This is his fourth year. This upload has the first 3 months May, June, July.
Su cuarto año. Los 3 primeros meses desde que cumpliera los 3 años.
May 2010 – 3 years old on 16thInput
The usual combination of Cbeebies, bedtime stories and interaction in English. Plus, this month we’ve employed an English teacher (Gemma) as his child-carer for two 1.5 hour sessions per week. Apart from giving him additional interaction in English with another person, the idea is to see what it’s like as a parent to have your child looked after by another person. At first he was a bit shy and a little rude at times. We sorted this out later in the month. The main schedule was to pick him up from the playgroup and take him to the park to play with him, maintaining the high talk time interactions and then back home again. It was interesting seeing him talking in English to another person apart from me so naturally. Speaking any other language apart from English never arose.
He’s starting to recognize other languages. After visiting my Danish friend who speaks Danish to his daughter, he said: “Soren speaks Danish.”
If he uses a Spanish word I now say:”That’s in Spanish/Catalan Marc, what’s it in English?” If he doesn’t say anything, I tell him and he repeats it.
Output
More than ever I noticed him pick up phrases from the TV:
“Be back in a jiffy.”
“Trick is to jump up like this.”
“That’s the trick!”
Vocabulary
It’s a bunkbed.
Language
These are easier to eat
Let’s turn the light on, shall we? (first use of this)
He was not listening
What’s this shape called?
I’m not sitting properly.
It’s a catchy song.
Mummy might be her. (first use of ‘might’)
Mummy’s fallen asleep.
You’ve come in from outdoors.
He repeated the phrase “It opened just in time.” (referring to a toy parachute) over and over again.
Errors
I turn to 3 (years old)
I’m falling to sleep (which we corrected and then he used it correctly ).
He still hasn’t mastered: fall/fell or him /her
He used : “Mummy’s dying” (referring to ‘dying her hair´)
June 2010 – 3 years 1 month
InputGemma continued her 2 x 1.5 hour schedule this month. I had a busy month and it was good for Marc to get this top up. Despite coming in late sometimes he stayed up for me to read him a bedtime story. Near the end of the month we spent a weekend in the resort of Salou. There were quite a few English tourists with their children but he didn’t find anyone to speak to and play with specifically. Later on this will be easier.
A group called Mike Fantastic appeared on Britain’s Got Talent singing ‘turn off the lights … turn them off’ . It’s simple but catchy and was good for him to sing and consolidate the turn on/off for lights. We changed the words from ‘on’ to ‘off’ which he liked. This whole exercise reminded me of the importance of songs and also being creative with language.
At the swimming pool in the sports centre I used a situation of the lifeguard throwing rowdy children out of the children’s pool, and later at home he repeated the phrases in English to his mother. I usually try and get him to go back over the events of any outing we’ve done and use these situations to introduce new language. In this case, phrasal verbs with reported speech.
I introduced:
“She told them off.”
“She told them to get out.”
“She threw them out of the swimming pool. “
“You mustn’t throw balls in the little boys’ swimming pool.”
OutputEach month he surprises me with new and more complex language. He’s using phrasal verbs correctly and now he’s started using ‘did’ and didn’t for replies and ‘because’.
Example language
“Yes, I did.” /” No, I didn’t.”
You’re making new words up.
I didn’t do that because it’s naughty.
Pronunciation For some reason, this month his pronunciation of the words:
‘go’ /’ boat’ /’no’ / ‘know’ weren’t so English every time and tended towards the Spanish.
When I told him to say them like Daddy, he did, but it wasn’t spontaneous.
Despite this he told his mother to pronounce ‘zoo’ in a more English way:
“Mummy, say it properly.”
July 2010 – 3 years 2 months
Input
This month he’s got a new schedule. He goes to a holiday club at a sports centre where he does swimming and other children’s activities from 9am – 1pm (mostly in Spanish). Then from 1-4pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday his English Nanny carer, Gemma picks him up, takes him home and looks after him (so 9 hours per week). I worked every evening from 6-9.30pm getting in late and only saw him some of the mornings per week. However, he always waited up for me and I was able to speak and play with him every night for a couple of hours.
As usual I read him one of his favourite traditional stories. This month he wanted ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, the ‘gingerbread man’, ‘the 3 pigs’ and a new one: ‘chicken licken’.
The input from Gemma has been very good for him and she made sure the time with him was very intensive with a variety of theatre activities, games, songs on internet sites, playing sports, jigsaws, making things together.
OutputAs in previous months his interactions are only English to me , although he seems to be speaking even more English to his mother. I sometimes think about asking Maria to speak only in English to him and see what would happen!
e.g. There’s a crash and a bang from the kitchen and Marc runs in and says to his mother:
“What’s happened?” What fell down? (repeated 5 or 6 times as there’s no reply) then he says “Oh, something’s caigut!” (fallen down).
To mother: ”Thank you for fixing my ball.”
- Question forms - He’s asking more questions than ever, which is typical for his age:
Did you see that?
What did I say?
Do you want to play tennis?
Do you want to have dinner Daddy?
Are you hungry?
- Past tenses:
I wasn’t. Yes, it was.
I fell in …
(mixing) It didn’t went in..
- Use of ‘because’:
I don’t want to (get in the bath) because the water’s not warm enough.” (his most complex sentence to date).
- Question tags and ‘have got’
“I’ve got muscles, haven’t I?”
- The alphabet.
Gemma has helped him complete the alphabet and now he can even say ‘l, m,n o,p, ‘ together.
- Mixing gender. He still uses ‘he’ and ‘his’ instead of ‘she’ and ‘her’ for girls and we’re working on this.
- He’s nearly eradicated the use of ‘open’ and ‘close’ for electrical appliances.
Pronunciation
Gemma has influenced his pronunciation. Whereas his ‘no’, and words like ‘yellow’ and ‘blue’ could sound somewhat Spanish, now he sounds VERY English. His, “No, I don’t.” is now a very ‘well-educated’ English pronunciation. It’s difficult to pick out many Spanish or Catalan intrusions in pronunciation. Perhaps the main area is intonation in certain situations.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Year 3 - second 6 months
This second half of year 3. La segunda parte del tercer año.
December 2009 – 2 years 7 monthsINPUT
Found ‘Ghostbusters’ theme tune which he likes, but mixes up the meaning of ghostbusters with ghosts.
Over the Christmas period we watched more Cbeebies together plus one of their pantomimes which he liked. He learned to boo when the ‘Jingle Jangle’ baddie came on the stage and referred to him at random times for months afterwards! I’m sure he’ll really enjoy a pantomime next Christmas.
Output
Use of ‘No, I didn’t’ or ‘yes I did’ for the first time when answering a question and ‘
While talking about a song he says: “The songs in the computer actually.” Which sounds natural.
January 2010 - 2 years 8 months
Input
The first week of January we got a visit from my mother and my nieces, Serena.
So, he had lots of practice speaking and listening to them in English and watching TV and DVDs with them.
Output
He’s started to become aware that he speaks more than one language. To Serena:’Molt bè’, ‘That’s in Catalan’.
As my wife pointed out, even when I’m not there he plays with his toys in English making up conversations. This means he’s getting even more practice than I could’ve hoped!
He still mostly repeats messages in the original language when we tell him to give a message to mummy/daddy. The difference is that his mum accepts the message in English while I pretend not to understand: “what does that mean Marc” and then he repeats it in English or I help him reformulate it in English if he has problems. Although he occasionally translates: “ Daddy, mummy says’ thank you”
Question forms
Request: “Can you turn the volume up Daddy”
He’s started using typical question forms correctly:
What’s happened? / What’s this?
Normally parents dread this stage as the child ‘never shuts up’ asking questions. In my case this means he’ll be learning more and more English words!!
Past
I was watching CBeebies. I was hiding. I got it (Catching a ball)
First question tag
It’s frog, isn’t it?
Others
Gimme some!
It’s over here / there.
Singing a song: “Wow wow what a feeling when I’m dancing on the ceiling.”
Pron.
He uses the English ‘schwa’ or ‘weak form’ in a noticeable way: e.g.in paper.
‘Says’ is said correctly as /sez/. As in it says ‘airport’ (pointing to a label on a toy).
His says our names and his own with an English accent as he’s learned them like that.
February 2010 2 years 9 months
Input
I had a busy month so my notes are as detailed as previous ones.
Continuing to increase the amount of reading with him. This month I introduced Little Red Riding Hood.
Doing songs and nursery rhymes on the computer.
Output
He continues to surprise me with his retention of Cbeebies songs and scripts.
Question tags: It’s not too loud, is it? (referring to the electric piano)
They’re yours (plural possessive pronouns) in fact he’s practically mastered these.
You’re big! He’s starting to compare himself in size versus other people and things.
I want to go to the bowling alley (uses complete sentences with correctly remembered vocab).
Mummy’s working on the computer (correct tense use and the realization that we work!)
I’m getting him to realize that he speaks three languages.
At the bowling alley:
Me: ‘Ask the lady for the darts in Spanish.” How do you say ‘darts’ in Spanish?
Silence.
Me: ‘Dardos’ Now ask the lady.
He still repeats ,messages in the same language they were asked in.
‘He’s started saying ‘And this?’ instead of ‘What’s this?’influenced by Spanish /Catalan
‘Blue’ doesn’t sound quite right!
March 2010 – 2 years 10 months
Input
We’ve continued the same watching the TV for an hour most mornings and playing and reading him stories at night. His mother is nearly the only input in Catalan now as the two carers at the playgroup are South American and the children all speak Spanish. He’s there from 10am – 3 or 4pm Monday to Friday. Interestingly, he almost getting as much English as Catalan.
Youtube: ‘rain rain go away’ and we looked for snowmen and snow boarding as he metioned snow. Wiggles: Hot potato song
Cbeebies programmes most mornings
Madagascar 1. And singing ‘I like to move it move it.’
Books: The 3 Billygoats Gruff and the Troll and then we found a bridge in the fields nearby that looked exactly the same as the book and we roleplayed ‘trip trapping’ across the bridge!
