Sunday, September 25, 2011

June - Septiembre 2011 Summer / Verano 2011 - 4 years old

Resumen / Summary This summer period has been characterised by fewer than ever notes taken by the author but more video espcially since buying a Blackberry that makes spontaneous video easier and showing Marc's English to other people easier too. Now he's speaking so much, it's more difficult to select exactly what to write down. Also, his progress in grammar is less apparent as his English is getting more accurate all the time. This summer we tried out some English school alternatives. INPUT He'3 finished school year P3 at the end of June and we were faced with the usual dilemma of childcare. www.english-nanny.com provides the option in English but living in Mollet it's more difficult to find somebody. For one morning I got an English carer to look after him for the morning in Barcelona and he enjoyed that. Although, as often happens the first time with many children, he was a little shy. I also repeated this one morning system at the beginning of September. In July we decided to send him to ISCAT in La Garriga, which is an English medium school. He enjoyed the atmosphere there, as it is small, cosy and friendly. However, the classes were more English lesson centered than we expected and he was the only native speaker child. this meant that although the classes were in English, there was a focus on structures which were irrelevant to him. Also, as he's quite shy sometimes in classes the teacher thought he didn't speak much English and I noticed she spoke to him as if he was non-native. When I played her a video of Marc 'chatting away' in English on my Blackberry she was quite surprised. After that she made him team leader in the class but the 3 weeks there weren't that enriching for him. Jumping to September, he started P4 and this year at Agora, Sant Cugat they've changed the school into an international one. In real terms this means that 40% of school time is immersion in English, with two English speaking teachers in the class taking care of the teaching through the medium of English. Another 40% is in Catalan and 20% in Spanish. There's another English speaking boy in his class, who has an English mother, and Marc says they speak English together. He only joined this year so isn't one of Marc's 'friends' yet. Obviously, from my point of view, the new set up promises to be very benefial to Marc's English as he'll be learning to read and write using the phonics method which is being introduced by the head of English Ruth Sale. We spent two weeks in England in August and checked out school offering so called HOLIDAY CLUBS to look after kids of working parents during the holidays. We found one which is part of a school very near to my mother's flat with a view to using it next year. We went to check it out with Marc and there was a 'tame' fox in the playground field which fascinated him. We also saw squirrels. The main point is 'selling it' to him and we let him talk to the kids setting up 'tents' under a tree. The amount of real English here would be very beneficial and we hope to try it out for a week next August. Parents should look at these options as an alternative in the summer. We managed quite a few trips and visits over the summer in England or English. We spent 2 days with my friends Nigel and Dawn and their son in Potter's Bar. After a day together they were playing happily together and enjoyed the day we spent on an 'activity farm' nearby. We spent a long weekend at Butlins in Minehead as an experiment!! Not everyone's cup of tea. I had some vague idea of Marc speaking and playing with other children, but as he wasn't doing any team games no real interaction happened. Only the half hour sessions in the play area of the restaurant in the evenings when he finished before us were spend playing in English with the children. Next year we plan to go with his cousin who'll be with him all the time and will probably be more fun than with his parents all the time!! While staying in my mother's flat Marc became 'obsessed' with a DVD: 'Monsters and Aliens', which he watched every day! Regarding films, they are a fantastic way of giving input. It throws up the issue of what type of language and also British vs American as most of the films tend to be American. He finds Monsters and Aliens easy to follow and hugh Laurie does the English accent of Doctor cockroach Phd yet other films have more slang and more extreme regional accents. My mother stayed with us for a week in September before the term started and thanks to her almost endless patience she spent most of the day with him, which was obviously fantastic for his English. A case in point is CARS and specially CARS 2 which became his