Post by Ryoko on Jan 9, 2016 17:26:16 GMT 9
I am a non-native English speaker who tries to raise my son (3 years and 6 months) to be bilingual in English and Japanese. I live in Japan and my husband and I are Japanese. My kid has no English surroundings. For his English exposure, I have spoken to him in English every day since he was 7 months old. However, he barely outputs.
I had spoken to him in English in the morning and spoken in Japanese from noon until he goes to bed since he was 7 months. However, since summer in 2015, I changed the way. I started to speak to him in English at home and in Japanese outside. He started to go to Japanese public nursery school when he was 2 years and 9 months, April 2015.
I consider that he cannot output because he knows that I understand Japanese. I speak to him in English but he replies in Japanese most of the time. (He can say very easy sentences like "I like it too" or " I did it!")
So, I have hired an English speaker who plays with my son since December. I thought my son needs someone who does not speak Japanese. I think his input is okay because he has been inundated with my English, English picture books and TV sometimes since 7 months old. I think he just needs someone to speak only in English. He seems to understand the story of English picture books or TV anime when I ask the questions of the content.
I hired a guy who is not a native speaker. (I put an ad, but no native speakers responded.) He plays with my son in English for two hours once a week visiting our house. He is nice and a very good person. My son likes him too. However, he and I do not know how can we encourage my son to output. Today, our second meeting was over. I know that it takes time for him to output but we want to know more effective way. Now, he (let's call him the teacher here) plays with my son in the same way as I do. My son speaks to the teacher in Japanese too though he pretends that he does not know Japanese. When the teacher asked some questions in English, my son speaks English. (Mostly, yes or no, or colors of something, or names of something.)
The teacher wants more feedback from me to encourage my son's output. But I don't know what is good. I am even not sure if this meeting is effective for my son to speak English. Because my son is only 3, he plays quietly like playing with cars or blocks. Also, the teacher's English ability is almost the same as mine. My son plays with the teacher just as the same way he plays with me except that the teacher pretends he does not know Japanese.
I want to continue this meeting at least 6 months to see how my son will change. So, I want to know more effective way for the teacher to communicate with my son. The teacher brings a picture book to read to him and he brings drawing work sheets or alphabet cards. However, if my son is not in the mood for them, he does not do it. We allow him not to. This is because I don't want to force him to "study" English.
However, these days I come to think that... it may be better to tell my son....
*When the teacher comes, you must speak English.
*You should do the activity that the teacher brings.
So far, I have told my son...
"The teacher (I don't call him the teacher in front of him. I call him his name.) is my friend. He just visits us to see us and he likes kids and he enjoys playing with you. He does not speak Japanese. You try to speak to him in English."
Should I more force him to output...??
What can the teacher do to my son to encourage him to speak?
Two hours in a week is not effective...??
I did not want to make the meeting like "English lesson" but for his English competence progress, it might be better to tell my son it is an "English lesson".
If you have any ideas, please tell me.