Finger scales. I got him to practise arpeggio scales using my fingers as the notes and then getting him to say words that I wanted him to improve the pronunciation on. E.g Blue, yellow.
So, we would ‘sing’ ‘ Blue blue blue blue blue blue blue’ up and down he scale focusing on the pronunciation. He loved it and it’s a great introduction to basic music. Later on we did the same on the piano although he gets distracted and wants to play the notes himself! His pronunciation of the words also improved greatly.
Output
This is the first month I’ve really noticed how much he’s talking. He plays with his toys in English even when I’m not there and he only speaks English to me, but now often speaks more in English than Catalan to his mother using whole phrases: “I want to play basketball.” Or he mixes Catalan with English (not Spanish). He also still uses “No vol”, (he doesn’t want) instead of “No vull” (I don’t want). Both situations can be attributed to his mother not correcting him or enforcing the one language, one parent rule. We’re not worried about the amount of English he speaks to her as this is extra practice and he’ll get a lot of Catalan input from September, when he starts school. If I’d be complacent and lenient then he probably wouldn’t be speaking English to me now. Parents should remember that if they are the speaker of the minority language, they should allow no exceptions to the rule of just one language to them.
- I continue reformulating and getting him to repeat wrong verbs and language:
Marc: “I take a photograph”
Me: “ok, so you TOOK a photograph. What did you do?
Marc:” I took a photograph.”
He’s picked up a phrase “Yo! Man!” maybe from the TV and when he gets a basket he shouts this out!
- His use of auxiliaries is coming on, e.g:
No I haven’t. Yes I did. I can’t.
His pronunciation and general use of the language sounds very native-speaker (talking about his socks in mock surprise):
“Oh no, they’re not matching.”
April 2010 - 2 years 11 months
Input
There was the usual input of Cbeebies this month and he liked Alphablocks, which are letters of the alphabet with eyes mouths and legs which say their sounds. And he liked the rhyme “Ten green bottles” which we found on youtube and unfortunately is very annoying… after the first 5 times!! Still, it was good for the numbers and language.
Output
He is so used to me speaking to him all the time that when there’s a long silence and we´re not watching TV or videos, etc, he says “Talk to me Daddy.”
He’s also started referring to me as “dad” and his mother as “mum” even when talking to her directly.
He’s learning to use deception to get what he wants and as an excuse:
“I’m not feeling well.” (sometimes accompanied with a cough!)
He’s driving us crazy with his whims .One minute he wants something, the next minute he doesn’t. He uses the phrase he’s learned:
“I’ve changed my mind.”
He´s showing himself to be bright and talkative this month and speaking a lot to his mum in English.
Phrases. He´s experimenting and using some new phrases which have surprised me.
“Oh my golly” maybe from his paternal grandmother via SKYPE.
“What`re they up to?” (referring to TV characters) In fact he’s repeating a lot of phrases from the TV.
Colours
He´s aware of what the traffic lights mean after teaching him:
Me:Look, a green light!
Marc: “Actually, it’s red.” “Red means stop and green means go.”
Question tags
It’s a big one, isn’t it?
He’s a ghost, isn’t he?
More complex language. Especially phrasal verbs:
I’m blowing up the balloon.
The dirt’s come off.
Present perfect
I’ve dried my hands
I’ve done that already.
Errors
What amazing!
I cut me.
This ones
I see that already.
Pronunciation
Very English in general especially when saying “can’t” which rhymes with “car”.
December 2009 – 2 years 7 monthsINPUT
Found ‘Ghostbusters’ theme tune which he likes, but mixes up the meaning of ghostbusters with ghosts.
Over the Christmas period we watched more Cbeebies together plus one of their pantomimes which he liked. He learned to boo when the ‘Jingle Jangle’ baddie came on the stage and referred to him at random times for months afterwards! I’m sure he’ll really enjoy a pantomime next Christmas.
Output
Use of ‘No, I didn’t’ or ‘yes I did’ for the first time when answering a question and ‘
While talking about a song he says: “The songs in the computer actually.” Which sounds natural.
January 2010 - 2 years 8 months
Input
The first week of January we got a visit from my mother and my nieces, Serena.
So, he had lots of practice speaking and listening to them in English and watching TV and DVDs with them.
Output
He’s started to become aware that he speaks more than one language. To Serena:’Molt bè’, ‘That’s in Catalan’.
As my wife pointed out, even when I’m not there he plays with his toys in English making up conversations. This means he’s getting even more practice than I could’ve hoped!
He still mostly repeats messages in the original language when we tell him to give a message to mummy/daddy. The difference is that his mum accepts the message in English while I pretend not to understand: “what does that mean Marc” and then he repeats it in English or I help him reformulate it in English if he has problems. Although he occasionally translates: “ Daddy, mummy says’ thank you”
Question forms
Request: “Can you turn the volume up Daddy”
He’s started using typical question forms correctly:
What’s happened? / What’s this?
Normally parents dread this stage as the child ‘never shuts up’ asking questions. In my case this means he’ll be learning more and more English words!!
Past
I was watching CBeebies. I was hiding. I got it (Catching a ball)
First question tag
It’s frog, isn’t it?
Others
Gimme some!
It’s over here / there.
Singing a song: “Wow wow what a feeling when I’m dancing on the ceiling.”
Pron.
He uses the English ‘schwa’ or ‘weak form’ in a noticeable way: e.g.in paper.
‘Says’ is said correctly as /sez/. As in it says ‘airport’ (pointing to a label on a toy).
His says our names and his own with an English accent as he’s learned them like that.
February 2010 2 years 9 months
Input
I had a busy month so my notes are as detailed as previous ones.
Continuing to increase the amount of reading with him. This month I introduced Little Red Riding Hood.
Doing songs and nursery rhymes on the computer.
Output
He continues to surprise me with his retention of Cbeebies songs and scripts.
Question tags: It’s not too loud, is it? (referring to the electric piano)
They’re yours (plural possessive pronouns) in fact he’s practically mastered these.
You’re big! He’s starting to compare himself in size versus other people and things.
I want to go to the bowling alley (uses complete sentences with correctly remembered vocab).
Mummy’s working on the computer (correct tense use and the realization that we work!)
I’m getting him to realize that he speaks three languages.
At the bowling alley:
Me: ‘Ask the lady for the darts in Spanish.” How do you say ‘darts’ in Spanish?
Silence.
Me: ‘Dardos’ Now ask the lady.
He still repeats ,messages in the same language they were asked in.
‘He’s started saying ‘And this?’ instead of ‘What’s this?’influenced by Spanish /Catalan
‘Blue’ doesn’t sound quite right!
March 2010 – 2 years 10 months
Input
We’ve continued the same watching the TV for an hour most mornings and playing and reading him stories at night. His mother is nearly the only input in Catalan now as the two carers at the playgroup are South American and the children all speak Spanish. He’s there from 10am – 3 or 4pm Monday to Friday. Interestingly, he almost getting as much English as Catalan.
Youtube: ‘rain rain go away’ and we looked for snowmen and snow boarding as he metioned snow. Wiggles: Hot potato song
Cbeebies programmes most mornings
Madagascar 1. And singing ‘I like to move it move it.’
Books: The 3 Billygoats Gruff and the Troll and then we found a bridge in the fields nearby that looked exactly the same as the book and we roleplayed ‘trip trapping’ across the bridge!
Finger scales. I got him to practise arpeggio scales using my fingers as the notes and then getting him to say words that I wanted him to improve the pronunciation on. E.g Blue, yellow.
So, we would ‘sing’ ‘ Blue blue blue blue blue blue blue’ up and down he scale focusing on the pronunciation. He loved it and it’s a great introduction to basic music. Later on we did the same on the piano although he gets distracted and wants to play the notes himself! His pronunciation of the words also improved greatly.
Output
This is the first month I’ve really noticed how much he’s talking. He plays with his toys in English even when I’m not there and he only speaks English to me, but now often speaks more in English than Catalan to his mother using whole phrases: “I want to play basketball.” Or he mixes Catalan with English (not Spanish). He also still uses “No vol”, (he doesn’t want) instead of “No vull” (I don’t want). Both situations can be attributed to his mother not correcting him or enforcing the one language, one parent rule. We’re not worried about the amount of English he speaks to her as this is extra practice and he’ll get a lot of Catalan input from September, when he starts school. If I’d be complacent and lenient then he probably wouldn’t be speaking English to me now. Parents should remember that if they are the speaker of the minority language, they should allow no exceptions to the rule of just one language to them.
- I continue reformulating and getting him to repeat wrong verbs and language:
Marc: “I take a photograph”
Me: “ok, so you TOOK a photograph. What did you do?
Marc:” I took a photograph.”
He’s picked up a phrase “Yo! Man!” maybe from the TV and when he gets a basket he shouts this out!
- His use of auxiliaries is coming on, e.g:
No I haven’t. Yes I did. I can’t.
His pronunciation and general use of the language sounds very native-speaker (talking about his socks in mock surprise):
“Oh no, they’re not matching.”
April 2010 - 2 years 11 months
Input
There was the usual input of Cbeebies this month and he liked Alphablocks, which are letters of the alphabet with eyes mouths and legs which say their sounds. And he liked the rhyme “Ten green bottles” which we found on youtube and unfortunately is very annoying… after the first 5 times!! Still, it was good for the numbers and language.
Output
He is so used to me speaking to him all the time that when there’s a long silence and we´re not watching TV or videos, etc, he says “Talk to me Daddy.”
He’s also started referring to me as “dad” and his mother as “mum” even when talking to her directly.
He’s learning to use deception to get what he wants and as an excuse:
“I’m not feeling well.” (sometimes accompanied with a cough!)
He’s driving us crazy with his whims .One minute he wants something, the next minute he doesn’t. He uses the phrase he’s learned:
“I’ve changed my mind.”
He´s showing himself to be bright and talkative this month and speaking a lot to his mum in English.
