Balancing languages for two children
Apr 13, 2017 5:30:20 GMT 9
Post by Emma on Apr 13, 2017 5:30:20 GMT 9
Hi,
I just found this forum and associated book and thought maybe someone has an outside view on our current query! ML is German and ml is English. My husband is German but speaks almost native-level English, I'm English but speak German too. Eldest (T) is 5 and goes to ML kindergarten every weekday morning. Youngest (M) will be 2 next month and stays home with me until ML kindergarten in January. My husband is only home with us in the evenings and at weekends, but my in-laws live in the same house as us and speak ML with the children when they're looking after them.
T speaks/reads ML like a native besides not being able to roll his Rs and lisping (for which he's seeing a speech therapist, which is helping), and I would say he's not far behind in his ml now. M speaks very few (unclear) words at this stage, mostly ml ones with a couple of ML ones sprinkled in. He understands quite a bit of both languages, though I have a suspicion he understands slightly more ml.
Until a few months ago we were doing OPOL, and T was happy speaking ml with me when we were alone, but when we were all together T always responded in the ML, no matter who he was talking to. We felt like the English was slipping a bit and he was struggling for vocab and resisting speaking English, so after talking to him we decided to switch to ml at home. That's been having a good effect and his English is better, plus the resistance a) is less and b) is not solely my issue any more to deal with!
If we just had T then no problem, he gets enough ML at kindergarten and plenty of ml from us. But I am a little cautious about M's language acquisition - he's already a little behind average for his age though definitely making progress. Since T has issues with non-English sounds (I couldn't roll my Rs either till his speech therapist taught me so I'm pretty certain the lack of ability comes from spending so much time with me!) I'm wary of potentially introducing errors into M's currently non-existent German pronunciation/missing a window where he could learn correct pronunciation. OPOL worked well for us when T was M's age but if we switch back to that then T's ml exposure goes way down!
That got way longer than I intended, sorry! Does anyone have any advice on how to balance language exposure for two kids at different stages?
I just found this forum and associated book and thought maybe someone has an outside view on our current query! ML is German and ml is English. My husband is German but speaks almost native-level English, I'm English but speak German too. Eldest (T) is 5 and goes to ML kindergarten every weekday morning. Youngest (M) will be 2 next month and stays home with me until ML kindergarten in January. My husband is only home with us in the evenings and at weekends, but my in-laws live in the same house as us and speak ML with the children when they're looking after them.
T speaks/reads ML like a native besides not being able to roll his Rs and lisping (for which he's seeing a speech therapist, which is helping), and I would say he's not far behind in his ml now. M speaks very few (unclear) words at this stage, mostly ml ones with a couple of ML ones sprinkled in. He understands quite a bit of both languages, though I have a suspicion he understands slightly more ml.
Until a few months ago we were doing OPOL, and T was happy speaking ml with me when we were alone, but when we were all together T always responded in the ML, no matter who he was talking to. We felt like the English was slipping a bit and he was struggling for vocab and resisting speaking English, so after talking to him we decided to switch to ml at home. That's been having a good effect and his English is better, plus the resistance a) is less and b) is not solely my issue any more to deal with!
If we just had T then no problem, he gets enough ML at kindergarten and plenty of ml from us. But I am a little cautious about M's language acquisition - he's already a little behind average for his age though definitely making progress. Since T has issues with non-English sounds (I couldn't roll my Rs either till his speech therapist taught me so I'm pretty certain the lack of ability comes from spending so much time with me!) I'm wary of potentially introducing errors into M's currently non-existent German pronunciation/missing a window where he could learn correct pronunciation. OPOL worked well for us when T was M's age but if we switch back to that then T's ml exposure goes way down!
That got way longer than I intended, sorry! Does anyone have any advice on how to balance language exposure for two kids at different stages?
There are a lot of kids who start nursery school being slightly behind but they catch up very quickly.
