Learning a Second Language

This page outlines the options available for students who are interested in learning 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 a second language through Foundations or Virtual Worlds (or Individualized, possibly) in Grades 5-9. A student coming into Grade 10 with no background in learning a second language would not be ready for the 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. Second Language courses in Grade 10 covers two units (and slightly fewer requirements), while Grade 11 and 12 course offerings cover four units.

Rosetta Stone Advantage (no longer available after June 2020)

This program is designed to begin in Grade 9 or 10 and continues through to 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 Grade 12 level very quickly, which makes for 3 rather lengthy courses that move through a lot of material quickly. The Grade 11 courses 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 the Introductory courses in grade 11 and catch up to the standard Second Language 11 courses within 3-12 months (depending on the student). At that point, they would have the option to continue with Advantage, or switch into Foundations if they prefer.

Individualized

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 another native-speaking (Spanish-Speaking, French-speaking, etc.) country or community
Students who are participating in a conversation class or learning group in their area
Students who speak at 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 another 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.