Phrases. He´s experimenting and using some new phrases which have surprised me.
“Oh my golly” maybe from his paternal grandmother via SKYPE.
“What`re they up to?” (referring to TV characters) In fact he’s repeating a lot of phrases from the TV.
Colours
He´s aware of what the traffic lights mean after teaching him:
Me:Look, a green light!
Marc: “Actually, it’s red.” “Red means stop and green means go.”
Question tags
It’s a big one, isn’t it?
He’s a ghost, isn’t he?
More complex language. Especially phrasal verbs:
I’m blowing up the balloon.
The dirt’s come off.
Present perfect
I’ve dried my hands
I’ve done that already.
Errors
What amazing!
I cut me.
This ones
I see that already.
Pronunciation
Very English in general especially when saying “can’t” which rhymes with “car”.
Year 3 - first 6 months
For this year I've uploaded it in two 6-month parts due to the bigger content.
He subido el año en dos partes, ya que hay más contenidos.
Year 3 / El tercer año – May 16th 2009 - May 16th 2010
May-June 2009
INPUT
I’m still managing to spend at least an hour with him in the mornings. We watch CBeebies and I ask questions about the programmes we watch as well as repeat some of the phrases they use. He loves the songs: The Happy Birthday song , the Popshop programme which has catchy tunes and interaction with the viewer and the Boogie Beebies that involves dancing and doing the actions based on themes such as ‘the farm’, ‘football’, ‘pirates’, etc. Watching these programmes and doing the actions is becoming a ritual and he’s learning a lot of the vocabulary and phrases which he can repeat to me.
For this 3rd year I’m continuing with the morning routine of changing and dressing him in the morning and singing him songs, which he enjoys a lot. And walking him to school and focusing on things happening in the street and the weather.
In the evenings he’s awake till very late which means even when I get in after 9pm I can still spend at least 2 hours speaking and playing with him.
We’re still focusing on the colours, nursery rhymes, vehicles, animals, sports.
I’ve been doing press-ups and sit-ups and he spurs me on (even when I don’t want to).
“Do press ups daddy!”
If he makes a mistake I reformulate: e.g. I don’t want it (shoes). Oh so, you don’t want them?
I stick to the premises that ‘correction’ and reformulation are necessary in English due to the lower than normal input from myself and television (3 hours a days Monday – Friday and 6-10 hours at the weekend per day ). In an English speaking country I wouldn’t ‘need’ to do this. My wife hasn’t corrected his ‘No vol’ (he doesn’t want), since she knows that with the amount of input he will naturally say ‘No vull’ (I don’t want) when ‘ready’.
Remember that Contact Time isn’t Input Time if you’re not talking to the child. If you proudly think to yourself that you’ve spent two hours with your child at the swimming pool but have hardly said anything then your input time may have been 10 minutes and a couple of phrases.
OUTPUT
His accent is standard southern English and Catalan when speaking Catalan with some small deviations which I’ll point out.
He’s learning the colours. He uses ‘green’ without ‘it’s green’ and sometimes mixes it up with ‘blue’. He finds it hard to distinguish between silver and white when naming car colours.
He can say ‘helicopter’ correctly.
He’s starting to distinguish sheep from lamb; kitten from cat.
He can say “I don’t want it, but doesn’t use ‘I want them’ (in the plural).
He replies with the full phrases: ‘Yes, it is’ or ‘No it isn’t’
JULY /JULIO 2009
This month I’m working till 10pm and getting home at nearly 11pm. Despite this, he stays up for me and this means he gets another hour’s input. To make up for this I spend two hours with him in the morning and then take him to the playgroup.
INPUT.
More work on colours, animals, as the previous month.
On youtube we’re working on the alphabet songs, I’m not bothered that some are American.
and other songs such as:
‘Jelly on a plate”, which was new to me! Includes the sentences:
‘Jelly on a plate, wibble wobble’. ‘Sweeties in a jar, shake and rattle’ and ‘sausages in a pan, sizzle sozzle.’
He knows what ‘food’ and ‘drink’ is and can name ‘bananas’, ‘apples’ and ‘water’, beer’.
I get him to name food, drink and objects in the supermarket. It becomes a fun learning opportunity. At least most of the time between the usual children’s ‘naughty’ behaviour’!
OUTPUT
He still says ‘I no want’ despite my efforts. But can be ‘made’ to say :’I don’t’
A couple times he’s said ‘a car blue’ but it’s the exception. He’s now started to use the pronoun ‘one’:
‘a blue one’,’ this one’
Possessives seems totally mastered: ‘it’s daddy’s’, etc.
H e uttered the first ‘complete sentence: “I want a jelly on a plate’ which shows the importance and usefulness of children’s rhymes! He can reply to the question: “what noise do the sausages make’” “Sizzle, sozzle’ with the correct pronunciation of the voiced /Z/.
He finds it easier to say certain catalan/ Spanish words which are2-syllable :
Bibi (bottle)/ caca (poo) /cuca (willy) /pupa (it hurts/bump)/pipi (wee wees)
Although eventually he replaces these in English through making him repeat them in English.
Many parents don’t bother about this but although they are understood in one country they wouldn’t be in England. Perhaps I’m a purist but I like differentiating the languages!
August / Agosto 2009 Summary
This month included 2 weeks in the UK staying with my mother and two days with my sister and her six kids! He got extra input from my mother and playing with the other children which was good for him. In the car on the way to the UK and back I’d made a DVD with nursery rhymes and songs to give him extra input. Este mes pasamos 2 semanas en RU con mi madre y 2 días con mi hermana y sus 6 niños. Pudo jugar y hablar con los otros niños además de mi madre. Para el viaje en el coche le hice un DVD para escuchar sus canciones favoritas durante el viaje.
This month I really noticed how good his pronunciation is. He has imitated my English accent almost perfectly. He’s now become a parrot repeating practically everything we say in English or Catalan. And for the first time he’s playing with tone and volume when he speaks. E.g
“ I DON’T like it” in a ‘deep’ voice just for fun, which I encourage.
He’s still mixing the meaning of ‘want’ and ‘like’ as well as in Catalan. E.g I no want jelly, instead of ‘I don’t like jelly’. He sometimes uses ‘don’t’ and sometimes ‘no’. Although it’s becoming less common.
Now adding the pronoun: ‘I no like IT’ when Iplay him songs he doesn’t want to hear!
Also, he’s started using the famous: ‘What’s that? To find out the names of things.
He can count to 10 and we practise counting as he goes up stairs and I always ask him ‘How many cakes/sweets/toys, etc? ‘
Found a great ABC song on Sesame Street with the singer India and Elmo. Sesame Street invite guests singers and the result is good. He can do A-D and up to P with prompting .
Use of past tenses:
(19/08) “I saw a spider in the kitchen. “ Prompted by me pointing it out to him.
(30/08) I went to the swimming pool. – When we are coming back from the pool I try to make him remember what he’s done. Some of it sticks and he comes out with it later on.
This summary of activities is something that a lot of children’s TV programmes do now.e.g.
The Number Jacks and In the Night Garden.
He loves Timmy Time but there’s no speaking in it except for the catchy them tune! When I watch it with him I ask him questions about the action and add the vocabulary.
“Oh look he ‘s got a wheelbarrow. See that. He’s pushing a wheelbarrow’ What colour’s the wheelbarrow Marc?
It’s yellow-
What’s yellow?
The WHEELBARROW!
Oh yeah, that’s right. Hey, What’s he put in it?
- A football.
September / Setiembre 2009 (2 years 4 months)
This month included a long weekend in Dublin. I noticed a quantitative and qualitative leap in his English this month.
INPUT
The trip to Dublin gave him input from my friend’s 7 year old daughter.
This month he’s got new favourite songs from TV and radio. ‘Tonight tonight tonight’ from an Ad, Cold Play, Viva la Vida and Waltzing Matilda and Skip to my Lou, and Coming Round the mountain, all of which I played for him on the guitar for him to try and sing along to. We found them on the internet too. He also likes Super Trouper by ABBA.
We found Spiderman and Batman theme tunes on youtube which he loves and I added vocab such as spin a web and batman hitting the ‘baddies’, bif’ bop’ ‘zonk’ etc, which he loves repeating and trying out on me!! Nursery rhymes include London Bridge is falling down, Twinkle twinkle little star. And a song I wrote for him for his ‘naming party’: “Stars in his eyes”. He’s fascinated by stars!
His favourite Cbeebies programmes are. ‘in the night Garden’ Bob the builder’, The Tweenies’, Mister Maker (especially the part with the shapes: ‘I am a shape la la la, I am a circle/square/triangle/rectangle). And Timmy Time still ranks in there with them.
I’m working hard at maintaining routines. Clean my teeth, wash my hands, have a bath, and include the song “this is the way we wash our hands, wash our … on a cold and frosty morning.” Which isn’t so relevant in September!
Also, ‘Wakey wakey, rise and shine! Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!
Output.
From his trip to Dublin he surprised us by repeating phrases he’d heard from the girl Grace.
“I can’t believe it, there’s no butter left!” Although this could’ve been my friend Steve or his wife Heidi. When we say:”What does Grace say? He says this sentence!
He’s also picked up ‘Goodness me’! from my mother and’ Fuck!’ Sorry! Whoops!
Others include: That’s amazing!
When he says colours he prefers English as I’ve been told from the playschool. “That’s not ‘vermell’ it’s red!”
He repeats new phrases again and again which gives us a clue to how children learn language and certain words:
“I swam in the swimming pool”.
He’s starting to use the morning and night routine phrases.
He sometimes says “open the light” possibly influenced by the Spanish/Catalan, which I correct him on.
He prefers ‘pala’ to ‘spade’ at the moment.
And he says ‘deenosaw’ instead of ‘dine o saw’ for ‘dinosaur’. I sometimes suspect that my wife may try and say the words in English for him and he picks up her pronunciation. Luckily these are quickly remediated and eradicated!!