first ever film he's seen at the cinema, and in 3D. Michael Cane does an English accent but Mater the tow truck has an extremely strong American accent and uses a lot of slang. Also, I thought the plot was more complicated than usual. Perhaps it's aimed at older children not 4 year olds!! ROUTINES I've tried to keep the book at bedtime routine although sometimes he's either not in the mood or too tired. Books included the classic fairy tales, the Gruffalo, a new one called the Pirate Cruncher he picked out in a bookshop and his books on the 'universe' and space. If I'm around in the morning I always wake him up, make him breakfast and sit with him as we watch CBeebies. Then if I can, i take him to school. this give an intense one hour contact to start the day. Sadly, It looks like I'm going to working at least 4 out of 5 mornings again this year. In the afternoons when I'm not in I'd like him to watch at least 1.5 hours of children's TV in English. In the evenings, I'm usually able to see him a couple of hours. We normally watch TV together, although it's adult TV. Very often they are talent shows, Britain's/ America's got talent and the X Factor are favourites. Some films that are 'appropriate' such as the X-Men or other space or superhero adventures that we deem 'ok' are watched in English. OUTPUT As mentioned in the summary, I haven't taken as many notes as before. In general, his English is really coming along and many of the errors are typical of any native speaker of his age, e.g irregular past tenses, comparative forms (much betterer), anything/nothing (I don't want nothing) , questions tags (although he's nailed the 'I'm right, aren't I? tag!) , and some prepositions (I'm good of that). He still plays in English all the time with only the occasionaly Catalan word or exclamation. And aftet his exposure to English, even at ISCAT he spoke more in English to his mother again. Since she doesn't tell him not to, and she understand him he doesn't really have an issue with it. Correcting his mother. Sometimes he'll ask her to say something in English (or I will) and then he cruelly laughs when she doesn't get the pronunciation right and taunts her 'again, again'! Learning and using new input Marc often surprises me when he comes out with phrases from films or TV programs or songs or even tongue twisters that I thought he hadn't learned. Once he reeled off a whole speech from a the 'alien' from monsters and aliens which sounded word perfect. The point is never underestimate the passive input that a child is getting. Obviously, you have to make sure that this is complemented with speaking interaction. Why? He still asks 'why?' incessantly and I'm trying to get him to ask 'how?' when it's the more relevant question? He also does this in Catalan. It show curiosity at least, even if it does become tiresome sometimes!! I sometimes make him ask the full question by asking 'Why what?´' and to be honest his question formation is excellent. not suprising with all that practice! Oddities He goes through stages, perhaps experimenting) and says things that I don't expect. One such occurrence was the use of 'yer' instead of 'you' at the end of a sentence. e.g 'Here's a ball for yer'. I haven't heard this for a while now. He sometimes picks up a word and then uses it wrongly. He learned 'allergic' from my mother and has used it to describe the English that the English speaking boy in his class uses: "I'm allergic to Ts English (!). I'm still not sure what he means as he can't explain it, perhaps his voice or accent or expressions? Perhaps due to my strictness, in English the intrusions are few and far between and words slipping out in Catalan are unusual, e.g 'disfraç' (costume), 'close the light' (turn off the light), he more frequently freely mixes sentences with his mother or adapts English words to Catalan, e.g lockejat the door' (locked. Catalan doesn't have one word for 'lock'). Awareness and current level He is now aware of other accents and sometimes immitates voices from American film characters. He's now fully aware that 'daddy's language' is English and that he speaks 3 languages. As far as his level in English is concerned it is probably in a par with an average child of his age and his accent is southern English and so far neither adults or children in England have mentioned his accent or if he might be foreign. I'm wondering if he'd be teased for being from Spain despite sounding English if he were in a school in the UK. His cousin introduced him to a friend as 'my cousin from Spain', which is accurate of course but obviously conjures up the connotations of probably not a native English speaker. These and other issues related to 'identity' will be more important when he's older.

