Teaching Foreign Language to Gifted Students

All research points to the virtues of beginning foreign language early in life—as early as preschool. Both parents and teachers appreciate ways to enrich foreign language instruction for their students who are gifted in this area.

As we become more and more global-centric, multilingual skills become increasingly important. We need to move beyond learning just one foreign language to being comfortable speaking several languages.

The following are helpful resources for teaching or learning a foreign language.

Language Camps for Youngsters 

Here you will find an extensive list of language camps for students of all ages.

World Language Classroom Resources 

There are lots of enrichment activities at this website, especially for French and Spanish. 

Learn a Language 

At this site you will find words, phrases, verbs, information on culture, etc. for Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Chinese, and Russian.

If you do an Internet search on “Foreign Language Online,” or “Foreign Language Enrichment,” you will find many more free resources for learning languages.

Learn a Foreign Language over the Internet

Individualized learning can help a person of any age move through a subject at his or her own pace. This can be accomplished through private lessons, a mentor, or using the Internet.

There are some excellent free Internet resources for learning foreign languages.

• LiveMocha—Livemocha fuses traditional learning methods with online practice and interaction with native language speakers from around the world. It aims to create conversational fluency. Since launching in 2007, the Livemocha community has grown to over 12 million members from over 195 countries. The site offers both free and pay-for activities. There is plenty available in the free section to make a good start. In addition to the more common languages that are offered, one can also take Arabic, Bulgarian, Hindi, and Indonesian to name just a few.
• Radio Lingua Network—These courses are mostly audio-based, so you can download the lessons and listen on your iPod. French and Spanish are the staple courses of Radio Lingua with free audio and written materials. (You can pay for even more materials.) In addition to French and Spanish, there are courses available that are not as in-depth. These courses are available in 24 different languages, from Catalan to Zulu and Polish to Portuguese.

At least for some subjects, individualized instruction may be the best way to learn. Remember that there are options outside the school setting to learn at one’s own pace.

Language Immersion Programs

“Our son had the most incredible experience last summer,” one parent told me. (He was a bright kid, but hadn’t done well in his French class the last year.) “We decided to enroll him at a language immersion camp at Concordia College in MN. The entire time he was there, nothing was spoken except French. All possible ways of communicating in any other fashion were taken away, including cell phones and computers.” She said he absolutely loved the experience.

The Concordia Language Villages are located in Minnesota. At the villages, 15 languages (including Chinese, Finnish, Arabic, Korean, and Russian) and have sessions ranging from 1-4 weeks for students 7-18 years of age. All levels from beginner through advanced are welcome.

Day camps are available at several locations for children ages 4 through grade 6 with a selection of eight different languages.

Concordia also has an immersion program for children from countries around the world who want to learn English. That program is held in Portland, Maine.

In addition, there are programs for families and for adults.

Scholarships are available.