My Child Is Struggling in Spanish. Should They Drop It?

“My child says they’re bad at Spanish.”

“I don’t think she understands anything anymore.”

“He wants to drop the class.”

I’ve heard versions of these statements many times over my 24+ years teaching Spanish.

And my first response is usually the same:

Before you decide whether your child should drop Spanish, find out what the actual problem is.

Struggling in a Spanish class does not automatically mean a student is bad at languages. In fact, in my experience, that is almost never the real explanation.

Usually, something else is going on.

The student may have gaps from a previous course. The teaching style and the student may not be a good fit. The student may be overwhelmed by workload and time management. Or a student who earned an A in the previous course may have discovered that their actual Spanish proficiency is not where it needs to be for the next level.

Those are very different problems. And they require very different solutions.

First: Don’t Wait

One of the biggest mistakes a parent can make is waiting to see whether the problem fixes itself.

Spanish builds on itself.

If a student is missing foundational vocabulary, cannot comfortably use common verb forms, or has difficulty understanding spoken Spanish, those gaps do not disappear when the class moves on to the next unit.

They usually get larger.

The longer that continues, the more likely the student is to feel lost. Then frustration can turn into avoidance. Avoidance can turn into apathy. Eventually, a student who once said, “I don’t understand Spanish,” starts saying, “I hate Spanish.”

That is much harder to undo.

At the first sign that something is not going well, contact the teacher. Ask what the teacher is seeing in class and where they think the difficulty is coming from.

Your child’s self-assessment matters, too. But a student saying, “I don’t get anything,” does not necessarily tell us what they actually don’t understand.

We need to diagnose the problem before deciding what to do about it.

Is It a Skill Gap?

This is one of the most common problems I see.

A student may understand what the teacher is explaining during class but struggle to apply it independently later.

The new material itself may not actually be the problem.

Instead, the new material may be exposing something the student never fully learned before.

Vocabulary is a common example. A student may have successfully completed Spanish 1 or Spanish 2 but cannot communicate about topics they supposedly studied the previous year. They might recognize vocabulary on a quiz but struggle to retrieve those words when they actually need to speak or write.

The same thing can happen with grammar and sentence formation.

Students may have learned a rule well enough to complete a worksheet or pass a unit test without ever becoming comfortable using that structure to communicate.

Then the next course assumes that skill is already there.

Now we have a gap.

One encouraging sign: targeted help works.

When a student has a manageable skill deficit, a good explanation and focused practice can make an enormous difference.

Sometimes a concept simply needs to be explained differently.

I have worked with many students who started a class convinced that they were “not good at languages.” Once we identified what was missing and addressed it directly, they started communicating.

That is why I am very reluctant to accept “I’m just bad at Spanish” as an explanation.

There is usually something underneath it.

Or Is It a Teacher-Student Fit Issue?

Sometimes the student’s Spanish ability is not the primary problem.

The student may repeatedly say things like:

• “I don’t understand what she wants.”

• “I don’t know what he expects.”

• “No matter what I do, it’s wrong.”

Another sign can be a relationship between the teacher and student that has deteriorated to the point that useful feedback is no longer being received as useful feedback.

The teacher may be giving legitimate, constructive advice, but the student now experiences everything as criticism.

Then disengagement begins.

“I hate this class.”

“I don’t understand anything.”

“I’m just bad at Spanish.”

That does not automatically mean the teacher is doing something wrong. I would not recommend immediately blaming a teacher when a student is struggling. Most good teachers want their students to succeed and will do what they can to help.

But students have different learning preferences, and teachers have different instructional styles.

Sometimes another person can explain the exact same concept differently, and suddenly it makes sense.

If the problems begin to resolve themselves when the student works with another teacher, coach, or knowledgeable peer, that tells us something important.

The student may not need to drop Spanish.

They may need another way into the material.

Or Is It Workload and Time Management?

This tends to look different.

The biggest clue is inconsistency.

One week, everything seems fine.

The next week, the student is overwhelmed.

Then things improve again.

Look at what else is happening.

Did soccer season start? Is there rehearsal every night? Are several AP or IB classes giving major assignments at the same time? Is the student spending too much time on video games or other distractions? Are assignments being completed at the last minute?

You may start seeing missing work, avoided studying, or assignments that the student simply does not get to.

A true skill deficit usually compounds over time. The student gets progressively further behind because the next skill depends on the one they did not master.

A workload problem is often more erratic.

If Spanish performance rises and falls according to how busy the student’s week is, that is an important clue.

