Reply to What's covered/what proficiency is reached at each level of Spanish (or other languages)?

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Reply to "What's covered/what proficiency is reached at each level of Spanish (or other languages)?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can't find this written up anywhere (please point me to it if it exists!)-- would folks be willing to share brief descriptions of roughly what each level of MCPS Spanish looks like?

It would be super helpful to know generally what kinds of things they do/learn each year, and what a kid is expected to come out of the year with in order to be prepared for the next level.  I'd also be interested to hear what kinds of things kids *are* able to do at what level even if it's not related to school success and what their level of proficiency looks/feels like (things like, at what level a kid might be able to mostly follow a Spanish language movie or TV show with Spanish subtitles on?  Read a graphic novel on Spanish? Get by during travel in a Spanish-speaking country? Etc). If you are familiar with formal proficiency ratings like CEFR/DELE or ACTFL, please feel free to use those to describe, if it's easier.

I know this is kind of a big ask so feel free to just describe one or two levels if you're not up for all of them!  And feel free to share info from other languages besides Spanish...[/quote]

My kid is in AP Spanish Lit and can do everything you described. She can translate in both directions, volunteered over the summer at a job speaking Spanish exclusively, and got a 5 on her Spanish Lang AP last year. She's conspicuously caucasian and neither of her parents are fluent in Spanish (one passed an AP forever ago and rarely uses it, but has some understanding; the other has literally no education here). She has traveled without any trouble; even several years ago, she was able to converse with strangers in decent-enough Spanish to be easily understood, and had no trouble reading signs or having conversations. She has friends who are native speakers and no issues socializing exclusively in Spanish.

We put the subtitles on the switch in Spanish, listen to music in Spanish, and make a point of watching shows in Spanish (now with Spanish subtitles, not English), but she's not getting drill and kill at home. She definitely didn't get her skills from her parents; she surpassed our abilities a long time ago! She's a smart kid, so that helps, but I think her abilities show that the program definitely works if your kid pays attention and tries to actually use the language. She has actively looked for ways to practice; I think that's essential.[/quote]

Your daughter had substantial skills because of:

1) Traveling
2) Native speaker friends
3) An in-language job

All of those go well beyond what the curriculum provides and arguably would be equivalent to study/living abroad.

I agree that practice is essential.  In some communities, the top Spanish students might have Spanish in the home or as a heritage language.  In others, that's not common at all.  So I'd be careful about distinguishing the abilities derived from taking the classes from those derived from real-world experience.

Lack of real-world experience is one of the reasons Americans are so comparatively poor at foreign languages.  [/quote]

You put it backwards. My kid spoke Spanish when she traveled because she chose to practice. She could've spoken English (like I did). She has native speaker friends because she has skills. They didn't teach her; she showed enough respect to learn their language, and now she can socialize with them. She got the in-language job with the skills she already had, because she committed to practicing her language skills for several years prior. Sure, it counts as ongoing practice every time she uses her Spanish, but she couldn't have gotten the job without getting the skills first. While she was encouraged to do this, she wasn't forced. She wanted a second language, so she took the classes and practiced the skills.

I think the real problem seems to be a lot of (white) parents making excuses for why the school should be doing it all for them (pretty typical; just read this forum). They seem to want one public school class a year to be all of the work required, with only the bare minimum effort. If my kid hadn't done her math homework, and studied outside of class, she wouldn't have math skills either. You need to actually practice these things. US residents don't want for opportunities to speak foreign languages, especially in this area. There are free conversation classes at the library, plenty of books in Spanish, and simple technology to change things into another language so you can practice. Duolingo has a free mode... People may lack the give-a-damn to actually engage, maybe, but that's a personal decision, not a logistics issue.

My kid isn't special. She's not stupid, but you don't have to be a genius to pick up a second language. You just have to be willing to try instead of willing to whine about how it wasn't handed to you. [/quote]

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