Reply to Which public/private school teach Latin in middle school?

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[quote=Anonymous]Early language exposure can help with the ability to hear some sounds. For example, studies have shown that a Chinese speaker learning English needs to hear l's and r's before about age 6. There's also some research that kids who are bilingual starting as toddlers have somewhat different brain structures.

BUT, people can achieve fluency in languages like Spanish or French starting later in life (although maybe not past age 25 or 30?). Brain structure doesn't have to change to achieve fluency. Also, an english speaker studying spanish or french in ES or HS is not going to have the consonant problems that face a chinese speaker studying english.

SO, doing a foreign language 3 or even 5 times a week at the elementary school level isn't going to make a difference. I know. This was my own experience in private school. And then it was my kids' experience in private ES before switching to MoCo MS and HS.

Immersion is basically the only path to fluency. I'm fluent because I lived in Europe for a year, and at the end of it the natives were asking if I was from the south of their country. But my kids who did foreign languages in private ES were no where near fluent on leaving ES -- not anywhere close to fluency. There are only a few private schools with immersion: WIS, Lycee Rochambeau, and the German School. But guess what, lots of public schools in MD, VA and DC have immersion!

BTW, "stupider" is accepted by lots of dictionaries in informal contexts, and DCUM would seem to fit the bill. Google it. Now who's stupider? Can you stop now?[/quote]

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