<p>I'd like your advice on something that has nothing to do with getting into college.</p>
<p>Our daughter is graduating high school this spring.
She's asked us if she can take a two week or four week spanish language immersion course in Spain this summer. </p>
<p>Putting the costs aside, I'd appreciate your thoughts about:
1. Do these types of programs have any benefit.
2. Are 2 weeks or 4 weeks too short to have any benefit.
3. How do I determine whether a particular program is effective. (Is there something like tripadvisor where parents post reviews?)</p>
<p>What is her goal of this course? Will she be around spanish speakers when she gets home? If not she has no hope of staying bilingual.</p>
<p>Right now I’m hosting two Korean foreign exchange students. They will be in the US 4 weeks, and with us for 3 weeks. They just came Saturday. I can literally see their english improving since Saturday afternoon! I don’t know if they’ll be bilingual by the time they leave, but I can see their understanding improving. </p>
<p>The big thing to being bilingual is understanding the slang and idioms. They didn’t understand “unpack” but they did understand put clothes away. I don’t think they follow our conversations between each other, but if we stop, look at them and speak they seem to be doing okay. The true bilingual could follow conversations or participate in a more than one on one conversation.</p>
<p>I would think it would be a great experience, if only for the cultural experience. Her spanish will improve. I’d google the organizations name and review and see what comes up.</p>
<p>Apart from the academic merit of the program, also take a look at what the housing arrangements are. </p>
<p>Our son’s school also has a Spanish summer abroad program, and we had reservations about the host families who were recruited on a for-profit basis and did not necessarily have high school age children of their own.</p>
<p>Yes, there are benefits! But what kind of benefits depends on what your daughter’s goals are and her current language proficiency. Speaking as an ESL teacher and someone who has done two 4-week immersion programs in France, I would say that 2 weeks would have minimal impact on language skills. I think it is hard to achieve fluency in a summer program but it can be a very worthwhile and life-changing experience nonetheless.</p>
<p>Living with a host family can be hit or miss. My daughter and I both had great experiences with host families who were paid so I would not rule out that option. If language proficiency is the goal, home stays can be very helpful. Key is to stay away from other English speakers while she is there!</p>
<p>Our oldest son did two summer language immersion programs while in college (different languages, different programs). Both were paid family stays. That never bothered us. The first was four weeks and the second was eight weeks. We did the usual on-line searches to review the programs and he found both to be life changing, valuable experiences.</p>
<p>I think he was more wowed by the first program than the second. It helped that he had a solid grounding of four years of study in the language in high school before he went. That enabled him to jump right in at a higher level and spend his time really getting comfortable with speaking and listening skills. </p>
<p>For the second program, he was starting from scratch. He planned to do a semester abroad the following year in which his courses would be taught in that language and he used this as a jump start to formal study of the language in college. He has now graduated, lives abroad, and works almost exclusively in this second language.</p>
<p>Our second son has no interest in working and living overseas, so wont be doing any language immersion or study abroad. I agree that if the language isnt needed or used, the skills get rusty pretty quickly. If S2 ends up needing to learn a foreign language, however, we would absolutely incorporate an immersion program into the learning process.</p>
<p>The people I know who became fluent in another language did so by moving overseas for at least a semester, after having taken years of the language in middle school and high school. Several moved for a year, a few went for a full semester, a couple moved for longer than a year. Some went as part of an official program, some went on their own, but all of them lived in the culture of the country, either on their own or with a family, for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>Four weeks would be better than two, but even two would be a wonderful high school graduation present. Assuming that she has some Spanish base from high school, just being presented with the need to use it for daily communication will give her more confidence about the language skills that she does have, and will help her commit to mastering new ones when she comes back. </p>
<p>Two weeks is not enough. Four weeks might make a difference if your daughter is committed to speaking the language and avoiding English speakers. I had four years of French and then spent a year immersed in French living with a wonderful family. I’d say I got pretty comfortable in about three months, by February or so my French got good enough to audit a class at the local university. My family never spoke a word of French to me and the culture of the Institute (with students from all over the world) was such that no one spoke anything but French outside of class - at least once you were at an intermediate level. I had similar experiences at a Goethe Institute which I attended for four weeks after a year of college German.</p>
<p>My son spent 7 weeks in Jordan this summer. He was at a much lower level going in, and had barely squeaked by with a C+ in his first year of college Arabic. He was placed with two different families, both of whom were terrible in different ways, but neither made him part of family meals like they were supposed to. Classes were with other Americans and lots of English was spoken outside of class. He said he got his best practice from taxi drivers if he could persuade them not to practice their English on him! Nevertheless it seems to have done some good - he’s getting B’s in Arabic this year. He is planning a full year abroad in an Arabic speaking country for his junior year though.</p>
<p>For me (not gifted at languages) immersion is pretty much a necessity to speak it at all.</p>
<p>Doesn’t have the benefit of being in another country but definitely a more focused and controlled environment. My kids, and friends kids, have done these and we think they’re great. I prefer the programs based in Bemidji.</p>
<p>DS, who didn’t know a word of German when he started, came back after 2 weeks able to carry on a basic conversation.</p>
<p>My son did a 4 week course in Germany this summer. It allowed him to break through the block he was having with normal course work. While not fluent, he believes he is now capable of conversational German. The best part of the experience, however, was taking two weeks before classes starting traveling across Europe by himself. A wonderful experience every college kid should have.</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions.<br>
Based on what I’ve read, I’d like to look into a 4 week program in Spain. I’d prefer my daughter stay at a dorm/campus with a number of other students as opposed to being at the home of a family/teacher. I wouldn’t want her to be the oldest student there, so I’d like something that is designed for kids going into their senior year in HS and/or college students.<br>
If anyone has any more suggestions, I’d appreciate it.
