Second Language (french)

You will find articles in the LD IN DEPTH section which explain why students with LD’s have trouble with Foreign Languages.

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/foreign_lang/index.html

I’ve heard that Spanish can be easier to learn for kids with language-based LDs. My seventh grade gt/ld/adhd son is studying Latin this year and doing quite well, I guess because of its strong connection to English.

Andrea

My LD 7th grader is enjoying and doing OK in Spanish…it is very phonetic, and taught on a conversational basis; lots of fill-in-the blank sheets, from word-banks, just what he needs. Can your child switch languages?

Helen, thanks for the heads up, I reviewed most of those articles…still looking for more though.

SARS, wish we could have an alternative second language but we moved to Quebec 2 years ago, where French is the first language and to graduate from high school every student has to pass a provincial exam.

Like the others, I’m partial to spanish. Being ld/dyslexic, I have also become quite fluent in spanish after many years working with hispanics.

I think the best bet is immersion for your child. Try to find ways to get your child in situations where he/she will be forced to speak/read french, without much chance for falling back to english. With some encouragement and an enviroment that somewhat forces the language, your child may be able to assimilate enough to have it make sense. Lots of different ideas come to mind… weekends with a family that only speaks french around the house. Listen to french radio stations, start trying to read the french newspapers… mostly go after the the maximum amount of immersion possible for best results. I’m kind of guessing here, but I think it works.

Good luck.

Andy

JJoane and/or Guest — where are you? I am in the Montreal area (West Island/Dorion) and French is one of the subjects that I tutor.

Andy is right in general terms that immersion is a good thing; however, when a kid is over five or six years of age and is already literate in English and is being asked to do a lot in the second language, there is a big step up *before* the immersion can be useful. You can’t get much out of listening to the news when you don’t know the words for yesterday or rain or car yet. A beginner can get a lot out of kids’ shows on the order of Sesame Street, if they have the patience to put up with it.

There’s a lot of stuff out there about how hard a second language is and why it is hard. OK, it can be hard. So, when we meet a hard job, do we fold up and quit or do we try to find a way to do it? I’m of the school of thought that tries to find a way. Yes, there are sometimes insurmountable obstacles, but you’ll never kinow which ones you *can* overcome if you start by assuming failure.

Email me at
[email protected]
(and since the system is undependable, please try again if no response in a few days).
I might be able to tutor, I might be able to direct you to other tutors, and I can certainly direct you to good materials that I have found valuable.

Thanks Victoria, but I already have an excellent tutor who teaches French using a phonetic awareness approach. :) We also encourage our daughter to watch French TV, read French books, listen to French radio stations.

I was looking more for concise articles to hand over to her school so that they will be mroe sympathetic to her needs. :roll: Did find one on this site, hoefully it will do the trick.

Thanks to Everyone who took the time to answer. :D