My DS will have been in a Dual Language Immersion program from 1st-9th grade. The school district states that the students will be prepared to take the AP exam for this language in 9th grade (which is what we expected and planned from the beginning).
Now here is my question, do any of you have children who have been in a Dual Language Immersion program from Elementary school on that then had trouble fulfilling the “2 consecutive years of a Foreign Language” during your 9th -12th grade years requirement for most Colleges and Universities?
In addition our State has a scholarship that you can receive with certain grades and having the same “2 consecutive years of a Foreign Language” during 9th-12th grade. Our district DLI representative stated that they have no knowledge of how taking the AP exam in 9th grade will effect these students (there is only one group of students in the district that has been doing DLI longer, so there’s really no precedence or anyone in our area to speak to about this) when it comes to College applications or the State’s scholarship.
Do any of you have experience with similar situations? Did you just hold your child back and make them take two full years of their language, then the AP exam in 10th grade?
The consensus seems to be that, for college admissions, language classes are counted by language level (Spanish 1, French 2 etc) and not by grade level (freshman, sophomore etc). This would mean that if someone is at an AP level, that would count as more than 2 years of the language, regardless of his/her grade level. I’m not sure about the scholarship, but if your kid is really at the AP level, it would make more sense to start a new language in high school rather than be held back.
Just out of curiosity, what is the state and language?
If the student takes foreign language in school to AP level (generally seen as 4+) or higher in 9th grade and additionally scores a 5 on the AP exam, it is hard to see how a college would not see it as fulfilling a foreign language entrance requirement or recommendation. But you can ask the state universities and scholarship office directly to get the answer for that specific scholarship.
If the scholarship does want two years in high school despite completing AP level or higher in 9th grade, then another option if there are no even more advanced courses available in that language is to take two years of a different foreign language in addition.
Our school offers advanced levels in several languages post AP level. For Spanish after AP Spanish Language IV there is AP Spanish Literature V. For German, French, Chinese and Latin they offer post AP level 5/6 classes.
@3scoutsmom’s post is what I would investigate. Goodness, AP level language achievement is far from C/advanced levels of proficiency. There is plenty of opportunity to continue to improve the language skills in thenlanguages already being studied without thinking that those are checked off and the student should automatically move onto another language.
Literature, current events, cultural/composition classes all in the those languages would be logical progressions in language studies.
My klid didn’t attend a dual language immersion program but I am an educated native speaker of Spanish. We followed the one parent one language method from birth. What we did with our oldest in 8th grade was to have her take a test for Spanish placement.
Our district routinely places the local Spanish Dual Language Immersion graduates in Spanish 5. That’s where she placed. She then did Spanish 5, 7 and 8 in 9th grade (trimester system) followed by AP Spanish in 10th. Personally, I prefer to wait until 10th grade at least, not because of the language level, but because of student maturity. The AP exam is geared towards older high school students, they will be exposed to all kinds of themes and content, and younger students will be at a disadvantage in this respect. This way, your kid has two years of Spanish. If your kid loves languages and literature, and your school offers the AP Literature exam, then you can still take it in 11th grade.
Your DS should definitely take the AP exam in 9th grade. I would expect it would count towards foreign language requirements for colleges. Your DS can also consider starting to study another language in high school. This is what my DD did. She took a foreign language AP in 9th grade for language #2, the same year she started studying language #3. She went on to take the AP in language #3 as well.
My S, like My3Kiddos’ D, took advantage of acceleration to study 2 foreign languages in HS.
He took 8th grade French in 7th grade, French 2 at the HS in 8th grade, and finished AP French in jr year of HS. He also did AP French Lit as an independent study jr/sr year. He started Spanish as his second foreign language freshman yr of HS, with Spanish 2, having done some studying independently over the summer and testing out of Spanish 1. (This plan was put together by the FL Depts of the JHS and HS, who were very supportive and flexible. The schools were adjacent which made it feasible for JHS students to take the odd class at the HS.) He took AP Spanish sr year of HS. He took the AP exams in all three. (IIRC the ETS may have stopped offering the AP French Lit exam.)
If your D likes languages, I would suggest that she start another one in HS. I’m told that French to Spanish is easier than Spanish to French, at least partially because of pronunciation issues, but Italian would probably be easy. It depends what your HS offers. I think S would have started German had it been offered, because of his interest in philosophy, or maybe Russian, since he loved Russian lit, but the only offerings were French, Spanish, and Latin.