Monday, May 23, 2011

2011 – FIRST Quarter 1st Jaunary – 16th May 2011 4th Birthday

2011 – FIRST Quarter 1st Jaunary – 16th May 2011
Summary /Resumen
Es un resumen que destaca los progresos principales en inglés de Marc durante el período del 1 enero 2011 hasta su 4 cumpleaños, 16 mayo 2011.
This summary highlights Marc’s English language progress from the 1st January 2011 up to his 4th birthday on 16th May.

I’m pleased to say that Marc has continued his progress in English to a stage in which to all intents and purposes he can pass for a native speaker for a child of his age. He gives the impression that he can ‘chat away’ in English and also plays exclusively in English whether alone or accompanied. Since going to school I’ve noticed that his Catalan that he uses when talking to his mother has improved and he very rarely says anything to her in English except for English words which have become part of his Catalan vocabulary.
Over the 4 years I’ve recorded a lot of his output out of interest and also for other people to compare what I’ve been writing in this blog if they have any doubts.

INPUT
Due to greater than ever demands at work and the fact that I often have early starts every morning, I can’t see Marc then, which I like to do, and have to rely on his mother switching on the British children’s TV to give him some input. Any early morning that I’m free I make sure I’m with him and try to take him to school and take advantage of the extra 20 minutes with him. Despite working late some evenings I can still spend 2 to 3 hours talking to him and only once or twice have I found him asleep when I’ve got in. ‘Luckily’, he goes to bed between 10.30-11pm most nights which means that I can nearly always spend time talking to him. Sometimes I just feel like going to bed or saying nothing, but I think it’s the extra effort in these cases that has helped so much. At the weekends he’s been getting 6-10 hours input with me per day. I don’t really count the school as having a significant input yet as they sing nursery rhymes for half an hour a day and he may say the occasional phrase to the English assistant.
Next year the school will become ‘international’ with whole subjects taught exclusively in English, which I see as being a positive supplement to the English he receives from me.

Media input
The majority of the midweek nights we watch British TV together, and I try to find something suitable from the adult TV later on, such as quiz shows e.g (The Cube), singing competitions (American Idol) documentaries or even football matches if they’ve on. We’ve even watched snooker and darts which he likes and has plenty of scope for language input.
At the weekend we watch either Cbeebies or Tinypops which has a lot of Canadian talking animal cartoons, eg. ‘Timothy goes to school’. It also has commercial breaks which gives input of a different type, such as ads for Disneyland and Disneyworld .
We also pick out clips from films he’s liked, such as Spykids, or songs we’ve heard on the car radio. He still likes some old favourites such as episodes of Woody Woodpecker and the Pink Panther.
Other sources of input
Other people
At the beginning of January he had a Scottish childminder a couple of mornings employed through my www.english-nanny.com agency. We went to the UK for a week in March and he had contact with my mother and his cousins, and my mother visited at Easter and spent 3 days playing with him intensively. Sometimes it’s good to see him getting input from other English speakers and hear him picking up new words and expressions.
We got a visit from a friend of mine from Dublin and his 9 year old daughter and he had no problems understanding the Dublin accent, unlike me when I went to school there when I was 12!
Game and books, etc.
I try my best to read a book to him every night but there was a period in January and February when he was being ‘difficult’ and wanted to go to sleep with him mother on the sofa in front of the television. Luckily, since about March he’s ‘allowed’ me read him a bedtime story in bed. I’ve bought three new ones this quarter: ‘The Gruffalo’ , Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. He’s very interested by the relationship between the characters and wanted me to explain what a ‘step mother’ is, which isn’t easy to grasp for a 3 year old!
We also read a book about the earth and universe, and refer to the globe that he has in his room. I loved the way he took my mother to his room and told her all about Japan and New Zealand where they had earthquakes. His main hot topics are planes, space and rockets.
Perhaps the language advantage of a father having a boy is that we can play ‘boys’ games together, such as football, catch, basketball and recently simple forms of cricket and ‘golf’ by hitting plastic balls. He also set up a table with marbles and made a ‘snooker table’.