October / octubre 2009 (2 years 5months)
Looking back at my notes I see that this was an intensive month for language or maybe I just took more notes than normal. Well, here goes:
Input
This month I’ve added some new children’s tunes which I’ve found on youtube:
“There’s a hole in my bucket” He likes this a lot and comes up to me saying “Daddy, there’s a hole in my bucket.” !!
Anew song on the changing table in the morning: “Where’s your mama / papa gone?” which I normalize to ‘mummy’ / daddy.
A nursery rhyme book with CD, e.g twinkle twinkle little star. He can sing the whole song nearly.
I continue walking him to the playgroup every morning. It’s 5-10mins of intensive language and fun. Every morning is different depending on his mood, and mine of course!
We work on lots of questions of repetitive themes:
The weather: What’s the weather like? It’s sunny/cloudy/wet/raining/ cold/warm/ a bit cloudy. I say wrong sentences on purpose and he corrects me:
ME: It’s very sunny today, isn’t it?
Marc: No it’s CLOUDY!”
I introduce the Cbeebies autumn song we’ve been listening to :
“Brown leaves keep falling down down down onto the ground” which is relevant since the ground is strewn with leaves. I get him to sing along.
Dressing time: I sing songs from CBeebies and use the opportunity to introduce the concept of ‘matching’ for his pyjamas and socks. E.g. colour, stripes, polka dots. He takes to this surprisingly quickly. Later he extends it to always having matching coloured plates and cutlery!
Have a I created a compulsive-obsessive?!
Me: Look they’re matching! Are they matching?
Marc. Yes, matching.
He uses this word in Catalan sentences and then my wife started doing so!
Toilet /potty training. Starting this month. We use gold and silver stars which he sticks on a path of numbers and another with the alphabet to reinforce these areas. I introduce ‘big wee/ enormous wee’.
Me: Let’s have a morning wee wee!
Bath time: I reinforce “there’s STILL some water LEFT.
Watching football: Me: Look Marc, there’s NO-ONE playing on the pitch, is there?
I make sure I use questions tags as much as possible and have chosen “have got’ rather than ‘have’ which is more natural for me and is common in standard southern English. I notice that I sometimes use both forms, but this is the exception.
OUTPUT
In general he’s becoming more talkative. He loves repeating everything, often over and over again, which gives us a clue to the way in which new vocabulary is learned and remembered. When I walk in the door he automatically switches to English, and
he’s playing with his toys in Englsh even though I’m not there, which is unusual. And thus reinforcing the language.
Pron:
Some words don’t sound totally English. Words with an ‘r’ at the end sound something between Spanish and American!! I ‘correct’ him and my theory that it’s just a phase are shown to be right later on and this pronunciation disappears.
Negative forms:
‘Don’t / doesn’t’ appear more frequently from the middle of this month but using the third person: “Marc doesn’t like it.”
Also, ‘can’t’ is fixed in his lexicon: “I can’t!” or “I can’t believe it” appears again as he remembers the phrase he picked up in Dublin.
He’s confusing ‘clock’ and ‘watch’ which he didn’t previously. This often happens as the child works out the rules.
Due to his interest in planes he’s now using “take off “ and land” which I’ve been working on with him.
Spanish words and phrases from the Playschool come out occasionally:
‘Me he caido’ (I’ve fallen down). When he says this with me I repeat it in English and he repeats it back to me.
I’ve got a yellow ‘boli’ (pen). I found it difficult to get him to say ‘pen’.
Marc: “It’s not a ‘pen’ it’s a ‘boli’.” The following month he uses the English.
Pron: Some small mistakes: ‘oven’ is pronounces with an ‘o’ not an ‘u’ and Telly Tubbies sounds like the Spanish ‘Toobies”. He repeats my corrections without protest and without problems. I noticed that a 6-year old Spanish child wasn’t able to say “See you soon” in an English accent, which shows the importance of exposing the child to a language as early as possible.
Songs:
He’s able to sing the first lines of ‘Super Trouper’ and still sings the complete Twinkle Twinkle, although the last lines are not so clear. He also likes ‘Daisy, Diasy, give me your answer do…” and asks me to sing it to him and joins in as best he can. Basically, if you’re in a situation try and think of a song that matches it. There’s nearly always one. If it’s sunny you can use:
‘Good day sunshine’ or ‘Here comes the Sun’ by the Beatles, or ‘The Sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray’ , etc. They really do help with language acquisition. Make an effort, and you’ll be repaid.
Body awareness:
He can now say: “I’m hungry”; “I’m tired” and asks for ‘water’ in English. He hasn’t said ‘I’m thirsty” yet.
November 2009 2 years 6 months
Input
He’s mad on Mr Men this month instead of Cbeebies and he’s been watching the same DVD over and over again although we’ve also watched Cbeebies at various other times. He likes ‘Show me show me’ . We’ve also connected to youtube and seen the ABC song with India and Elmo and Skyped my mother on Sunday evenings, and he’s participated more than previously.
During the last week of the month we played some Wiggles songs:e.g
“Skip to the Loo” which he wanted to watch to death! I also played it for him on the guitar.
Output
He’s saying turn it on/off instead of ‘open / close’ for lights most of the time.
He can practically say the alphabet using the youtube sesame street version mentioned, reciting to my mother on the Skype.
He can repeat typical phrases from the children’s programmes verbatim and sing along to the songs. Show importance of this type of input. Better when watched with a ‘teacher’ adult to make it more interactive.
Requests and permission:
Can you open the box Daddy
Can I have an ice cube?
I love you Daddy. (Ahhh! )
I’ve got little hiccups, no big ones.
Almost a conversation now on Skype
Nana:“ How are you today”
Marc: ‘I’m fine thanks’. I’m playing nana.
Really?
Yes,… (and then runs away !)
Using an imperative.
When he saw me on the computer he says: “Daddy you work”
And he’s started using “Shhh be quiet. “
Pron.
Pronounces the ‘R’ in a ‘strange’ way at the end of words: e.g. star , here almost American!
Very clear English accent. When I arrive home one evening I asked ‘where’s Marc’ and a clear voice with an English accent answered: “I’m in the bathroom”.
He subido el año en dos partes, ya que hay más contenidos.
Year 3 / El tercer año – May 16th 2009 - May 16th 2010
May-June 2009
INPUT
I’m still managing to spend at least an hour with him in the mornings. We watch CBeebies and I ask questions about the programmes we watch as well as repeat some of the phrases they use. He loves the songs: The Happy Birthday song , the Popshop programme which has catchy tunes and interaction with the viewer and the Boogie Beebies that involves dancing and doing the actions based on themes such as ‘the farm’, ‘football’, ‘pirates’, etc. Watching these programmes and doing the actions is becoming a ritual and he’s learning a lot of the vocabulary and phrases which he can repeat to me.
For this 3rd year I’m continuing with the morning routine of changing and dressing him in the morning and singing him songs, which he enjoys a lot. And walking him to school and focusing on things happening in the street and the weather.
In the evenings he’s awake till very late which means even when I get in after 9pm I can still spend at least 2 hours speaking and playing with him.
We’re still focusing on the colours, nursery rhymes, vehicles, animals, sports.
I’ve been doing press-ups and sit-ups and he spurs me on (even when I don’t want to).
“Do press ups daddy!”
If he makes a mistake I reformulate: e.g. I don’t want it (shoes). Oh so, you don’t want them?
I stick to the premises that ‘correction’ and reformulation are necessary in English due to the lower than normal input from myself and television (3 hours a days Monday – Friday and 6-10 hours at the weekend per day ). In an English speaking country I wouldn’t ‘need’ to do this. My wife hasn’t corrected his ‘No vol’ (he doesn’t want), since she knows that with the amount of input he will naturally say ‘No vull’ (I don’t want) when ‘ready’.
Remember that Contact Time isn’t Input Time if you’re not talking to the child. If you proudly think to yourself that you’ve spent two hours with your child at the swimming pool but have hardly said anything then your input time may have been 10 minutes and a couple of phrases.
OUTPUT
His accent is standard southern English and Catalan when speaking Catalan with some small deviations which I’ll point out.
He’s learning the colours. He uses ‘green’ without ‘it’s green’ and sometimes mixes it up with ‘blue’. He finds it hard to distinguish between silver and white when naming car colours.
He can say ‘helicopter’ correctly.
He’s starting to distinguish sheep from lamb; kitten from cat.
He can say “I don’t want it, but doesn’t use ‘I want them’ (in the plural).
He replies with the full phrases: ‘Yes, it is’ or ‘No it isn’t’
JULY /JULIO 2009
This month I’m working till 10pm and getting home at nearly 11pm. Despite this, he stays up for me and this means he gets another hour’s input. To make up for this I spend two hours with him in the morning and then take him to the playgroup.
INPUT.
More work on colours, animals, as the previous month.
On youtube we’re working on the alphabet songs, I’m not bothered that some are American.
and other songs such as:
‘Jelly on a plate”, which was new to me! Includes the sentences:
‘Jelly on a plate, wibble wobble’. ‘Sweeties in a jar, shake and rattle’ and ‘sausages in a pan, sizzle sozzle.’
He knows what ‘food’ and ‘drink’ is and can name ‘bananas’, ‘apples’ and ‘water’, beer’.
I get him to name food, drink and objects in the supermarket. It becomes a fun learning opportunity. At least most of the time between the usual children’s ‘naughty’ behaviour’!
OUTPUT
He still says ‘I no want’ despite my efforts. But can be ‘made’ to say :’I don’t’
A couple times he’s said ‘a car blue’ but it’s the exception. He’s now started to use the pronoun ‘one’:
‘a blue one’,’ this one’
Possessives seems totally mastered: ‘it’s daddy’s’, etc.
H e uttered the first ‘complete sentence: “I want a jelly on a plate’ which shows the importance and usefulness of children’s rhymes! He can reply to the question: “what noise do the sausages make’” “Sizzle, sozzle’ with the correct pronunciation of the voiced /Z/.
