t understand why schools are offering second language in HS, instead of elementary school. Ok, there are many things in the world that I don’t understand.</p>
<p>I think studying second language in college is not very efficient. It is expensive. Especially with Spanish. It’s much cheaper to take a one-year break from college, go to Mexico, and master Spanish, parting and having fun, instead of learning Spanish in college. </p>
<p>I think the same goes for Arabic, for example. There are many volunteer organizations that would welcome a student-age kid. It makes more sense to spend a year in Lebanon or Egypt, learning language and culture, than doing the same in college. Also, it would be cheaper.</p>
<p>Heritage speaking is a good base for academic study of language at university. But most people who have picked up various languages informally are conversationally fluent (albeit in a limited range of topics), but poor at reading, writing and analyzing literature.</p>
<p>Our school system does not offer language before 7th grade. The private school he attended for preschool and K ostensibly taught Spanish, but in reality it wasn’t happening. Foreign language in the public elementary schools was regarded as a luxury: it was started, but cut to save money. I strongly disagree, but there it is. IMHO FL is the ONE thing that absolutely SHOULD be taught in those years. We found someone to teach French to our S when he was in, IIRC, 3rd grade. Similar set up: a group of five or six kids, once per week. Otherwise, kids started in 7th grade, with a choice between French or Spanish. He added Spanish in HS, took a year of Russian in college (scheduling made it very difficult to continue, unfortunately), and has since had a little German.</p>
<p>School district would spend the same amount of money teaching second language in HS or in elementary school. In fact, it may be even cheaper in elementary, instead of HS. </p>
<p>Our middle school has lots of electives (one block per day).</p>
<p>Why can’t they start second language in 3d grade (instead of HS), teach for 4 years, and continue it in middle school as elective? It would cost the same to the school district!</p>
<p>I agree, that reading and writing is an issue. My trick with the oldest D. is to ask her to read Spanish books to siblings every evening. Also, she is hand-writing letters to relatives in Spanish, which helps with the writing skills. Literary analysis is not a problem, because the technique is similar in English and in Spanish.</p>
<p>While I agree that it would be beneficial to teach a FL at an earlier age, I disagree that it should not be offered in HS. My son took 5 years of Spanish in HS (our HS is on a block system so he took SP 1 and 2 his freshman year. He is fluent now and tested out of FL for college, although he is taking an advanced course anyway. While it may be more difficult to learn a FL later in life it is not impossible. I am not sure why you say high schoolers don’t have time as that was not an issue for my son.</p>
<p>Most public elementary schools don’t offer foreign language instruction (and you are correct, Californiaa, that is the best time to start learning another language.) This is why almost every American public school kid doesn’t get to start a second language until middle school at the earliest.</p>
<p>I have always thought that one way around budget issues is to simply hire PE, art and music specialists who are fluent in Spanish or French, then have them instruct the children in those languages as they taught their specialty. They would then learn another language in a natural setting and associate it with something pleasant and fun, like art or gym class. </p>
<p>This wouldn’t cost the districts extra money, since most are hiring these specialists anyway. Even during the worst of the recession, when our district’s arts budget was reduced, teachers were moved to part time, but no one was fired, so instruction could still continue.</p>
<p>Sure the best time to study a language is as a child. I’d love to see more dual language programs for kids. We have a very popular one in our town that mixes Spanish and English language speakers - they do half the day in one language and half in the other. But adults can learn languages, especially if they get an opportunity to be immersed in the language. And at least as an adult, you will usually get a lot more out of your immersion experience if you already have the basics of the language under your belt. That’s how I learned to speak both French and German. As for what you can do with the language? This is what I did.
**
in College**
Took courses in advanced French literature in college because I’d had a gap year in France.
Wrote my thesis on low cost housing in London, Paris and Berlin, and got a fellowship to spend the summer before my senior year doing research in Europe. I don’t think I’d have gotten the grant if I hadn’t had the language fluency.
Translated a book about architecture in Senegal for one of my professors.</p>
<p>After College
Enjoyed French movies, novels and travel in France.
Worked in Germany for five years.</p>
<p>Intangible
Understand a bit better, other cultures, other ways of looking at the world</p>
<p>I just wish I also could speak Spanish, I have lots of clients whose Spanlish is better than their English and my housecleaner barely speaks English at all.</p>
<p>My kids elementary school did teach foreign languages, but sadly they didn’t do a very good job of it. They never learned much beyond colors, the names of family members and some songs.</p>
<p>Massmomm- I love your idea of hiring bilingual art, music and PE teachers in elementary school to make learning a language more fun. Unfortunately few public schools in So. Calif. have funds to hire art, music, or PE teachers.</p>
Also, she is hand-writing letters to relatives in Spanish, which helps with the writing skills. Literary analysis is not a problem, because the technique is similar in English and in Spanish.</p>