OUTPUT
As mentioned in the summary, He is pretty fluent and tends to babble on sometimes, especially if he’s excited about something. When he’s explaining something, e.g from his day at school, he sometimes has to think about the words and I try and help him by guessing the word, “We went to a …. “ Me; ‘farm’ etc.. Interestingly, he doesn’t ask me to translate the word from Catalan. Up to now there have been few words that he didn’t know in English anyway. I’ve only had to include a few new ones for a couple of subjects, such as ‘PE’ (Phsyical Education) and gym /gymnasium / do exercises/ acrobatics, etc. some parents may be tempted to just leave the Spanish name of the subject but I prefer to find the equivalent which keeps everything in English and is useful if talking to his English cousins.
He also realizes without any doubt now that he speaks different languages. He knows he speaks English, Catalan and Spanish. So, if I ask him if mummy speaks English as well as Catalan, he’s able to say “, yeah, but not properly!”
A very important point is to NEVER laugh at or put down the child if they can’t find a word or make a mistake. This could lead to a lack of confidence in the best case and have disastrous consequences in a worst case scenario and the child might decide not to speak the language anymore to avoid being laughed at. I know of one real case of this. Take it into account. The most effective method is to help them find the words and be patient and give them time to explain themselves. And then congratulate them. Well done, you really explained that well. I loved that story” You should feel proud of them!! Lose the super strict, language disciplinarian parent in these cases, because it’s likely to backfire badly.
Why?
He asks ‘Why?’ all the time. It can go on for up to 10 explanations!! And can test the parent’s general knowledge. However, I’m getting to the stage now when I say, ‘it’s not ‘why?’ it’s ‘how? for example. It means he gets a lot of input and I suppose he’s just trying to make sense of the world, although sometimes I think it’s just laziness!
We’re going to the swimming pool.
Why?
So you can learn to swim better and it’s fun.
Why?
Because you have to go to a pool to learn don’t you?
Yes, why?
Because it’s the best place. Do you like going?
Yes.
Ok, Look for your towel and swimming things.
Why?
Ahhhhhh!!!!
Grammar
I continue to support my theory that a parent has to correct or reformulate if the child makes a repetitive mistake, e.g an irregular past tense verb, because of the fact that they won’t learn it from anyone else, unlike a child that gets 8 hours input in English at school.
So, when he says ‘What did happen?’ I say “Say: what happened? And he repeats it. He ‘s finally starting to say it correctly.
He says ‘on myself’ instead of ‘by myself’. I ‘blame myself for introducing ‘by myself’ and ‘on my own’ at the same time. I reformulate by saying ‘, “ ok, you mean ‘you did it on your own, right?” I’m pretty certain this will work itself out in time with gentle reformulation and the input from TV.
He’s started using more question tags. He used the Canadian ‘eh?’ for a while which may have some from tinypops! But it disappeared anyway after a couple of weeks.
He’s using ‘aren’t you’ and ‘didn’t you’ and ‘isn’t it’ the most. He sometimes makes small mistakes such as: you didn’t go to work, didn’t you daddy? which is all part of the process.
Comparatives. Still some confusion here. E.g It’s much more better
Negatives. Still confusion nothing and anything. E.g What were you doing Marc? - Anything.
Where were you? - anywhere

Vocabulary
As noted above he rarely mixes up the language especially talking to me. Once when remembering a conversation with a classmate he said’ Lorenzo was wearing a ‘disfras’ (costume). In fact he learned costume and to dress up in English first. As usual I said ‘what? you mean a costume? He replied ‘no, a disfraz’. He was really tired and a bit ratty, so I left it and the next day he came up to me and made a point of talking about costumes.
It should be pointed out that native speakers who live in a country for a long time sometimes drop common words into an English conversation, especially if there isn’t a precise translation, so the odd addition of these typical type of words shouldn’t alarm anyone.
He picked up ‘mend’ and then ‘dodgy’ from my mother while playing a ‘humpty dumpty on a wall’ game. He using phrasal words well now,e.g Are you going to pick me up from school today daddy?’ Also, his question forms are very good. Sometimes when we tries to ask a negative question he has to think about it and sometimes makes a mistake.
I try to feed in new Vocabulary and phrases whenever I can.
‘It’s raining cats and dogs’
What’re you up to? He now uses ‘What is he up to?
Or I add in synonyms like this. Daddy, that’s big, isn’t it?
‘Yes, but not just big, it’s enormous/huge/massive!!
We’re still working on ‘win’ vs ‘beat’ and now he’s nearly got it right but not quite, which shows how difficult some words are to learn. We use them a lot as he likes sport and is competitive all the time, which is good if you want to learn a certain word!!
Also, ‘in/at the end’, isn’t clear to him yet.
Pronunciation
He says words which are the same in both languages with an English or Spanish pronunciation depending on who he’ talking to. Eg. Name of films, and interestingly he even says the names of his friends with an English pronunciation! E.g Lorenzo.
From watching some American films, e.g Planet 51 and the Tinypops Canadian cartoons he seems to pronounce some words with an American accent sometimes without realizing it e.g as in ‘rock’, and other times for a laugh,e g. Astronaut which he learned from Planet 51.
While watching ‘Crocodile Dundee’ I pointed out the use of G’day mate’ for greeting people’ with the Australian pronunciation. Whenever possible I point out words and pronunciation from other English speaking countries.
My friend from Dublin pointed out his English pronunciation and got him to say ‘Dublin’ with the Irish ‘u’, which we laughed about.
He started saying “sings’ instead of ‘things’ for some reason and still occurs sometimes now. I make him repeat ‘Things’ and I think it may be a temporary stage.
According to my wife he recited an English rhyme from school with a slightly Spanish accent, probably repeating what he heard. A bit miffed I got him to repeat the same one to me which he did with an English accent, which shows he’s aware of his pronunciation. It also shows how important it is to have a good model of pronunciation from the beginning.
Tongue twisters
I’ve taught him two of these fun rhymes:
Red lorry, yellow lorry (good for the pronunciation of the English ‘o’ and the Rs)
She sells sea shells on the sea shore. (Also teaches shells and sea shore – this is where you can find pictures of beaches)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER 2010 3yr 4 -3yr7months