Also, I know very little about Spanish geography. Can you suggest what location in the country would be nice.
Thanks once again for your help.</p>
<p>Middlebury College now has summer programs for high school students. I personally think you could learn more at six weeks at Middlebury than you could learn on a tourist type program in country. (Although I can also guarantee that it would probably be a little less fun, and probably a little more like boot camp!)</p>
<p>We know four students who did the language immersion program at Middlebury (as college students) and felt it very beneficial. BUT in each case, the program at Middlebury was followed by at LEAST a term abroad in the country where the language was spoken. These four are very fluent in their second language…partly due to the Middlebury program and partly due to the time abroad.</p>
<p>DD is living abroad and had to learn a new language (one she had never heard of or studied before). She was immersed in it for three months, but even after that her “fluency” was…well…“emerging”. She has now lived in that country for over a year, using that language daily, and is quite fluent. She says her three month language training was a start but certainly not THE thing that made her fluent in her new language.</p>
<p>As far as effectiveness - such a short program will teach her more about the country/culture than it would to improve her actual language skills, but it’d still be a great learning experience. It would be most beneficial if she had some Spanish in high school of course so she can practice actually speaking it rather than trying to learn only the basics. I’m assuming she probably has some experience with Spanish.</p>
<p>She could always return in college as part of a semester study abroad at a university there, as well, if she’d like to progress with it. Many colleges also have summer programs, some as a touring experience, others as volunteer/work opportunities in other countries.</p>
<p>You have to take into account your D’s motivation. If she is in a dorm with other non-Spanish kids, the temptation to speak English will be tremendous. As a language teacher in Europe, I’d recommend the one-to-one (living with the teacher) for serious progress.</p>
<p>I agree with Lost in Translat. In addition by living with a local family you learn a lot about the culture in subtle ways. It may be a simple conversation over a TV program. It may be going with the family when they go to vote. It may be conversation about a local election. It may be getting to eat local specialties. Some families at my program in France had been taking students in for years and it really ran very smoothly.</p>
<p>I think a lot depends on her level of Spanish going in, too. Once upon a time, I was fluent in Spanish, and I still read it fluently and understand it reasonably well. I spent a couple of weeks in Spain a few years ago – as a tourist, not in an immersion context – and my ability to speak made significant gains. But I started at a high level. If the OP’s daughter only has a year or two of Spanish going in, two weeks will mean nothing, four won’t mean much more, and living in a dorm with other English-speaking students will make the experience nearly useless from a language-learning perspective. (It could be wonderful from any number of other perspectives, though.)</p>
<p>My experience is much like mathmom’s: a semester (or two), and living with non-English speakers, is the minimum you would need to begin to approach fluency (not real fluency, but comfort), and that is only if you started with a good base. The people I know who did 4-6 week summer immersion programs after a year or two of study, without following up with a more substantial immersion experience, did not retain their language skills long.</p>
<p>My D did a 4 week immersion program in France and lived with the teacher and family. The nice part was that the teacher really understood that speaking English would be detrimental. Even though the teacher’s kids spoke English, they did not speak it at home. At many of these programs in Europe there are kids from all over attending, and the common language will definitely be English. For this reason, living in a dorm defeats the purpose. The students invariably speak English to each other. The family stay with the teacher is ideal. In 4 weeks, my D became very close to fluent, with 2 years of concentrated French study before going.</p>
<p>For summer study in Spain, look to the north–it’s cooler and really beautiful. The smaller the town, the fewer English speakers. Salamanca will be full of English speaking young adults, so I would stay away from there.</p>