Son struggling with Spanish in high school

[Anonymous]

If your child is learning a language you can't teach yourself then it is better to have a language tutor in place from the first year. Look for a tutor who is actually a public school teacher in that language, as they know the curriculum and can teach addressing that.

Usually the first year of language is easy since it is only learning nouns etc, and also it is taught in English. So, Spanish 1 A or 1A/B is not difficult. By second year, grammar comes into play and the instruction is in the language itself, this means that the students are not able to fully comprehend their lessons.

As many public schools have moved away from teaching English grammar also, the kids learning foreign language do not understand the grammatical terms used to explain the foreign language grammar structure.

In many public school districts there is a chronic dearth of good Maths, Science and Foreign Language teachers. Most students will have a problem in these areas. I am personally of the opinion that your child should graduate HS being semi-fluent in a foreign language at least. It is a life long skill.

Here are a few good recommendations from my DC's Spanish tutor for gaining fluency.

1) Watch familiar English movies with Spanish subtitles on and the volume lowered.
2) Watch Spanish TV or movies. Spanish telenovelas.
3) Read Spanish version of favorite teen magazines.
4) Find spanish versions of songs by singers like Shakira and sing along. Get the lyrics online.

[Anonymous]

For writing and grammar, there's a bit of rote memorization that is involved, too.

Is he writing out and memorizing verb conjugation tables? (Does he understand what a verb conjugation table is, and how it works?) That will help a lot.

[Anonymous]

I am ESL (primary idiom is not spanish, but close) and the ONE thing that helped me tremendously with writing and grammar in English when I moved here was to READ tons of books in English. Also newspapers and magazines of course, but books mainly.

In the beginning it was horrible since I had to stop frequently to look up some words, but soon it became much more pleasant.


As a side note, I speak/write in my native idiom almost with perfection BECAUSE I always read a lot and always liked to read.


So, reading, in any language, is the best way to learn proper grammar.

[Anonymous]

Duo Lingo is good. Also, if you go to Amazon and search "barcharts Spanish" you see several laminated fold-out study guides for not much money. My high schooler says these help him in his Spanish studies.

[Anonymous]

I just posted a question on this site regarding my 19-year-old cousin who just moved to the US. I'm trying to help him find work and most of all friends.

He's fluent in French, Spanish and English and one of our friends has already asked us if he would help their daughter with French. I would love for him to do the same for someone who needs help in Spanish. We live in NW, in AU Park. If this is something that might be of interest, reply and I'll send you my info.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Www.doityourselfspanish.com. Check out the verb drills for grammar practice and the resources section.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I so appreciate it! We started off with a tutor yesterday and have subscribed to a Spanish language TV package. Bookmarking this thread

[Anonymous]

Some of the high schools in MCPS have American Sign Language (ASL) which is accepted for graduation as a foreign language. In my experience, many students who have any type of language processing disability often have great difficulty with foreign languages, but many pick up and enjoy the ASL. My niece did it because she had so much difficulty with Spanish and not only did she love it, but it opened up a whole other culture to her, the deaf culture. She has continued studying it in college this year. Most selective colleges want two years in the same foreign language and many are now accepting the ASL.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Spanish teacher. I recommend www.studyspanish.com, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/spanish/spanish-i, and googling you-tube videos about different grammar points, in addition to the above mentioned resources.

I don't recommend Duo Lingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Spanish teacher. I recommend www.studyspanish.com, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/spanish/spanish-i, and googling you-tube videos about different grammar points, in addition to the above mentioned resources.

I don't recommend Duo Lingo.

this link didn't work. I'm curious what it is, though.

I'm starting Spanish with Duolinguo, but it doesn't seem great for a beginner.

[Anonymous]

www.italki.com

It's native-speaking tutors over Skype. The prices are cheap, and with coupons and such you can go as low as $5 an hour. My friend did this and the only problem was finding a tutor in the same time zone, but with Spanish it probably won't be a problem finding a tutor from Latin America.