Posted this on the teacher’s forum but maybe some parents have ideas.
My 7th grade son with retrieval fluency disorder (diagnosed in 2nd grade) is having increased problems with foreign language studies, specifically the oral component. As you would guess, he cannot respond quickly enough to teacher questions (asked in Spanish by native speaker) to suit the teacher. He has asked her to repeat the question and to speak more slowly but she apparently just passes over him to the next child and comes back at the end. This isn’t helpful because he still doesn’t know what she said. Unfortunately, foreign language is a requirement for middle school. When he gets to high school he can opt for Latin where, to my knowledge anyway, there is no conversational component! For now, I need some suggestions - he’d like to try and work this out himself, without our “interference”.
Re: ?foreign language?
At this point, the questions he is going to be asked are pretty standard and predictable because the vocabulary he knows is limited. If he doesn’t want any kind of “interference,” I would just help him with the questions, asking him the same questions over and over and creating new questions from the vocabulary he’s being taught. Does his textbook have tapes that accompany it? If not, check on the internet and see if you can find some that do accompany his text. Most foreign language books have these.
Hi
My son also has a problem learning Spanish but I am with Beth, “Who cares?”
I found a program called,”Unforgettable Languages,” and I think it is good. My son is so busy that we sadly do not have enough time in the day to pursue the program with the attention it deserves but I do think it works. It is a DVD that teaches you to remember words through visualization. I am all for anything that will encourage my son to try to remember through visualization because my journey through his disability has taught me that visualization is the key to memorization.
Best to you!
Re: ?foreign language?
Thanks for your replies. I, too, feel like “So what?” I took four years of conversational Spanish in high school and I still can’t tell the cleaning lady to sweep under the bed!
Anyway, unless one plans to use the foreign language as a second language, I can’t get too upset about his inablities in it except that the teacher has made some rather nasty comments to him in class about this. I’m beginning to wonder if she has actually read the report on his testing. I am finding that many teachers do not believe that a child “really” has an LD (despite report results) if the student also is on the higher end of the IQ scale and, by virtue of that, are able to perform on or even above grade level.
I am not LD but had the same problem when taking spanish. I was much better at reading and writing.
How much does it impact his grade? I think the only way you get better at understanding is to do it a lot. Someone I know watched soap operas in spanish!! He could try listening to books on tape in spanish while following along in spanish.
I personally would let it go unless it means he isn’t passing the class. My son takes spanish in sixth grade. I consider it a real waste for a kid of his profile. We are happy with C’s.
Beth