He finds it easier to say certain catalan/ Spanish words which are2-syllable :
Bibi (bottle)/ caca (poo) /cuca (willy) /pupa (it hurts/bump)/pipi (wee wees)
Although eventually he replaces these in English through making him repeat them in English.
Many parents don’t bother about this but although they are understood in one country they wouldn’t be in England. Perhaps I’m a purist but I like differentiating the languages!
August / Agosto 2009 Summary
This month included 2 weeks in the UK staying with my mother and two days with my sister and her six kids! He got extra input from my mother and playing with the other children which was good for him. In the car on the way to the UK and back I’d made a DVD with nursery rhymes and songs to give him extra input. Este mes pasamos 2 semanas en RU con mi madre y 2 días con mi hermana y sus 6 niños. Pudo jugar y hablar con los otros niños además de mi madre. Para el viaje en el coche le hice un DVD para escuchar sus canciones favoritas durante el viaje.
This month I really noticed how good his pronunciation is. He has imitated my English accent almost perfectly. He’s now become a parrot repeating practically everything we say in English or Catalan. And for the first time he’s playing with tone and volume when he speaks. E.g
“ I DON’T like it” in a ‘deep’ voice just for fun, which I encourage.
He’s still mixing the meaning of ‘want’ and ‘like’ as well as in Catalan. E.g I no want jelly, instead of ‘I don’t like jelly’. He sometimes uses ‘don’t’ and sometimes ‘no’. Although it’s becoming less common.
Now adding the pronoun: ‘I no like IT’ when Iplay him songs he doesn’t want to hear!
Also, he’s started using the famous: ‘What’s that? To find out the names of things.
He can count to 10 and we practise counting as he goes up stairs and I always ask him ‘How many cakes/sweets/toys, etc? ‘
Found a great ABC song on Sesame Street with the singer India and Elmo. Sesame Street invite guests singers and the result is good. He can do A-D and up to P with prompting .
Use of past tenses:
(19/08) “I saw a spider in the kitchen. “ Prompted by me pointing it out to him.
(30/08) I went to the swimming pool. – When we are coming back from the pool I try to make him remember what he’s done. Some of it sticks and he comes out with it later on.
This summary of activities is something that a lot of children’s TV programmes do now.e.g.
The Number Jacks and In the Night Garden.
He loves Timmy Time but there’s no speaking in it except for the catchy them tune! When I watch it with him I ask him questions about the action and add the vocabulary.
“Oh look he ‘s got a wheelbarrow. See that. He’s pushing a wheelbarrow’ What colour’s the wheelbarrow Marc?
It’s yellow-
What’s yellow?
The WHEELBARROW!
Oh yeah, that’s right. Hey, What’s he put in it?
- A football.
September / Setiembre 2009 (2 years 4 months)
This month included a long weekend in Dublin. I noticed a quantitative and qualitative leap in his English this month.
INPUT
The trip to Dublin gave him input from my friend’s 7 year old daughter.
This month he’s got new favourite songs from TV and radio. ‘Tonight tonight tonight’ from an Ad, Cold Play, Viva la Vida and Waltzing Matilda and Skip to my Lou, and Coming Round the mountain, all of which I played for him on the guitar for him to try and sing along to. We found them on the internet too. He also likes Super Trouper by ABBA.
We found Spiderman and Batman theme tunes on youtube which he loves and I added vocab such as spin a web and batman hitting the ‘baddies’, bif’ bop’ ‘zonk’ etc, which he loves repeating and trying out on me!! Nursery rhymes include London Bridge is falling down, Twinkle twinkle little star. And a song I wrote for him for his ‘naming party’: “Stars in his eyes”. He’s fascinated by stars!
His favourite Cbeebies programmes are. ‘in the night Garden’ Bob the builder’, The Tweenies’, Mister Maker (especially the part with the shapes: ‘I am a shape la la la, I am a circle/square/triangle/rectangle). And Timmy Time still ranks in there with them.
I’m working hard at maintaining routines. Clean my teeth, wash my hands, have a bath, and include the song “this is the way we wash our hands, wash our … on a cold and frosty morning.” Which isn’t so relevant in September!
Also, ‘Wakey wakey, rise and shine! Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!
Output.
From his trip to Dublin he surprised us by repeating phrases he’d heard from the girl Grace.
“I can’t believe it, there’s no butter left!” Although this could’ve been my friend Steve or his wife Heidi. When we say:”What does Grace say? He says this sentence!
He’s also picked up ‘Goodness me’! from my mother and’ Fuck!’ Sorry! Whoops!
Others include: That’s amazing!
When he says colours he prefers English as I’ve been told from the playschool. “That’s not ‘vermell’ it’s red!”
He repeats new phrases again and again which gives us a clue to how children learn language and certain words:
“I swam in the swimming pool”.
He’s starting to use the morning and night routine phrases.
He sometimes says “open the light” possibly influenced by the Spanish/Catalan, which I correct him on.
He prefers ‘pala’ to ‘spade’ at the moment.
And he says ‘deenosaw’ instead of ‘dine o saw’ for ‘dinosaur’. I sometimes suspect that my wife may try and say the words in English for him and he picks up her pronunciation. Luckily these are quickly remediated and eradicated!!
October / octubre 2009 (2 years 5months)
Looking back at my notes I see that this was an intensive month for language or maybe I just took more notes than normal. Well, here goes:
Input
This month I’ve added some new children’s tunes which I’ve found on youtube:
“There’s a hole in my bucket” He likes this a lot and comes up to me saying “Daddy, there’s a hole in my bucket.” !!
Anew song on the changing table in the morning: “Where’s your mama / papa gone?” which I normalize to ‘mummy’ / daddy.
A nursery rhyme book with CD, e.g twinkle twinkle little star. He can sing the whole song nearly.
I continue walking him to the playgroup every morning. It’s 5-10mins of intensive language and fun. Every morning is different depending on his mood, and mine of course!
We work on lots of questions of repetitive themes:
The weather: What’s the weather like? It’s sunny/cloudy/wet/raining/ cold/warm/ a bit cloudy. I say wrong sentences on purpose and he corrects me:
ME: It’s very sunny today, isn’t it?
Marc: No it’s CLOUDY!”
I introduce the Cbeebies autumn song we’ve been listening to :
“Brown leaves keep falling down down down onto the ground” which is relevant since the ground is strewn with leaves. I get him to sing along.
Dressing time: I sing songs from CBeebies and use the opportunity to introduce the concept of ‘matching’ for his pyjamas and socks. E.g. colour, stripes, polka dots. He takes to this surprisingly quickly. Later he extends it to always having matching coloured plates and cutlery!
Have a I created a compulsive-obsessive?!
Me: Look they’re matching! Are they matching?
Marc. Yes, matching.
He uses this word in Catalan sentences and then my wife started doing so!
Toilet /potty training. Starting this month. We use gold and silver stars which he sticks on a path of numbers and another with the alphabet to reinforce these areas. I introduce ‘big wee/ enormous wee’.
Me: Let’s have a morning wee wee!
Bath time: I reinforce “there’s STILL some water LEFT.
Watching football: Me: Look Marc, there’s NO-ONE playing on the pitch, is there?
I make sure I use questions tags as much as possible and have chosen “have got’ rather than ‘have’ which is more natural for me and is common in standard southern English. I notice that I sometimes use both forms, but this is the exception.
OUTPUT
In general he’s becoming more talkative. He loves repeating everything, often over and over again, which gives us a clue to the way in which new vocabulary is learned and remembered. When I walk in the door he automatically switches to English, and
he’s playing with his toys in Englsh even though I’m not there, which is unusual. And thus reinforcing the language.
Pron:
Some words don’t sound totally English. Words with an ‘r’ at the end sound something between Spanish and American!! I ‘correct’ him and my theory that it’s just a phase are shown to be right later on and this pronunciation disappears.
Negative forms:
‘Don’t / doesn’t’ appear more frequently from the middle of this month but using the third person: “Marc doesn’t like it.”
Also, ‘can’t’ is fixed in his lexicon: “I can’t!” or “I can’t believe it” appears again as he remembers the phrase he picked up in Dublin.
He’s confusing ‘clock’ and ‘watch’ which he didn’t previously. This often happens as the child works out the rules.
Due to his interest in planes he’s now using “take off “ and land” which I’ve been working on with him.
Spanish words and phrases from the Playschool come out occasionally:
‘Me he caido’ (I’ve fallen down). When he says this with me I repeat it in English and he repeats it back to me.
I’ve got a yellow ‘boli’ (pen). I found it difficult to get him to say ‘pen’.
Marc: “It’s not a ‘pen’ it’s a ‘boli’.” The following month he uses the English.
Pron: Some small mistakes: ‘oven’ is pronounces with an ‘o’ not an ‘u’ and Telly Tubbies sounds like the Spanish ‘Toobies”. He repeats my corrections without protest and without problems. I noticed that a 6-year old Spanish child wasn’t able to say “See you soon” in an English accent, which shows the importance of exposing the child to a language as early as possible.
Songs:
He’s able to sing the first lines of ‘Super Trouper’ and still sings the complete Twinkle Twinkle, although the last lines are not so clear. He also likes ‘Daisy, Diasy, give me your answer do…” and asks me to sing it to him and joins in as best he can. Basically, if you’re in a situation try and think of a song that matches it. There’s nearly always one. If it’s sunny you can use:
‘Good day sunshine’ or ‘Here comes the Sun’ by the Beatles, or ‘The Sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray’ , etc. They really do help with language acquisition. Make an effort, and you’ll be repaid.
Body awareness:
He can now say: “I’m hungry”; “I’m tired” and asks for ‘water’ in English. He hasn’t said ‘I’m thirsty” yet.
November 2009 2 years 6 months
Input
He’s mad on Mr Men this month instead of Cbeebies and he’s been watching the same DVD over and over again although we’ve also watched Cbeebies at various other times. He likes ‘Show me show me’ . We’ve also connected to youtube and seen the ABC song with India and Elmo and Skyped my mother on Sunday evenings, and he’s participated more than previously.
