Learning a Second Language

This page outlines the options available for students who are interested in learning spanish as a second language.

Rosetta Stone Foundations

​This course begins at Grade 5 and continues through Grade 12. It is ideal for students who have already been taking Spanisha (orsecond other)language through Foundations or Virtual Worlds (or Individualized, possibly) in Grades 5-9. A student coming into Grade 10 with no background in Spanishlearning a second language would not be ready for Spanishthe course offerings in Grade 10. 

This course is highly recommended. The lessons are separated into shorter lessons (5-30mins max), each focusing on a different topic (Core Lesson, Grammar, Listening, Writing, Pronunciation, etc.). The lessons seem to include more instruction than other programs, and are very foundational. This course also includes live tutoring sessions with Rosetta Stone's native language tutors, games & activities for practice, 3 meetings per course with their online teacher for assessment and instruction, and a handful of cultural projects. SpanishSecond Language courses in Grade 10 covers two units (and slightly fewer requirements), while SpanishGrade 11 and Spanish 12 eachcourse offerings cover four units.

Rosetta Stone Advantage

This program is designed to begin in Grade 9 or 10 and continues through Spanishto Grade 12. It was originally designed for the business community, and the lessons are much longer (grammar, pronunciation, listening, writing, etc. are all combined into one large lesson) and more challenging. There also are no live tutoring sessions or games & activities, although they will still have 2 meetings with the online teacher, as well as a few projects, and 3 quizzes/tests that they take at home with adult supervision.

Because the program starts at Grade 10, it must catch up to the SpanishGrade 12 level very quickly, which makes for 3 rather lengthy courses that move through a lot of material quickly. The SpanishGrade 11 coursecourses ends up being particularly lengthy, due to the way the units are distributed. The one advantage to this program and the reason we continue to use it so often (particularly with our BCOS students), is that a student can come in as a grad student with no prior experience in the language and enroll in Introthe SpanishIntroductory courses in grade 11 (BSP11) and catch up to the standard SpanishSecond Language 11 coursecourses within 3-12 months (depending on the student). At that point, they would have the option to continue with Advantage for Spanish 11,Advantage, or switch into Foundations Spanish 11 if they prefer.

Individualized SpanishIndividualized 

This course works for any level of language ability. For this course, the teacher meets with the family over video chat to create an SLP and they typically turn in learning portfolios at each progress reporting interval. While students must meet content standards for the BC curriculum, families are allowed tremendous flexibility to use whichever curriculum or programs they prefer and there is more flexibility with cultural projects as well.

This course is ideal for:

• Students who work well independently or have a private tutor
• Students who live in aanother Spanish-native-speaking (Spanish-Speaking, French-speaking, etc.) country or community
• Students who are participating in a Spanish conversation class or learning group in their area
• Students who speak Spanish in theat home, but want to focus more on reading/writing/grammar
• Students who have access to community/family/external resources in the target language
• Students who have a very specific reason for wanting to learn the language (going into a public services field, preparing for missions in a Spanish-speakinganother country, etc.) ​

If you have any questions, you can contact Erin Bowman (Online), or Carrie Despres (Foundations) or Lesley Schrottner (Advantage) or Catherine Lisimaque (Individualized) for more information.