This series of blogs was inspired by Andrea’s blog the other day in which she talks about how her kids are lacking in foreign language instruction.
I think teaching a foreign language is one of those subjects that homeschoolers would rather sweep under the rug. It’s not that we don’t want to teach our children a foreign language. However, unless there’s a program or someone near to us that can help. . .it’s the impossible feat. It requires that we learn the language alongside of our child and honestly, that’s just not always possible to do it in a way that’s going to yield real results.
However, I think part of the problem is our own perception of what constitutes a good foreign language program. I recently went to a conference where no less than 6 different curriculums for teaching foreign language were being sold. As I walked passed I heard convincing phrases like, “no experience necessary”, “fun and engaging”, and then there’s the whole ’immersion’ point which claims to help your child learn to think in the foreign language.
As someone who speaks a few other languages besides English, teaching foreign language is the one question I get asked most frequently (aside from that nasty ’s’ word, and the whole slew of how do you do that question set). There are several rampant misconceptions about learning foreign language, as well as teaching it.
Do you have to have a foreign language in homeschooling?
Well, I do think it’s very valuable and many four year colleges expect to see it on a high school transcript. I think it’s going to become an increasingly valuable skill in the job market as the internet makes the world much smaller. Personally, I can list a few positions where my resume was shuffled to the top because of my ability to speak a couple of other languages besides English. However, I also think that homeschoolers in general tend to posses very marketable skills and foreign language will not make or break your homeschool. So if you’ve been fretting about foreign language–relax!
With that said, some states (like ours of course) require foreign language instruction. As I mentioned previously some colleges expect to see it on transcripts as well. So if that’s the case, and you don’t speak another language, what should you do? Look in the homeschooling blog this week and next, for more on what the research actually says about learning a foreign language, my personal list of grade appropriate objectives when teaching a foreign language, tips on teaching a foreign language, and my picks for curriculums and resources on teaching a foreign language. If you have a question about teaching a foreign language in your homeschool that you want to make sure I address, leave it below or PM me.