I should clarify, S was not in a language immersion program. We arranged for a friend of mine to teach a small group of kids on a weekly basis for a couple of years, because we felt that foreign language should be started as early as possible and our school system didn’t offer it.
I don’t have anything to contribute in terms of the AP question but am reading as I find the subject of foreign language study in the US very interesting. I would agree with those who suggest either furthering your ds’s study of his second language or adding a new one. In Europe, most of the kids are at least bilingual if not multilingual. For example, my 7th grader currently has classes in school in French (native level), English (native level), German (around B1 level) and Latin. My high schooler is fully trilingual (also had the Latin in middle school but gave it up as her HS didn’t offer it). There’s no reason at all to remain limited to the study of only one foreign language. I can say with confidence that there is very little confusion – besides the occasional, “What’s a skillet?” and me having to say it in French.
I agree that the AP level of a language is far from fluent, it’s about the equivalent of a one year college class. I’d take it now. AP language exams don’t require maturity or experience the way (perhaps) AP English or History ones do. I think that continuing another year or two of the language or starting a new language are both very viable options, but many colleges will look at the AP as fulfilling their foreign language expectations for acceptance.
Except for the fact that most HSs in the US make it difficult to do any meaningful study of a second foreign language due to graduation requirements. Few freshman and sophomores have room for electives, and 2 years of foreign language study when starting the second FL as a junior results in little more than the student being able to ask where the bathroom is.
Thank for all the responses so far! You have each given me a lot to think about!
I was unsure how having just the AP class and exam his freshman year would look to prospective schools… it seems the consensus is that they will see it as a fulfillment of their “Foreign Language Requirement”. That is good to know. I would prefer for him to take the AP class in 9th, rather than prolonging it until 10th grade. I wish there were further classes on literature and culture for his language, but sadly, he is learning Chinese and I’ve yet to see a school in our area offer such options in the High Schools… only at a College level.
I’ve considered going the third language route as well… I think that would have to be his own decision!! It’s not as easy going from English to Chinese to say, Spanish!!! It’s not quite the same as moving from French to Spanish or Spanish to Portuguese!
Kids are sponges, Inkmom. Most of the kids at our local public HS speak Turkish at home, German at school, and then have to take a third language – generally English. Many kids have Arabic as well. Turkish or Arabic to German doesn’t sound very easy! My 12 year-old finds German quite a struggle (even as a native French speak, so with some built-in notion of gender and verbs) but she still does decently well in it. She sounds native to my ear! I’m just trying to reassure you that kids can transition quite easily among different languages without much confusion.
I agree with PP that stated that US schools hinder further growth to some degree. They want kids to pick one language in 8th (possibly 7th) grade and stick to it. They structure the HS classes so that starting in 8th you will be with that same language through your Sr year, and prospectively take the AP exam.
I’m grateful my son has had to opportunity to learn his second language from 1st grade! I do wish there were other classes that could enhance his second language (cultural history, lit, etc) with out having to take college courses as a Sophomore!
I think we can agree that the level of an AP exam will depend on the college, but even the completion of a standard 4th level class at any US college, without a living abroad component, is still far from fluent.
I don’t agree a 9th grade AP test after an immersion experience is necessarily enough. If all the top colleges wanted to know was that a kid could speak, read, and write, all the kids in the US with parents who taught them their heritage language would be set, eh? And we know they aren’t.
And part of what top adcoms want via 4 class years is the presumed experiences with higher lit, cultural and political awareness, and more. Did your child get this and is the level and extent through 8th or 9th sufficient?
I am quite confident that S was well beyond the first year of college French when he graduated from HS with 5s in both AP French and AP French Lit. Was he “fluent”? I guess it depends what you mean by that. I think that now, having studied in France for over a year, he is.
Apparently the DI program in high schools here will offer 3000 (? is that right, that is a quote from a parent) level spanish classes for the kids post the AP test (theoretically the end of 9th grade). It isn’t actually assumed though, that these DI kids will achieve AP in 9th, maybe it will be 10th for some.
I can say with confidence that there is very little confusion – besides the occasional, “What’s a skillet?” and me having to say it in French.