During the last week of the month we played some Wiggles songs:e.g
“Skip to the Loo” which he wanted to watch to death! I also played it for him on the guitar.
Output
He’s saying turn it on/off instead of ‘open / close’ for lights most of the time.
He can practically say the alphabet using the youtube sesame street version mentioned, reciting to my mother on the Skype.
He can repeat typical phrases from the children’s programmes verbatim and sing along to the songs. Show importance of this type of input. Better when watched with a ‘teacher’ adult to make it more interactive.
Requests and permission:
Can you open the box Daddy
Can I have an ice cube?
I love you Daddy. (Ahhh! )
I’ve got little hiccups, no big ones.
Almost a conversation now on Skype
Nana:“ How are you today”
Marc: ‘I’m fine thanks’. I’m playing nana.
Really?
Yes,… (and then runs away !)
Using an imperative.
When he saw me on the computer he says: “Daddy you work”
And he’s started using “Shhh be quiet. “
Pron.
Pronounces the ‘R’ in a ‘strange’ way at the end of words: e.g. star , here almost American!
Very clear English accent. When I arrive home one evening I asked ‘where’s Marc’ and a clear voice with an English accent answered: “I’m in the bathroom”.
The Second year / El Segundo Año
This is the second year all in one!
Year 2 / El segundo año - May 2008- May 2009 1 year old to two years old. From his first birthday, things started to get more interesting from an output point of view. Below I explain both the input activities and his output in language divided into different periods during the year until his second birthday. I also make some reference to his catalan and Spanish.
A partir de los 12 meses las cosas se volvieron más interesantes desde el punto de vista del Output. A continuación, por períodos detallo las actividades (input) y su lenguaje verbal (output) A veces hago referencia al catalán o el castellano.
INPUT
YouTube nursery rhymes: Some were of Indian origin.
Simple to more ‘complex’ones:
Ba ba black sheep.
Hickory Dickory Dock
London bridge is falling down.
Other songs:
My bonnie lies over the ocean and ‘row row row the boat’ (also the first year with him sitting on me as a boat). They love doing the movements with these type of songs.
‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’ which may have spawned his obsession with stars! This song has remained a favourite.
Bob the Builder: song. “Big fish little fish, cardboard box”. Fascinated by the song and pictures. Can we fix it? Yes we can.
“Ring a ring a rosey” and dancing with him falling down.
He begins to repeat “Fall down”. And after 3-4months (1yr 3 months) “We all fall down”. His first (finite) complete sentence.
BOOKS.
Book with 6 objects in different colours:
Tractor, banana, apple, bath, orange,
Progressed from
1)getting him to identify the objects. Where’s the tractor?
2) Getting him to say the object. What’s this? - a tractor. Yes, IT’s a tractor, etc
3) The colours.
Introducing the colour: This is a green tractor ,What colour is it?
Then matching a blob with the colour of the object with the object from a set of 5 alternatives. This took a while. Little by little and with much repetition he learned to say the objects and finally use the colours as well. What colour’s the tractor? What’s this? It’s a green tractor.
(At 2 years and 7 months he took out the book one day and went through it saying all the objects with their colour and adding comments. It’s a blue bath with taps. Ooo, the water’s hot. Daddy touch the water! )
I can’t believe how useful such a simple book has been! You get them to use it in more and more complex ways till they ‘grow out of them’.
Another great book was one with a Farm and music (based a bit on Old MacDonald). Each page has more and more animals and a voice that asks the child to find the matching animal on a cube and then put it in the slot on the right page. This integrates understanding a question, animals, counting and manipulating a shape and matching. It was great as a learning tool and attractive with its song (although a bit repetitive for an adult!). Interestingly, a 2 yr 11 months he picked it up again and went through each page correctly matching the animal to the correct page and then singing the song. Children will come back to and exploit books and songs, etc in different ways at different ages.
TV.
From Christmas 2008 (1 year and 5 months) he started to become more interested in children’s TV. CBeebies. Teletubbies, in the night garden, etc . Since this time he was gradually able to sit for longer and watch up to an hour or hour and a half once or twice a day. As I will mention later, this has been an invaluable supplement to his English.
Routines - don't underestimate the constant repetition and frequency you can build up through doing the routines with the 'baby'.
Bath time and my showers.
We worked on the going down and gone referring to the disappearing water down the plughole.
Going to the playgroup ( a 5-minute walk) MEGA INTENSIVE LANGUAGE INPUT
Commented on the weather. What’s the weather like today? Look Marc, it’s sunny, cloudy, windy, wet, raining, etc.
Stopped to look in the motorcycle shop window to learn, boots, jacket, helmet, bag, etc
Commented on things happening. Look a red car. Look, a plane (which later became another favourite word).
Changing and dressing him. I always sing to him or put vocabulary in small tunes and melodies to make them more interesting and memorable. ‘Nice clean nappy,la la la la!”
I always sang: “I put my blue jeans on.” Others are up to you, but “We are the champions” by Queen, “Wake me up before you go go.”
I get him to comb his hair and rub the prongs and say ‘ coooommmb’ almost as an onomatopoeic word which fascinated him. The lesson here is to make words interesting and involve them in the activities as well as making routines a time to ‘teach’ the child.
THE SECRETS
This second year is probably the most important as you lay down the rules of language interaction with the child. Remember the two rules:
1) Never respond to any other language except English.
2) Make a sacrifice and immerse them in English - max the exposure through direct super interactive speaking to the child(ren) focussing on questions and describing behaviour and things happening around them. Remember, DON'T just be with them in silence. They'll never learn to speak English like that!! Try and spend at least two very language intensive hours with them per day and as soon as they are interested in TV make sure they watch Cbeebies for a couple of hours when you're not there.
Their are differences between children, but if your child is 'normal' then if they don't end up speaking English to you, it's because you haven't followed those two basic rules. The system really does work.
You are to blame, not them.
OUTPUT - when language appears
From 13 months he made clearer sounds and began to try and say ‘light’, which sounded like ‘laa’. This was his first obsession, pointing to all types of lights and lamps and saying the word which he eventually said in Catalan: ‘’Llum’ from about 14 months. Finally, on our Christmas visit to the UK in 2008 (6 months later 1 yr 7 months), he suddenly looked at a wall light and said: ‘Light’ and then hardly ever said ‘llum’ again. The moral here is never give up! They say certain words and pronounce them when they are ‘ready’, although the amount of exposure is an important variable to ensure this happens and never accept the ‘foreign’ word as acceptable to you.
I worked on” going” and “gone” at bath time and he started saying ‘gone’ from 14 months and then repeated it for anything that was missing: ’mummy’, ‘ball’.
Then “ball gone”. Then, near the end of the second year:’ the ball’s gone’
The next step was to use the possessive’s, which non-natives find so hard:
March 2009: 1 year 10 months
“Daddy’s cup” then ”Marc’s ball”, and then in ad finitum.
I used questions to elicit this: What’s this? Daddy’s cup / Mummy’s car / Marc’s bed
March 14th 2008.
Is it raining?
- Rain, no. It’s gone!
April – May 2009 1 year 11 months - 2 years
Introduced alternative sentences. E.g. instead of ‘bye bye’ I said ‘ see you later’, then see you later alligator’.
Phrases:
“I want / I like” - started to use them but confused the meaning. Used ‘don’t want’ without the subject. And sentences such as:
Not raining / not working/
Finished sentences:
It’s all gone (instead of all gone).
First use of past tense: Oh look it fell. (after repeating this to him hundreds of times). Still not bothering to get him to differentiate ‘drop/fell.
Corrected the pronunciation of:
“triangle’ that he pronounced “treeangle’ – We listened to James Blunt on Sesame Street singing a spoof version of his hit called ‘Triangle’ to ‘cure’ this.
He says ‘on’ but not ‘turn on’ for lights and I was trying to get him to turn on and off the lights saying” turn it on / turn it off’ He has sometimes said ‘open the light’ influenced from the Catalan, and even at 2 years 9 months he occasionally said it.
He’s started getting picky about songs on youtube and shouts ‘don’t want’ to which I replied:
Say: “I don’t want ‘row the boat’” which he attempted to repeat.
Year 2 / El segundo año - May 2008- May 2009 1 year old to two years old. From his first birthday, things started to get more interesting from an output point of view. Below I explain both the input activities and his output in language divided into different periods during the year until his second birthday. I also make some reference to his catalan and Spanish.
A partir de los 12 meses las cosas se volvieron más interesantes desde el punto de vista del Output. A continuación, por períodos detallo las actividades (input) y su lenguaje verbal (output) A veces hago referencia al catalán o el castellano.
INPUT
YouTube nursery rhymes: Some were of Indian origin.
Simple to more ‘complex’ones:
Ba ba black sheep.
Hickory Dickory Dock
London bridge is falling down.
Other songs:
My bonnie lies over the ocean and ‘row row row the boat’ (also the first year with him sitting on me as a boat). They love doing the movements with these type of songs.
‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’ which may have spawned his obsession with stars! This song has remained a favourite.
Bob the Builder: song. “Big fish little fish, cardboard box”. Fascinated by the song and pictures. Can we fix it? Yes we can.
“Ring a ring a rosey” and dancing with him falling down.
He begins to repeat “Fall down”. And after 3-4months (1yr 3 months) “We all fall down”. His first (finite) complete sentence.
BOOKS.
Book with 6 objects in different colours:
Tractor, banana, apple, bath, orange,
Progressed from
1)getting him to identify the objects. Where’s the tractor?
2) Getting him to say the object. What’s this? - a tractor. Yes, IT’s a tractor, etc
3) The colours.
Introducing the colour: This is a green tractor ,What colour is it?
Then matching a blob with the colour of the object with the object from a set of 5 alternatives. This took a while. Little by little and with much repetition he learned to say the objects and finally use the colours as well. What colour’s the tractor? What’s this? It’s a green tractor.