In that situation, dropping Spanish may solve the immediate scheduling problem, but it does not necessarily address the larger issue.

Don’t Confuse a Grade With Spanish Proficiency

This is especially important when students move into Honors, AP, or IB Spanish.

An A in the previous Spanish course does not necessarily tell me what a student can actually do with Spanish.

Many language classes assess relatively small chunks of content.

A student learns the vocabulary for the current unit. They study the grammar rule. They take the test.

And some students are extremely good at this.

They know how to play the game of school.

They complete the assignments. They memorize what they need for the test. They earn excellent grades.

But what happens when they have to use Spanish spontaneously?

Can they maintain a conversation?

Can they describe something that happened without having the vocabulary list in front of them?

Can they understand a Spanish speaker?

Can they read an unfamiliar text and figure out what is happening?

Can they communicate when there is no fill-in-the-blank exercise telling them exactly which grammar structure to use?

Those questions tell me much more about readiness than a previous grade alone.

This Matters Even More in Honors, AP, and IB Spanish

Advanced language courses require more from students.

The cognitive demand is higher, and students are generally expected to use the language much more authentically.

They are not simply demonstrating that they remember the vocabulary from Tuesday.

They have to interpret Spanish, communicate with other people, organize ideas, write for different purposes, and increasingly operate in Spanish without having every piece of language supplied for them.

That can be a shock for a student who earned an A in a previous course that was heavily focused on isolated vocabulary or grammar exercises.

It does not mean the student is incapable.

It may mean that the student’s proficiency level is not yet aligned with the demands of the course.

That is a much more useful conclusion than “I’m bad at Spanish.”

When Should You Seriously Consider Dropping?

There are situations when dropping the course may be the right decision.

I would start considering it seriously when the struggle in Spanish is beginning to damage the student’s success elsewhere.

Maybe the student is spending so much time trying to survive Spanish that grades in other courses are falling.

Maybe the skill deficits are so significant that, even with targeted help, the student is making very little progress and continues to fall further behind.

Maybe the stress surrounding one course has become disproportionate and is affecting the student’s overall well-being.

At that point, continuing simply because “you shouldn’t quit” is not necessarily the best decision.

The student’s complete academic picture matters.

So does the student.

And dropping a course does not have to mean giving up on language learning altogether.

A student might restart Spanish later. They might take a different language the following year. They might discover another language or cultural area that motivates them more.

Language learning has value far beyond earning another high school credit. It gives students opportunities to communicate with people they otherwise could not, encounter different perspectives, and understand cultures beyond their own.

But those benefits are not served by leaving a student feeling completely defeated.

Before Dropping, Do These Things

First, contact the teacher.

Do it early.

Ask what the teacher thinks is happening. Ask where the student’s weaknesses are. Ask what the student can do differently before the next assessment.

Second, look beyond the grade.

Find out what your child can actually do with Spanish.

Third, get an outside perspective if necessary.

A proficiency-based assessment can help determine whether the student has a few fixable gaps or whether their current proficiency level is significantly below what the course demands.

Finally, look at how the student is studying.

Completing homework is not the same as developing language proficiency.

Students need to use Spanish.

That could mean listening to Spanish-language music, watching appropriate videos, listening to podcasts, reading, or finding other ways to interact with language outside the specific worksheet or assignment due tomorrow.

More study time is not always the answer.

Better language use is.

If Your Child Is Asking to Drop Spanish Tomorrow

Don’t make the decision based only on tonight’s frustration.

Contact the teacher immediately and ask what they are seeing.

Then get a clearer picture of the student’s actual Spanish proficiency and whether there are identifiable gaps that can be addressed.

Because in my experience, when students tell me, “I’m just not good at languages,” we can usually prove them wrong.

Not Sure Where Your Child Actually Stands?

I offer a free Spanish Readiness Check designed to help parents get a clearer picture of their child’s current Spanish proficiency.

You and your student complete a short form and provide a language sample. I review it to look for proficiency strengths, gaps, and potential readiness issues.

Then we meet for a free 15-minute Zoom conversation to discuss what I see, where your student appears to be right now, where they may need to be, and whether the problem looks fixable.

Most of the time, it is.

Book a Free Spanish Readiness Check: https://www.spanishthatclicks.com/free-readiness-check

Before your child decides they are “bad at Spanish,” let’s find out what is actually getting in the way.

Jay Rowsey is an IB Spanish educator regularly invited to examine for the IB and the founder of Spanish That Clicks, where he coaches learners and supports Spanish teachers with resources built around real proficiency, not just good grades.