St. Peter, Capitol Hill
St. Agnes, Arlington

School Without Walls at Francis Stevens

George Washington Middle School in Alexandria

My kids are in FLES in ES. The MS Spanish teacher said it usually takes about 3 weeks at the beginning of the year to catch up the non-FLES students! I still think it is beneficial for children to start early, mostly because of accent, but research has also shown that learning another language is good for brain development. Plus my kids enjoy it and think it is fun-I'm all for that in elementary especially!

The school have a strong academic program, combined with exposure to foreign language, art, music, computer science, STEM, and physical education provide for a wonderful learning foundation. With a 45% minority student population, this is a school that embraces diversity.

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?

Anonymous wrote:Latin is not a foreign language, it is a dead one. Any kid, in my humble opinion, would be much better served mastering English + Spanish, Mandarin, or German.

Better served in what way? And ... German?

An argument could be made that your kid would be well served by learning about the foundations of modern languages and European cultures. If you're not of European origin I can see caring less about this, though. There's still an argument to be made that Latin helps with the SATs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPS: this discussion, and the equally fascinating discussion about how to achieve fluency, don't belong on OP's thread asking if her kid can do Latin in a MoCo middle school.

Why don't you start a new thread and call it something like "MoCo Middle Schools Suck for Foreign Languages," because that seems to be your agenda. Then others besides me, many of whom will also have had actual experience with MoCo middle schools (unlike you), can help me deal with you, because trust me, your unpleasantness is no picnic and my days of answering your aggressively worded insinuations are numbered.

Wow are you easy to wind up! I actually do have experience with both systems, and then switched for private, so please don't make assumptions. And really, if you think this is aggressive you haven't been on this board very long! Have a nice cool drink and relax. It's just a discussion about the availability of foreign language classes. Sheesh!

Of course there are ruder people than you. And people who make even stupider statements than your 7/13 "foreign languages are non-existent in MoCo." But the question is: why be rude or stupid at all?

It's just so unnecessary. Unless you're trying to justify those private school tuition payments or something (because that's what it looks like).

"stupider"? Awesome.
And please tell me ONE MoCo ES that offers foreign language as part of their regular curriculum. None of this FLES nonsense.

My kids went to a private school with language starting in PreK. By the time they went to MoCo HS they were at the same level as the MCPS kids who started in MS. So starting in MS is not a disadvantage and they probably covered the material my kids covered in PreK-5th in the first month. Sidwell didn't even used to offer language in ES because they did not think it made a difference.

This was absolutely our experience too with foreign languages in an elementary private school. Now the kids are at a MoCo HS, and they are on exactly the same level as the MoCo kids who started a foreign language in MS. However, my kids are behind the MoCo kids who did the immersion the PP is so casually dismissing as "nonsense."

And why should we write off the MoCo immersion programs as "nonsense" just to make you happy? Go away, before you make yourself sound "stupider."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PPS: this discussion, and the equally fascinating discussion about how to achieve fluency, don't belong on OP's thread asking if her kid can do Latin in a MoCo middle school.

Why don't you start a new thread and call it something like "MoCo Middle Schools Suck for Foreign Languages," because that seems to be your agenda. Then others besides me, many of whom will also have had actual experience with MoCo middle schools (unlike you), can help me deal with you, because trust me, your unpleasantness is no picnic and my days of answering your aggressively worded insinuations are numbered.

Wow are you easy to wind up! I actually do have experience with both systems, and then switched for private, so please don't make assumptions. And really, if you think this is aggressive you haven't been on this board very long! Have a nice cool drink and relax. It's just a discussion about the availability of foreign language classes. Sheesh!

Of course there are ruder people than you. And people who make even stupider statements than your 7/13 "foreign languages are non-existent in MoCo." But the question is: why be rude or stupid at all?

It's just so unnecessary. Unless you're trying to justify those private school tuition payments or something (because that's what it looks like).

"stupider"? Awesome.
And please tell me ONE MoCo ES that offers foreign language as part of their regular curriculum. None of this FLES nonsense.

My kids went to a private school with language starting in PreK. By the time they went to MoCo HS they were at the same level as the MCPS kids who started in MS. So starting in MS is not a disadvantage and they probably covered the material my kids covered in PreK-5th in the first month. Sidwell didn't even used to offer language in ES because they did not think it made a difference.