(At 2 years and 7 months he took out the book one day and went through it saying all the objects with their colour and adding comments. It’s a blue bath with taps. Ooo, the water’s hot. Daddy touch the water! )
I can’t believe how useful such a simple book has been! You get them to use it in more and more complex ways till they ‘grow out of them’.
Another great book was one with a Farm and music (based a bit on Old MacDonald). Each page has more and more animals and a voice that asks the child to find the matching animal on a cube and then put it in the slot on the right page. This integrates understanding a question, animals, counting and manipulating a shape and matching. It was great as a learning tool and attractive with its song (although a bit repetitive for an adult!). Interestingly, a 2 yr 11 months he picked it up again and went through each page correctly matching the animal to the correct page and then singing the song. Children will come back to and exploit books and songs, etc in different ways at different ages.
TV.
From Christmas 2008 (1 year and 5 months) he started to become more interested in children’s TV. CBeebies. Teletubbies, in the night garden, etc . Since this time he was gradually able to sit for longer and watch up to an hour or hour and a half once or twice a day. As I will mention later, this has been an invaluable supplement to his English.
Routines - don't underestimate the constant repetition and frequency you can build up through doing the routines with the 'baby'.
Bath time and my showers.
We worked on the going down and gone referring to the disappearing water down the plughole.
Going to the playgroup ( a 5-minute walk) MEGA INTENSIVE LANGUAGE INPUT
Commented on the weather. What’s the weather like today? Look Marc, it’s sunny, cloudy, windy, wet, raining, etc.
Stopped to look in the motorcycle shop window to learn, boots, jacket, helmet, bag, etc
Commented on things happening. Look a red car. Look, a plane (which later became another favourite word).
Changing and dressing him. I always sing to him or put vocabulary in small tunes and melodies to make them more interesting and memorable. ‘Nice clean nappy,la la la la!”
I always sang: “I put my blue jeans on.” Others are up to you, but “We are the champions” by Queen, “Wake me up before you go go.”
I get him to comb his hair and rub the prongs and say ‘ coooommmb’ almost as an onomatopoeic word which fascinated him. The lesson here is to make words interesting and involve them in the activities as well as making routines a time to ‘teach’ the child.
THE SECRETS
This second year is probably the most important as you lay down the rules of language interaction with the child. Remember the two rules:
1) Never respond to any other language except English.
2) Make a sacrifice and immerse them in English - max the exposure through direct super interactive speaking to the child(ren) focussing on questions and describing behaviour and things happening around them. Remember, DON'T just be with them in silence. They'll never learn to speak English like that!! Try and spend at least two very language intensive hours with them per day and as soon as they are interested in TV make sure they watch Cbeebies for a couple of hours when you're not there.
Their are differences between children, but if your child is 'normal' then if they don't end up speaking English to you, it's because you haven't followed those two basic rules. The system really does work.
You are to blame, not them.
OUTPUT - when language appears
From 13 months he made clearer sounds and began to try and say ‘light’, which sounded like ‘laa’. This was his first obsession, pointing to all types of lights and lamps and saying the word which he eventually said in Catalan: ‘’Llum’ from about 14 months. Finally, on our Christmas visit to the UK in 2008 (6 months later 1 yr 7 months), he suddenly looked at a wall light and said: ‘Light’ and then hardly ever said ‘llum’ again. The moral here is never give up! They say certain words and pronounce them when they are ‘ready’, although the amount of exposure is an important variable to ensure this happens and never accept the ‘foreign’ word as acceptable to you.
I worked on” going” and “gone” at bath time and he started saying ‘gone’ from 14 months and then repeated it for anything that was missing: ’mummy’, ‘ball’.
Then “ball gone”. Then, near the end of the second year:’ the ball’s gone’
The next step was to use the possessive’s, which non-natives find so hard:
March 2009: 1 year 10 months
“Daddy’s cup” then ”Marc’s ball”, and then in ad finitum.
I used questions to elicit this: What’s this? Daddy’s cup / Mummy’s car / Marc’s bed
March 14th 2008.
Is it raining?
- Rain, no. It’s gone!
April – May 2009 1 year 11 months - 2 years
Introduced alternative sentences. E.g. instead of ‘bye bye’ I said ‘ see you later’, then see you later alligator’.
Phrases:
“I want / I like” - started to use them but confused the meaning. Used ‘don’t want’ without the subject. And sentences such as:
Not raining / not working/
Finished sentences:
It’s all gone (instead of all gone).
First use of past tense: Oh look it fell. (after repeating this to him hundreds of times). Still not bothering to get him to differentiate ‘drop/fell.
Corrected the pronunciation of:
“triangle’ that he pronounced “treeangle’ – We listened to James Blunt on Sesame Street singing a spoof version of his hit called ‘Triangle’ to ‘cure’ this.
He says ‘on’ but not ‘turn on’ for lights and I was trying to get him to turn on and off the lights saying” turn it on / turn it off’ He has sometimes said ‘open the light’ influenced from the Catalan, and even at 2 years 9 months he occasionally said it.
He’s started getting picky about songs on youtube and shouts ‘don’t want’ to which I replied:
Say: “I don’t want ‘row the boat’” which he attempted to repeat.
The First Year / El primer año
INTRODUCTION - INTRODUCCIÓN
This blog has been organised in chronological order and by INPUT, the language I supply, and OUTPUT, the language the ‘subject’, my son Marc, uses. You ‘ll notice that there was significantly less output than input in the first 18 months, which of course is to be expected.
He organizado el blog en orden cronológico y por INPUT – los estímulos, actividades, lenguaje, etc que yo ‘doy’ desde fuera, por decirlo de una manera, y el OUTPUT, las palabras o lenguaje que el ‘sujeto’ mi hijo Marc dice o utiliza. En los primeros 18 meses hay menos output y más input y por a poco voy de mes a mes a quincena a quincena hasta semana a semana según el tiempo y la cantidad de cosas nuevas que hay.
Del 0 (16/05/09) a 12 meses - From 0 (16/05/09) to 12 months
Como casi todos los bebés del mundo Marc no dijo ninguna palabra inteligible hasta los 12 meses, y quizás lógicamente la primera era “caca” y luego “mummy” y luego “Daddy”. Sin embargo, hay muchos padres que creen oír palabras e incluso hasta frases de los sonidos que emiten. Las palabras serán los equivalentes a ‘mama’ , ‘papa’, ‘caca’, ‘pi pi’, ‘bibi’ etc, según cuál es la más fácil de decir.
Los principios
Desde el principio le hablaba en inglés. No era un caso de “no me va a entender de todas formas, entonces da igual que le hable en inglés, catalán o castellano.” Todos los estudios demuestran que desde el primer día los bebés responden a estímulos del exterior, entonces hay que aprovecharlo y empezar a acostumbrar su oído a los sonidos que luego emitirá. Incluso, es ahora cuando muchos padres deciden en qué idioma le hablarán. No te caigas en tópicos y lo que te dirán personas mal informadas de que 2 idiomas (o 3) le confundirán. Los millones de casos en el mundo a lo largo de la historia avalan la teoría y la práctica de que 1 padre – 1 idioma desde el principio es el método que mejor funciona.
Yo quería que me llamara ‘daddy’ que es el equivalente a ‘papá , y me identifica en inglés con mi cultura y la manera habitual de dirigirse al padre. Mi mujer utiliza ‘mummy’ ó ‘mami’ que se aproxima mucho al inglés. Mi mujer me llama ‘el pare’ en catalán cuando habla con Marc. Aunque no me importa que me hable de la relación ‘padre’ en tercera persona en otro idioma, por ahora, después de 2,5 años creo que es mejor cuando se dirige a mí se utiliza mi ‘título’ que me identifica ‘daddy’ porque no me llamo ‘pare’.
The beginnings
From the very beginning I’ve spoken to Marc in English. Even if they don’t seem like they’re taking it in because ‘they’re just babies’, in fact they are assimilating the words and studies show that they respond to words and sounds from the very first day. So, don’t waste this opportunity to get them used to the sounds of a language. Parents decide during the first year (or even before they are born) what language they’re going to speak to the child. There are so many advantages to a child of speaking more than one language that it’s a shame to let this opportunity pass if you are a native speaker of another language. Don’t listen to the unfounded arguments of some who say that a child will get confused learning more than one language at a time. The millions of people around the world who are successful bilinguals are testimony to the fact that a child can easily ‘cope’ with the acquisition of 2 or even 3 languages if they are clearly separated by parent or speaker.
I wanted Marc to call me ‘Daddy’ as this identifies me with my language and culture. My wife uses ‘mami’, which sounds as near as you can get to ‘mummy’ in English. I’ve also tried to get my wife to use ‘Daddy’ instead of ‘Pare’ (‘dad’ in catalan) when she asks him to call me to activate his connection with me in English.
INPUT
As I’ve already mentioned, we’ve used the 1 parent 1 language method from the beginning. I use English, and my wife Catalan with an occasional intrusion from Spanish.
I tried to optimize my encounters with Marc singing to him and speaking to him in ‘baby language’. I used the baby changing table in the morning as an opportunity to speak and sing to him with ‘nonsense’ rhymes I made up to incorporate target vocabulary, such as ‘nice clean nappy, nice clean nappy, la la la …” or songs that seemed suitable such as “Blue Jeans. –When I wake up in the morning light, I put on my jeans and I feel, alright!! Ipull my blue jeans on, I pull my old blue jeans on…etc. which he is now able to sing along to at the age of 2.5 years. Other useful songs are Old Macdonald due to the animals and their noises which vary greatly between languages! I used the ‘usual’ baby situational phrases “Oh dear, Marc’s got a sore botty’, “Has Marc got a sore bottie then?” It seems that instinctively we use the name of the baby in the third person. I also used “You’ve got a sore bottie, haven’t you?. Another consideration was what forms of certain verbs to use, which may seem a strange thing to think about to some parents! I’ve opted for the ‘have got’ form which is the dominant form in colloquial southern England English. I notice that I often use both forms, I have or I’ve got, probably from having lived in Ireland for 11 years from 12-23 years. With Marc I always try to be consistent with the forms as providing a good model from the beginning is extremely important. It is also one of the reasons why you should always use your native language as you are unlikely to help your child with a second language and you’ll be unable to transmit the subtleties of the language or your culture. Your native language is your heritage.
