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Teaching a language you don't speak
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Do any of you lovely ladies teach a foreign language that you, yourself, do not speak? English is the first language in our house and I am fairly fluent in Spanish and I was taught Latin throughout college, but I’d like to teach my children Latin and French. I’ve personally always wanted to learn to speak and read French, but never did. One of my sons used to speak some French, but he’s lost most of it now.
I am wondering if you’ve tackled such an undertaking of learning/teaching together … especially a language that relies so heavily on *how* you actually speak it in addition to the words you use.
I do believe it can be done depending on how fluent you want your kids to speak it and carry on a conversation. I don’t speak Latin, but my expectations are not that my kids can speak it well because let’s be honest who out there really speaks Latin. What I do expecct is that they can translate it, and write it. They can hear it and know what someone is saying.
All that just to say it can be done. Also if you know someone who could voluneer there time to just have talking sessions with your kids that would be a way to have them speaking it more.
1. Learn along with them.
2. Have audio of native speakers for pronunciations. (google translate also has an audio button)
3. Tutor who is fluent in the language
Me personally? I use a combination of the first 2 🙂 One of the greatest things about homeschooling is I get to be the student too, and I find I have a much greater passion for learning now then when I was in school
I’m learning Latin with my kids. We read the books together, watch the videos, do the work, etc. I’m also trying to teach them Hebrew…I don’t speak it but my husband does. I teach Hebrew like Latin…read the books, watch videos, listen to audio, then ask dh if I’m doing it right. He practices with us when he’s home too.
Most libraries have agreements with Mango or Transparent or some other online language program which you can use for free from home. We use that for listening and translation practice. Usually it only covers the more ‘common’ languages though.
Hi Erin.kate,
Charlotte Mason used Gouin’s methods which are similar to how we learn our native language: oral lessons, context and relationship, etc. so if you find a program that uses these methods and are consistent I would think your family would do well. The Easy French for Homeschoolers says it uses these methods – I personally have no experience with it but maybe others on the forum have.
Our boys wanted to learn German and we were able to find a German woman who agreed to teach using Charlotte’s methods. She played games with them, baked bread with them, sang, read to them and told them stories. She did this every Wednesday afternoon and they were to use their vocabulary words with eachother at home when they brushed their teeth, cleared dishes, etc. At the end of two terms they had a nice vocabulary. We moved so that ended that season and I was not learning along with them.
This doesn’t help now but I’ll be attending the Living Education Retreat in July where Tammy Glaser will give a session on “Teaching a Second Language When You Lack One yourself.” Afterward, I’ll try to follow up with anything I learn.
Blessings,
Richele
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