Languages - help please. Long - sorry!

[katelyle]

My neice is half Spanish. She went to school near Barcelona until she was 9, which meant she was educated in Catalan, and had a bilingual home. Theoretically, at home her father (my db) spoke to her in English and sil in Spanish. Actually, because db is bilingual and sil isn't, they spoke Spanish at home. 2 years ago, they moved to England, and dn went into year 4. She did very well, and has passed the 11&divid; and is going to a very hih achieving grammar school in Spetember. Her English is now very good, but by no means perfect, and her Spanish, although godd is also not perfect. Her new school teaches two languages from year 7, and adds Latin in year 8. Db and sil wanted her to have Spanish as one of her language choices and hoped to work with the school to bring her Spanish on, so that it develops as her English does. The school has said a flat "no" . SHe has to take French and German. She will be dealing with 5 "language codes" - 6 when Latin is added, and she is not being given an opportunity to work on her Spanish, which is, after all, her mother's language, and half her heritage.

If you've got this far, thank you!. Do people think the school is doing the right thing, and has anybody any ideas about a good way forward here?

Does the school actually offer Spanish?

tbh I don't think that learning Spanish at school with other pupils who have no prior knowledge of the language would be helpful for your niece. It would probably be far too basic for her! Think learning colours/ "I have a dog/cat/rabbit" that sort of thing for a good while. And they probably wouldn't have the staff to do any one-to-one with her.

I would look into local colleges, poss. find something there to bring her Spanish on?

Yes it does. The year 7s choose one language from French, German or Spanish, and are allocated a second. Do you think that another two languages at a time when she isn't perfect in any one - she effectively has no mother tongue -is a bit much for her to cope with?

Does the school teach Spanish? This could just be an issue of them not having a Spanish class for her to go into. They might also be worried that her Spanish would be so much better than the other kids in the class (from what you say, she still speaks predominantly Spanish at home - or does she speak Catalan at home?) that the classes will be too easy for her, and she'll just get bored. Learning Spanish in a class of kids who've never heard a word of Spanish before is not going to 'bring on' your dn's Spanish. In the worst case scenario it will do exactly the opposite.

AFAIK (I'm a language teacher, but not an expert in these sorts of issues around bilingualism, etc.) once you've learnt one language it's much easier to learn more, so your dn may well find it very easy to pick up French and German at this stage. She is not going to get confused with her two 'native' languages, since the level of French/German she'll be attaining, to start with at least, will be so far below the level she has already in Spanish and English. IME (from having learnt Italian ab initio at university, after having done French to A'level) language confusion only comes in when the two languages reach a similar level.

TBH, I'd see this as a really +ve thing. Your dn will have four modern foreign languages (two 'native' and two learnt at school) plus Latin which will help with ALL the others (and shouldn't be more confusing, since it's purely a written language, and also because - unless I am very much mistaken - no-one translates into Latin any more, so it would be based around comprehension skills rather than active production of the language). Lucky her!

I think that your db and sil should continue to work on your dn's Spanish at home (by speaking it to her as they have been doing) and should keep this separate from the 'new' languages which she'll learn at school. She sounds as if she's a bright little thing; I'm sure she'll cope!

Considering the beginnings of language learning are very basic, she should be okay considering she is bright.

But I would urge your SIL to make a major push to promote her Spanish, via books/DVD's, by talking to her in Spanish all the time, and by looking at what local colleges have to offer.

Sorry - I was slow and x-posted with emkana. Your dn's English must be good or she wouldn't have got into the grammar school (from your op, it sounds like it's selective). It doesn't sound so much to me as if she has no native language; it sounds as if she has two. (Most children who are bilingual favour one language over the other; it doesn't mean that they are not capable of using the other.)

I think the school is being unreasonable if they offer Spanish. At our school, children who are native or near-native French or German speakers are allowed to choose whether they take that language (and therefore have an 'easy' subject) or choose the other from scratch like everyone else then take the GCSE in their native language a year or two early just as an 'extra'.