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.
No comments:
Post a Comment