foreign languages and dyslexia

Hello BL,

I am facing this in two more years.
I think I’ll start by making an appointment with
the counselor. We have one counselor that is supposed
to be up to date and sped issues (that’s the rumor…..)

If he/she doesn’t know then work your way through
the system to the college’s (if you know which one, or
pick one of the state universities) learning disability
department and find out what they have to say.

One of our dyslexic friends is planning on attending our
local community college and taking her foreign language
there. Tutoring seems to be much easier to obtain in
college than in elementary-secondary school.

In our state I’ve heard that sign language is an option and
is available at the community college.

Let us know what you find out and what state you are in.

Anne

There’s a book called K&W Guide To College for Students with Learning Differences. I don’t think every college requires a foreign language. You’d probably find the names of quite a few that don’t require foreign languages in the K&W Guide.

My 17yr old also with dyslexia, has been taking sign language for his foreign language. He had a hard time with spanish, but has an A in sign language. Sign language is accepted at colleges for a foreign language.

My son is 14 years old and is dyslexic and is currently in the 7th grade. I spoke to the counselor at the high school and she told me that with proper documentation he would not be required to take a foreign language. Instead he could take classes such as music and art appreciation. I called the university in our town regarding getting into college without having taken a foreign language.
Again with proper documentation, he would not have to take a foreign language however they would require them to take classes, regarding a specific country. I found this very useful in planning his coursework when he gets to highschool in 9th grade.

There is a foreign language summer camp (Concordia Language Villages) where you can get a year’s worth of language credit in a month. More interactive and participatory than written. Immersion in the culture. Lots of languages to choose from. My son did well there and learned a lot (Swedish.) Not cheap, but another option.

We opted for Latin at private HS (BAD choice– too much memorization. What is keeping at a D instead of failing is that he has an excellent vocabulary in English which helps him w/ Latin vocab.

If he goes to public HS next year, he must take a language every year. Should be interesting….

Lisa

Hi, Have you looked at Rosetta Stone Japanese??? CD avail from Amazon.com for about $12.00. It has samples of all kinds of languages on it including Latin. The method is to see pics-photos- hear word pronounced then in context. I don’t like that there is no text or manual to go with but I think good support if taking class. Also if you have option you might consider Japanese. The first Japanese writing system for sounds is easy to learn (Hiragana, katakana) It’s a drawn symbol for each phoneme. which I can’t reproduce here but only one or two pen strokes and the sounds are sets as follow. EX: Sa shi su se so, ka ki ku ke ko, ma mi mu me mo etc. This is why japanese can’t pronounce r there is no ra ri re ro as we pronounce it and closest is la li le lo. It is actuallypretty easy to learn orally- in fact almot necessary since the written language of kanji (chinese characters) is beyond most teachers. It is possible to get to speaking level pretty quickly,difficulty is when you get to the way you’re supposed to talk to an inferior rather than a superior and vice versa that it getscomplex. It’s also a very feminine intuitive language-you “feel” what the other person means rather than having it spelled out exactly which drives Americans (esp men I’ve seen ) a little crazy, but which my sensitive dyslexic son is actually pretty good at. Swedish and Japanese would be an awesome combi.

This company has CD rom courses available in both languages—clearly different from what you bought from Amazon—the courses cost around $250. I’ve seen these highly praised on the homeschool boards, and they offer a free demo CD. You can check it out at www.rosettastone.com

Our county school system just approved american sign language to meet the high school language requirement!

My son has some LD and a high frequency hearing loss. He wears hearing aides. This option is going to be terrific for him. However a student does not have to be hearing impaired to choose ASL as their foreign language choice.

I know of at least one other school system in our area which includes ASL in foreign language choices.

If your school system doesn’t, this might be a great choice to lobby for.

Linda

The japanese Cd is a full course in beginning Japanese. And included on the CD are the samples of the other languages. I suggested it because the high price of the other courses are off-putting and they are to a level not neccessary for secondary ed unless you plan to continue and work abroad someday. Also I don’t think enough information provided to be adequate by themselves, but good for supplement for secondary or beginning for elementary. Amazon reviews on these courses indicate others found them not adequate on their own- not enough infoto teach or learn. Just a consumers perspective.

I think you meant to respond to my post. I suggested japanese CD because if interested in japanese it has full beginning course and beginning courses in a no. of other languages aswell-including latin. These are better than the free sample and adequate enough to supplement a high school course. The Rosetta Stone courses are not enough to teach or learn from on their own. (I think they can provide the missing link for a secondary level course or be a good beginning for elementary level.) The Amazon reviews agreewith this so I would advise caution before investing more than $12.00. Aconsumers perspective. My main point was to look at japanese as a foreign language possibility. I took it for my last minute college requirement and it provided a lot more credits in 3 semesters (20) than say Spanish, but was a good deal easier to pass…
I’m going to be experimenting on my son who has added incentive of having a Japanese Karate sensei, and a japanese speaking Dad.