Doing average in foreign language

[Anonymous]

DD is a freshman and is taking Spanish. She has relatively mild ADHD and is an average to good student with As and B+s in her other classes. However, she is getting a C in Spanish 2nd year. She is planning on taking year 3 next year and then stopping as she hates Spanish and that is all that is required for college entry. I think the ADHD makes it hard for her to learn it, since some students with ADHD take a more remedial Spanish class to meet college requirements, or get a waiver altogether. Will the combination of not a lot of language plus not great grades in the class keep her from a decent college? She has good extracurricular activities and is more of a math and science lover. Overall GPA so far is about a 3.5 even with the Spanish grade.

[Anonymous]

If she's getting a C in second year Spanish, and doing fine in other subjects, she may not have learned first year Spanish very well.

Find a tutor who can work on the basics with her, mandate that some of her media consumption be in Spanish, etc. And definitely make sure to keep up Spanish over the summer in preparation for third year. Most kids don't - that alone may give her enough of an edge.

The bright side - this is basically a college requirements checkbox to fill out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she's getting a C in second year Spanish, and doing fine in other subjects, she may not have learned first year Spanish very well.

Find a tutor who can work on the basics with her, mandate that some of her media consumption be in Spanish, etc. And definitely make sure to keep up Spanish over the summer in preparation for third year. Most kids don't - that alone may give her enough of an edge.

The bright side - this is basically a college requirements checkbox to fill out.

+1 Get the tutor, finish the three years and move on.

[Anonymous]

I agree. My oldest is not great at languages at all and hated taking Spanish. It just doesn't come naturally to him. He stopped after Spanish 3, to make room for taking computer programming instead. Like your dd, he also has relatively mild ADHD and is totally a pointy math and science kid.

If not having 4 years of a language makes him less competitive for certain types of schools, so be it -- but it was more important to him to learn computer programming, and for what he wants to do, he's not looking to go to a classic liberal arts program where they attempt to produce Renaissance scholars.

According to my sister who is in the college admissions business, these days many colleges and universities want well-rounded student bodies rather than well-rounded students -- in other words, they like pointy students who have gone deep on a couple of things rather than gone wide on all things. And as she says there is a lid for every pot -- i.e. lots and lots of colleges and universities where you can get a great education no matter whether you are pointy or rounded.

[Anonymous]

My ADHD kid is unmedicated, but the whole family participated in CBT and picked up some amazing habits and routines. My son gets straight As and as a 7th grader takes a few high school courses.

Does your daughter go to regular CBT for her ADHD? Does the family have established routines? Is there consistency in all aspects of family life? Does your daughter eat a healthy diet and get regular intense exercise?

No, your child will not her her pick of colleges with that GPA and only doing 3 years of a language is the absolute bare minimum and will reinforce that poor impression.

[Anonymous]

I have ADHD and did great in Spanish. Math and science did not come as easily to me. I had to work really hard and had tutors. ADHD is not a free pass to get out of requirements. People aren’t perfect in every academic area. She’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

My kids have ADHD and I do, and we are all big stem people. Get her a tutor and make sure she sticks with spanish!

I have a BS degree in Biology and two full years of college foreign language were required to earn that bachelor's degree. Being STEM focused is not a reason to not learn other languages.

Remember that learning how to learn is important. If this is the only class that she is getting a C in, then that gives her the opportunity to learn how to work hard and how she learns.

Get her a tutor!

[Anonymous]

And maybe help her by quizzing her on the vocab words? It really makes a difference to say it out loud instead of just in your head.

[Anonymous]

The way we teach foreign language in the US is horrible, and if your child is the same schools as mine, it's abysmal. From incompetent teachers to subs and long term subs who don't speak the language...

Agree with getting a tutor, and cut your child some slack. For once, it might really not be her fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she's getting a C in second year Spanish, and doing fine in other subjects, she may not have learned first year Spanish very well.

Find a tutor who can work on the basics with her, mandate that some of her media consumption be in Spanish, etc. And definitely make sure to keep up Spanish over the summer in preparation for third year. Most kids don't - that alone may give her enough of an edge.

The bright side - this is basically a college requirements checkbox to fill out.

+1 Get the tutor, finish the three years and move on.

I tend to agree with this.

[Anonymous]

It could be a learning disability. Has she tried Latin? That might be easier for some, as it is a non-spoken language, so auditory processing is not a factor as it would be for a modern language.

Or maybe she's just an average student. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It could be a learning disability. Has she tried Latin? That might be easier for some, as it is a non-spoken language, so auditory processing is not a factor as it would be for a modern language.

Or maybe she's just an average student. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

what an hilariously ill-informed suggestion. Latin is punishingly difficult regardless of the fact its unspoken.
spanish is the easiest language on offer

OP get her a tutor or if not that a rosetta stone package and as others have said - study over the summer to pick it up better in year 3. also I think go for a 4th year if possible.

[Anonymous]

Ditto on the tutor. My DS was similar with French in 7th-8th grade, just barely pulled a B and hated it, wanted to be done after level 3. Level 3 got off to a very bad start (level 2 missed some key foundational concepts), we got him a tutor, started getting As and then decided to continue to level 4 where he also has straight-As. He still works with the tutor once a week, scaled back from the 2x a week he needed to get caught up last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It could be a learning disability. Has she tried Latin? That might be easier for some, as it is a non-spoken language, so auditory processing is not a factor as it would be for a modern language.

Or maybe she's just an average student. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

what an hilariously ill-informed suggestion. Latin is punishingly difficult regardless of the fact its unspoken.
spanish is the easiest language on offer

OP get her a tutor or if not that a rosetta stone package and as others have said - study over the summer to pick it up better in year 3. also I think go for a 4th year if possible.

Latin is tough but it would help OP's dd with science. Too bad it is hard to find ancient greek in the US.

[Anonymous]

Not sure your finances or your child's interest in travel. However my son takes German and we send him to Germany for 3 weeks for a German immersion camp experience. The camp is geared towards non native speakers. He gets to run around the Alps, run around Bavaria, eat incredible food. All while speaking German thr entire time. He comes back after having an amazing time and with much better German. The we keep up during the remaining summer with tutors. It makes for German to be one of his easiest subjects. And bonus for me he is now talking about applying to colleges in Germany (free!).

It is a great opportunity to travel, be exposed to a different culture, and to ignite passion for a language. Something to look into for spain.