I work in an international school. The language of instruction is English, but students study Mandarin. I have a student who is orally fluent in Danish, Swedish and English but who cannot read or write at age level in any language. He is about 12 years old, in secondary school and has no diagnosis of a LD. My question is - is it okay for him to study Mandarin? He is a beginner and is struggling. The alternative is to have classes with the special needs/resource teacher to work on English reading and writing skills. What does anyone think?
Thanks!
learning a second or third language
I would recommend going to the intervention specialist to see if he or she has any input. What is the student’s native language? Did the student have any prior consistent instruction in reading and writing? Or has the child been taught in so many languages that they have not had the opportunity to read and write one language? If they have had the opportunity, but still have not learned, then they might have a learning disability. The intervention specialist should be able to help you sort out these questions.
This suggests that he may be Dyslexic?
Though special needs classes probably wont help much unless he has a diagnosis of precisely what difficulty he has? So that this can be specifically addressed.
Yet he might find Mandarin easier, as it is a Pictographic rather than Phonetic language.