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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Lane3 who wrote (105046)2/26/2009 6:12:07 PM
From: epicure  Read Replies (1) of 542685
 
"I never said you can learn a language from a dictionary"

" I continue to have trouble associating that with AP Spanish classes. Spanish speaking kids who are smart enough to take AP classes in any subject will be literate in Spanish. It is a phonetic language. If you can speak it and have half a brain and a dictionary, you can read and write it."

That sure looks like you are saying you can learn it with a dictionary, and half a brain. You are saying if you can speak it, you can learn the reading and writing part with a dictionary. Maybe you didn't mean that, but you sure as heck said it. It's quite possible to be able to speak Spanish but not understand Spanish grammar OR English grammar (or basically any grammar) well enough to really understand the language from a technical (academic) prespective- which is why there is a difference between speaking vocabulary, and an academic knowledge of a language. The reason students need teachers is to gain an academic, as opposed to a conversational knowledge, of a language. That's why all language classes (inlcuding English) teach grammar. It's really not something most people pick up from a dictionary.

And no, you cannot assume that Spanish kids who are "smart enough" to take Spanish AP will be literate in Spanish to the degree that they understand already what would be taught in AP Spanish. Just as English speakers do not understand (already) what would be taught in AP English. They don't. Not even when they have a whole brain and a dictionary.
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