Finding a consistent strategy (non-native parent)
May 24, 2016 12:15:46 GMT 9
Post by Juliana on May 24, 2016 12:15:46 GMT 9
Hello all,
I am trying to arrive at a consistent strategy for languages in our household. I'll put my main questions first, and then dive into the background and fine points of our situation.
1) As I am the primary caregiver and educator in both the ML and ml, how can I create concrete time and/or situational "boundaries" for each language?
2) How do I handle toddler discipline issues when I unconsciously default to the ML to discipline?
Here is our situation:
We live in rural USA with little to no bilingual resources (though I just found a toddler Spanish class 45 minutes away...hurray!). My husband is a monolingual English speaker, and I am bilingual English/Spanish. However, I learned Spanish in school (started in 8th grade). I consider myself fluent, have studied in Chile, and am often mistaken as a native speaker by other native speakers, but I am by no means perfect and my vocabulary is not as extensive as a native speaker's would be.
I have 2 boys, a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old. Due to my husband's discomfort with me speaking in Spanish while he's at home (he just wants to be included and his Spanish is not so good; he is otherwise very supportive of the effort and is very impressed with how things are going), I do vacillate between Spanish and English a lot. While I am home alone with the kids, I try to keep all in Spanish, but as I am also the primary educator in general (my older son does not go to preschool and we will probably homeschool as he gets older anyway), there are several topics I feel are important to introduce in Spanish and English (not so much conversational, but "academic"). Also, since my mother language is English, there are books, songs, and movies that I know and love that I want to share with my kids in English (Winnie the Pooh in Spanish is just not doing it for me, sorry).
I have run across a strategy called "Time and Place" (as opposed to OPOL and ML@H) where I would speak in English in certain circumstances and Spanish in others. I know there are drawbacks to this, but it is truly appealing to me. My struggle is delineating the time and place and sticking to it.
I also struggle as my toddler is right in the middle of the "terrible twos" with discipline and behavior correction - I automatically switch to English, even though I know he understands the Spanish. I guess I just feel I can be more emphatic and clear that way? I don't know, but on a bad day it can then throw me off for at least another half hour before I'm able to mentally switch back to Spanish.
Thank you in advance to anyone with any tips here!
Juliana
I am trying to arrive at a consistent strategy for languages in our household. I'll put my main questions first, and then dive into the background and fine points of our situation.
1) As I am the primary caregiver and educator in both the ML and ml, how can I create concrete time and/or situational "boundaries" for each language?
2) How do I handle toddler discipline issues when I unconsciously default to the ML to discipline?
Here is our situation:
We live in rural USA with little to no bilingual resources (though I just found a toddler Spanish class 45 minutes away...hurray!). My husband is a monolingual English speaker, and I am bilingual English/Spanish. However, I learned Spanish in school (started in 8th grade). I consider myself fluent, have studied in Chile, and am often mistaken as a native speaker by other native speakers, but I am by no means perfect and my vocabulary is not as extensive as a native speaker's would be.
I have 2 boys, a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old. Due to my husband's discomfort with me speaking in Spanish while he's at home (he just wants to be included and his Spanish is not so good; he is otherwise very supportive of the effort and is very impressed with how things are going), I do vacillate between Spanish and English a lot. While I am home alone with the kids, I try to keep all in Spanish, but as I am also the primary educator in general (my older son does not go to preschool and we will probably homeschool as he gets older anyway), there are several topics I feel are important to introduce in Spanish and English (not so much conversational, but "academic"). Also, since my mother language is English, there are books, songs, and movies that I know and love that I want to share with my kids in English (Winnie the Pooh in Spanish is just not doing it for me, sorry).
I have run across a strategy called "Time and Place" (as opposed to OPOL and ML@H) where I would speak in English in certain circumstances and Spanish in others. I know there are drawbacks to this, but it is truly appealing to me. My struggle is delineating the time and place and sticking to it.
I also struggle as my toddler is right in the middle of the "terrible twos" with discipline and behavior correction - I automatically switch to English, even though I know he understands the Spanish. I guess I just feel I can be more emphatic and clear that way? I don't know, but on a bad day it can then throw me off for at least another half hour before I'm able to mentally switch back to Spanish.
Thank you in advance to anyone with any tips here!
Juliana