Introducing a third language at elementary school age
Nov 21, 2017 0:28:41 GMT 9
Post by Mayken on Nov 21, 2017 0:28:41 GMT 9
Hello everyone,
I'm looking for advice how to gently introduce my daughter to a non-family, (nearly) non-environment language, namely English. She's attended an after-school English "course" for over two years now, clearly enjoys it and asked to continue it this school year, but she doesn't seem to remember much of what they do. She does hear some English from anglophone parents and classmates (her school is 25% bilingual German, 25% bilingual English, 50% French) and proudly declares she's learning three languages (i.e. ML French, ml German and English).
I'm the minority language parent and due to long school and work hours struggle to meet the minimum exposure hours in the ml (even including her classes in ml), so I'm not too sure how much of that time I could/should use for English. Still, I was about to start reading an English picture book with her when ML daddy stopped me to ask if reading wouldn't confuse her, since she's in second grade and busy learning both German and French spelling.
I'm wondering if she has the same problem I had when I started learning French - I have a visual memory, and the first semester of French was purely oral, role play, no written words. I remember I came home from class crying because I couldn't remember anything. The second semester we got a manual and started reading and writing, and my French took off like a rocket. But I totally get my husband's argument because I see my daughter do her writing homework and her spelling exercises in both languages.
Also, we recently came across a very old book of mine "This is how to say it in English", where each sentence was accompanied by an approximate pronunciation guide based on German. She was totally delighted that she could now "read" English out loud and mommy would understand (mostly). So the interest in reading is definitely there but the pronunciation is totally different from both German and French which keeps her from reading actual English.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading this far! Do you have any suggestion/advice on how I could help my daughter approach English without getting her German and French spelling mixed up? I'm open to all kinds of ideas, including purely oral ones.
Many thanks and sorry I'm always so long-winded!
Mayken
I'm looking for advice how to gently introduce my daughter to a non-family, (nearly) non-environment language, namely English. She's attended an after-school English "course" for over two years now, clearly enjoys it and asked to continue it this school year, but she doesn't seem to remember much of what they do. She does hear some English from anglophone parents and classmates (her school is 25% bilingual German, 25% bilingual English, 50% French) and proudly declares she's learning three languages (i.e. ML French, ml German and English).
I'm the minority language parent and due to long school and work hours struggle to meet the minimum exposure hours in the ml (even including her classes in ml), so I'm not too sure how much of that time I could/should use for English. Still, I was about to start reading an English picture book with her when ML daddy stopped me to ask if reading wouldn't confuse her, since she's in second grade and busy learning both German and French spelling.
I'm wondering if she has the same problem I had when I started learning French - I have a visual memory, and the first semester of French was purely oral, role play, no written words. I remember I came home from class crying because I couldn't remember anything. The second semester we got a manual and started reading and writing, and my French took off like a rocket. But I totally get my husband's argument because I see my daughter do her writing homework and her spelling exercises in both languages.
Also, we recently came across a very old book of mine "This is how to say it in English", where each sentence was accompanied by an approximate pronunciation guide based on German. She was totally delighted that she could now "read" English out loud and mommy would understand (mostly). So the interest in reading is definitely there but the pronunciation is totally different from both German and French which keeps her from reading actual English.
If you're still with me, thanks for reading this far! Do you have any suggestion/advice on how I could help my daughter approach English without getting her German and French spelling mixed up? I'm open to all kinds of ideas, including purely oral ones.
Many thanks and sorry I'm always so long-winded!
Mayken
) by exposing her to a certain amount of English, orally, on a regular basis--which, for children, is always the first vital step toward developing strong literacy in any language.
