Last Thursday, when Hannah returned from school, I noticed that she spoke to Marta (her baby sitter, or I should say her sitter since Hannah is not a baby any longer) in English and Marta answered in Spanish. She said something like: Apple Marta? And Marta said: Si ya te doy una manzana. This was the first time that I became aware of this pattern (though probably this had been happening for some time already).
I became concerned that if we allowed Hannah to continue doing what she was doing, that is use English to communicate with us and us respond in Spanish), she would become one of those children who have listening (and hopefully reading) skills in Spanish only, with her speaking skills in English. Not that there is anything wrong with this, but I want to make sure that Hannah becomes bilingual and biliterate (for many different reasons).
So what did I decide to do to "solve" the problem? (And of course, I told Marta that we both have to use the same strategy): When I hear Hannah speak to me in English, I tell her: Mami, tu ingles es mucho mejor que el mio y el de Marta, nosotras no te endemos bien asi que hablanos en castellano (Mami, your English is much better than Marta's and mine, we can't understand what you are saying, so please speak to us in Spanish). Of course, she still speaks to us in ENglish, ONLY when she has just gotten back from school. So we will have to keep working on this.
Random Thoughts
13 years ago
3 comments:
Two of my friends are successfully using a similiar technique with their small children. My four year old neighbor chatters away to her mom and baby sitter in Spanish, then turns to me and speaks English. Of course, it requires a lot of discipline by her parents to reinforce speaking Spanish. Dad is a native English speaker so mom is responsible for teaching her daughter to become bilingual.
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Hi Lia, I'm writing a papaer on bilingualism for my Licenciatura and I thought I would refer to Hannah 1-because I love her and 2- because she's bilingual!
Here are some questions:
1- Have you noticed any instances of Hannah mixing the two languages? If so did she mix words or grammar? or both?
2- Is she aware of the two languages?
3- Would you say Hannah's speech was delayed because she was acquiring two languages when she was a baby?
4- Can Hannah shift rapidly to the other language according to the environment?
5- Does she have a Spanish accent in English? (She does speak Spanish with an English accent)
6- Do you talk to her in Spanish when in front of other kids? Why do/don`t you do so?
Oki my friend I guess this si more than enough for my first post. Thank you and Hannah for your help!!!
Pat
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