Five-year-old understands, but doesn't speak, the ml
Sept 28, 2018 0:11:24 GMT 9
Post by Paul S on Sept 28, 2018 0:11:24 GMT 9
Hi Redean,
We have twin 5-year-old girls and live in Mexico, I'm from the UK so ml is English and ML is Spanish. It has been a tough journey to where we are now, the girls will mostly speak to me in English and occasionally (more often when I'm around) play with each other whilst using English. Having a ml-only policy at home doesn't work for us due to closeness of grandparents and English language at school is extremely basic, but here are a couple of things we've done to help with the process:
1. I have always spoken to the girls exclusively in English. Of course, the girls know I speak Spanish but I "pretend" I can't understand their Spanish. I just refuse to engage with them or understand what they say until they use the ml. This means saying 'Sorry, I don't understand you" literally thousands of times and can be frustrating at times, but in our case it seems to be working.
2. We have a rule that anything that the girls watch by themselves can only be in the ml, i.e. films, cartoons, YouTube etc. They are pretty good at sticking to that and of course there is plenty of content available in English.
3. Reading stories at bedtime. We've built quite a library of picture and chapter books in English and almost every night we'll read at least 3 stories.
4. Playing with them in English. We'll narrate and act out stories, do puppet shows or just play with their dolls together using the ml.
I feel like things have improved drastically over the last six months or so and when we were in the UK for a holiday over the summer, they were really able to communicate with friends and family.
Anyway, there is hope. Many people here think it's a given that if one parent speaks another language, the kids will automatically become bilingual. Of course it doesn't work like that and takes a good deal of hard work (as I tell anyone who will listen). But have faith that it will come eventually if you stick to it.
All the best,
Paul
We have twin 5-year-old girls and live in Mexico, I'm from the UK so ml is English and ML is Spanish. It has been a tough journey to where we are now, the girls will mostly speak to me in English and occasionally (more often when I'm around) play with each other whilst using English. Having a ml-only policy at home doesn't work for us due to closeness of grandparents and English language at school is extremely basic, but here are a couple of things we've done to help with the process:
1. I have always spoken to the girls exclusively in English. Of course, the girls know I speak Spanish but I "pretend" I can't understand their Spanish. I just refuse to engage with them or understand what they say until they use the ml. This means saying 'Sorry, I don't understand you" literally thousands of times and can be frustrating at times, but in our case it seems to be working.
2. We have a rule that anything that the girls watch by themselves can only be in the ml, i.e. films, cartoons, YouTube etc. They are pretty good at sticking to that and of course there is plenty of content available in English.
3. Reading stories at bedtime. We've built quite a library of picture and chapter books in English and almost every night we'll read at least 3 stories.
4. Playing with them in English. We'll narrate and act out stories, do puppet shows or just play with their dolls together using the ml.
I feel like things have improved drastically over the last six months or so and when we were in the UK for a holiday over the summer, they were really able to communicate with friends and family.
Anyway, there is hope. Many people here think it's a given that if one parent speaks another language, the kids will automatically become bilingual. Of course it doesn't work like that and takes a good deal of hard work (as I tell anyone who will listen). But have faith that it will come eventually if you stick to it.
All the best,
Paul