Le hablaba como cualquier bebé con las frases pero siempre en inglés mientras su madre ha utilizado siempre el catalán, aunque usa ‘mi amor’ en castellano en vez de ‘amor meu’ y ‘besitos’ en lugar de ‘petonets’ y varios ejemplos así que de todas formas son habituales entre bilingües en Cataluña.
Utilizaba el cambiador por las mañanas para establecer una rutina y le cantaba mucho. No infravalores el poder del canto. Los ritmos hacen que las palabras gustan y entran más fácilmente. Y en general a los bebés y los niños pequeños les encantan las canciones.
Aparte de las frases como “Have you done wee wees?” “How are you today” “Did you sleep well” inventaba canciones con mis propias melodias para incluír palabras como “Nice clean nappy, nice clean nappy, la la la , la la la “ Cuando empezaba a ponerse sus vaqueros le cantaban “ Blue Jeans” When I wake up in the morning light, I put on my jeans and I fell alright!... etc. Y le gustaba la canción de _____ que cantan A,E,A,E,I,O,you, you are sometimes right” También el clásico ”Old MacDonald” con los sonidos de los animales.
OUTPUT
I’d like to say that Marc spoke before he was one by interpreting some of the sounds that he said. I have a friend who swore that his son was saying whole phrases at 5 months, so less said of this the better!! In the end ‘caca’ (poo) was his first word. Great!! Children tend to repeat the words they hear the most in a given situation and since the mother changed him more than I did with a bizarre interest in the type of vocab, this isn’t a surprise. Some words in Catalan (and the same in Spanish) are easier for a child. A ‘coco’ – a ‘bump’ for example. I worked on him using: I’ve bumped my head/arm’” etc, as well as ‘wee wee’ and ‘poo’. Well hey, he was just a baby!! And at 2.5 years he’s now using them in English!
El primer año, como era de esperar, hacia sonidos que se aproximaba a las palabras pero ‘de verdad’ no decía nada que se podía contar como palabras, aunque hubiera jurado que dijo ‘Daddy’ un par de veces!! Y su primera palabra era ‘caca’ cuando tenía 12 meses. Bonita palabra para empezar su vida de trilingüe ¡ En inglés en torno a su primer cumpleaños decía ‘dad’.
This blog has been organised in chronological order and by INPUT, the language I supply, and OUTPUT, the language the ‘subject’, my son Marc, uses. You ‘ll notice that there was significantly less output than input in the first 18 months, which of course is to be expected.
He organizado el blog en orden cronológico y por INPUT – los estímulos, actividades, lenguaje, etc que yo ‘doy’ desde fuera, por decirlo de una manera, y el OUTPUT, las palabras o lenguaje que el ‘sujeto’ mi hijo Marc dice o utiliza. En los primeros 18 meses hay menos output y más input y por a poco voy de mes a mes a quincena a quincena hasta semana a semana según el tiempo y la cantidad de cosas nuevas que hay.
Del 0 (16/05/09) a 12 meses - From 0 (16/05/09) to 12 months
Como casi todos los bebés del mundo Marc no dijo ninguna palabra inteligible hasta los 12 meses, y quizás lógicamente la primera era “caca” y luego “mummy” y luego “Daddy”. Sin embargo, hay muchos padres que creen oír palabras e incluso hasta frases de los sonidos que emiten. Las palabras serán los equivalentes a ‘mama’ , ‘papa’, ‘caca’, ‘pi pi’, ‘bibi’ etc, según cuál es la más fácil de decir.
Los principios
Desde el principio le hablaba en inglés. No era un caso de “no me va a entender de todas formas, entonces da igual que le hable en inglés, catalán o castellano.” Todos los estudios demuestran que desde el primer día los bebés responden a estímulos del exterior, entonces hay que aprovecharlo y empezar a acostumbrar su oído a los sonidos que luego emitirá. Incluso, es ahora cuando muchos padres deciden en qué idioma le hablarán. No te caigas en tópicos y lo que te dirán personas mal informadas de que 2 idiomas (o 3) le confundirán. Los millones de casos en el mundo a lo largo de la historia avalan la teoría y la práctica de que 1 padre – 1 idioma desde el principio es el método que mejor funciona.
Yo quería que me llamara ‘daddy’ que es el equivalente a ‘papá , y me identifica en inglés con mi cultura y la manera habitual de dirigirse al padre. Mi mujer utiliza ‘mummy’ ó ‘mami’ que se aproxima mucho al inglés. Mi mujer me llama ‘el pare’ en catalán cuando habla con Marc. Aunque no me importa que me hable de la relación ‘padre’ en tercera persona en otro idioma, por ahora, después de 2,5 años creo que es mejor cuando se dirige a mí se utiliza mi ‘título’ que me identifica ‘daddy’ porque no me llamo ‘pare’.
The beginnings
From the very beginning I’ve spoken to Marc in English. Even if they don’t seem like they’re taking it in because ‘they’re just babies’, in fact they are assimilating the words and studies show that they respond to words and sounds from the very first day. So, don’t waste this opportunity to get them used to the sounds of a language. Parents decide during the first year (or even before they are born) what language they’re going to speak to the child. There are so many advantages to a child of speaking more than one language that it’s a shame to let this opportunity pass if you are a native speaker of another language. Don’t listen to the unfounded arguments of some who say that a child will get confused learning more than one language at a time. The millions of people around the world who are successful bilinguals are testimony to the fact that a child can easily ‘cope’ with the acquisition of 2 or even 3 languages if they are clearly separated by parent or speaker.
I wanted Marc to call me ‘Daddy’ as this identifies me with my language and culture. My wife uses ‘mami’, which sounds as near as you can get to ‘mummy’ in English. I’ve also tried to get my wife to use ‘Daddy’ instead of ‘Pare’ (‘dad’ in catalan) when she asks him to call me to activate his connection with me in English.
INPUT
As I’ve already mentioned, we’ve used the 1 parent 1 language method from the beginning. I use English, and my wife Catalan with an occasional intrusion from Spanish.
I tried to optimize my encounters with Marc singing to him and speaking to him in ‘baby language’. I used the baby changing table in the morning as an opportunity to speak and sing to him with ‘nonsense’ rhymes I made up to incorporate target vocabulary, such as ‘nice clean nappy, nice clean nappy, la la la …” or songs that seemed suitable such as “Blue Jeans. –When I wake up in the morning light, I put on my jeans and I feel, alright!! Ipull my blue jeans on, I pull my old blue jeans on…etc. which he is now able to sing along to at the age of 2.5 years. Other useful songs are Old Macdonald due to the animals and their noises which vary greatly between languages! I used the ‘usual’ baby situational phrases “Oh dear, Marc’s got a sore botty’, “Has Marc got a sore bottie then?” It seems that instinctively we use the name of the baby in the third person. I also used “You’ve got a sore bottie, haven’t you?. Another consideration was what forms of certain verbs to use, which may seem a strange thing to think about to some parents! I’ve opted for the ‘have got’ form which is the dominant form in colloquial southern England English. I notice that I often use both forms, I have or I’ve got, probably from having lived in Ireland for 11 years from 12-23 years. With Marc I always try to be consistent with the forms as providing a good model from the beginning is extremely important. It is also one of the reasons why you should always use your native language as you are unlikely to help your child with a second language and you’ll be unable to transmit the subtleties of the language or your culture. Your native language is your heritage.
Le hablaba como cualquier bebé con las frases pero siempre en inglés mientras su madre ha utilizado siempre el catalán, aunque usa ‘mi amor’ en castellano en vez de ‘amor meu’ y ‘besitos’ en lugar de ‘petonets’ y varios ejemplos así que de todas formas son habituales entre bilingües en Cataluña.
Utilizaba el cambiador por las mañanas para establecer una rutina y le cantaba mucho. No infravalores el poder del canto. Los ritmos hacen que las palabras gustan y entran más fácilmente. Y en general a los bebés y los niños pequeños les encantan las canciones.
Aparte de las frases como “Have you done wee wees?” “How are you today” “Did you sleep well” inventaba canciones con mis propias melodias para incluír palabras como “Nice clean nappy, nice clean nappy, la la la , la la la “ Cuando empezaba a ponerse sus vaqueros le cantaban “ Blue Jeans” When I wake up in the morning light, I put on my jeans and I fell alright!... etc. Y le gustaba la canción de _____ que cantan A,E,A,E,I,O,you, you are sometimes right” También el clásico ”Old MacDonald” con los sonidos de los animales.
OUTPUT
I’d like to say that Marc spoke before he was one by interpreting some of the sounds that he said. I have a friend who swore that his son was saying whole phrases at 5 months, so less said of this the better!! In the end ‘caca’ (poo) was his first word. Great!! Children tend to repeat the words they hear the most in a given situation and since the mother changed him more than I did with a bizarre interest in the type of vocab, this isn’t a surprise. Some words in Catalan (and the same in Spanish) are easier for a child. A ‘coco’ – a ‘bump’ for example. I worked on him using: I’ve bumped my head/arm’” etc, as well as ‘wee wee’ and ‘poo’. Well hey, he was just a baby!! And at 2.5 years he’s now using them in English!
El primer año, como era de esperar, hacia sonidos que se aproximaba a las palabras pero ‘de verdad’ no decía nada que se podía contar como palabras, aunque hubiera jurado que dijo ‘Daddy’ un par de veces!! Y su primera palabra era ‘caca’ cuando tenía 12 meses. Bonita palabra para empezar su vida de trilingüe ¡ En inglés en torno a su primer cumpleaños decía ‘dad’.
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