4Real Forums: foreign language & grammar

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Topic: foreign language & grammar

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LLMom
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 7:00pm \| IP Logged

I wasn't sure where to post this, but I am wondering if students who don't do much formal English grammar if they struggle when they get to foreign language. My dd is taking Latin and it is killing her. She thinks its because she hasn't done much formal English grammar. They go through some of the parts of speech so fast, expecting them to know those terms and diagram, of which she hasn't done much. But many people, (Bravewriter, LCC) stress that English grammar is best learned in the context of a foreign language. What are your experiences and thoughts?

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Willa
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 8:12pm \| IP Logged

LLMom wrote:

But many people, (Bravewriter, LCC) stress that English grammar is best learned in the context of a foreign language. What are your experiences and thoughts?

That's what I think. My kids haven't really retained a whole lot of English grammar. We did various exercises through their elementary years -- they did fine with the exercises but it just slipped right back out of their heads.

When we got to where we were using grammar terms for writing and for Latin, though, it made more sense and stayed in their minds better.

I know that many Latin books do assume a good working knowledge of grammar. I try to give them some exposure to easy Latin correlated with grammar during the middle years so they don't have to start high school Latin from scratch.

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hereinantwerp
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Posted: June 03 2008 at 11:37am \| IP Logged

From our experience, we lived in Belgium and took classes in Dutch/Flemish. It was very expected that one would know much more formal grammar than we dumb Americans knew!! The entire course was taught using grammar terms, and we struggled--my husband was simply lost. I think the grammar terms do give a "common point of reference" as to how one language corresponds to another. We did feel frustrated in learning a new language because of our lack of basic grammar. Most of the other students (mostly from the EU) already knew several languages, often had taken years of Latin, and certainly had a better foundation than we did.

But I also think Latin is a great way to TEACH English grammar, as the connections are more clear. I am not familiar with high school level latin, we used Latina Christiana and I thought it explained grammar pretty well. Maybe you could supplement with an "upper elementary" type of resource? I also remember printing out a really clear guide via the internet which explained Latin grammar quite clearly (again, my own lack of grammar hanging me up in being able to explain things to my son). This was several years ago, and I do not still have it, I remember it was from some university, but maybe you could search on the net for some supplementary explanation/resources for your daughter.

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SallyT
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Posted: June 09 2008 at 11:52am \| IP Logged

I find that Latin is a great grammar teacher, too. My teenager and her co-op classmates floundered a little along the way in Henle Latin I (with a parish priest teaching the class), but I found that the terms made much more sense when grounded in Latin syntax.

I do parts of speech and basic grammar using Minimus with my younger ones (chiefly my 10yo) -- those things are explicitly covered right in the text, and somehow the lessons are more fun when you're "playing" in Latin.

Sally

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