September – December 2010 – 3 years 4 months – 3 years 7 months
I’ve condensed Marc’s progress from the notes that I’ve been taking into one blog for this final quarter of the year as I haven’t done a monthly update, partly through a shortage of time due to work commitments.

Summary and thoughts at the end of 2010

I’ve managed to keep up a diary of notes, mostly an scraps of paper, as well as film clips of him (which I haven’t edited yet) and I’m glad I’m persevering even though in busy periods the thought of writing up a blog or even reading to him at night means making a big effort. I’m trying to pitch this account at a non-technical level with a few exceptions to make it readable for everyone who’s interested in this subject.
I’m very happy with his progress and still surprised at how well he is doing; much better than I could ever have imagined, especially based on practically all other first-hand accounts I’d heard. However, due to the amount of information I had before Marc was born, I was able to stick to the rules that I’ve already mentioned, e.g the most important: ‘ not allowing the child to speak to you in the local language.

Being an English teacher as a foreign language means that I notice things that most non language-teachers wouldn’t and probably wouldn’t even be interested in. I’ve also realized that playing with children isn’t something that every adult ‘enjoys’ or finds natural. From speaking to and hearing many cases of foreign language speaking fathers, the lack of ‘enthusiasm’ for educational games and activities and the lower contact time that fathers have is responsible for the very low success rate that their children have.

The ‘effort’ of playing with him in English even when I’m very tired after a long day and sticking to the golden rule method of ‘only in English’ and using the ‘Intensive and structured’ inputs in a natural setting has paid off. Not only is he getting more time and attention than he would from most fathers, he’s also become a native English speaker. And to be honest, seeing the results is not just rewarding but exhilarating as well. He’s got one proud Dad!!
INPUT
One of the main changes in his and our life this 7th September was him starting school, Agora in Sant Cugat. The main feature of this school for 3-year olds is that there is an English speaking assistant (non-native) in the classroom most of the day and the children think that she only speaks English. Only 30 minutes is dedicated to actual formal English instruction, which consists mainly of songs, which he sang to me when he came home from school. He also realized that the assistant’s pronunciation wasn’t right for some words,, eg. ‘chocolate’.
Even when I’ve had to work long days I’ve continued ‘to make the effort’ and be with him in the morning when I usually make him breakfast and watch Cbeebies together and then in the evening when I spend two-three hours with him having dinner together, watching a variety of children’s videos on youtube and playing games and then reading a bedtime story or stories to him in his bed.
One of the signs that he’s getting older is that we are beginning to be able to set up routines. This is another excellent way of introducing and consolidating language and phrases on a regular basis.
One of the big changes has been that on the majority of occasions he’s been going to his own bed to sleep and I’ve set up the ‘book, bottle and bubbies (sleep)’ routine which towards the end of October has become the norm. I’ve also introduced phrases which have got longer and longer right up to Christmas when we turn the light off:
“Ok, let’s tuck you in so you’re nice and warm and snug and cosy. So, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite. Sweet dreams and see you in the morning for breakfast. “ If I forget to say one of the phrases he reminds me to say it!
In the morning he’s been getting out of bed himself around 8 o’clock. So I often refer to the time. “You’ve got up at 8 0’clock again. You always do that don’t you? I got up at 7 o’clock, an hour before you.” Etc. Sometime we look at the kitchen clock and he makes an effort to work out the time. We also have a book with clocks in it which he likes. It focuses on the ‘o’clocks’.
Morning phrases are ‘wakey wake, rise and shine! What’s the weather like today?”
Cultural characters
We’ve introduced Jack frost and we found a cartoon about this character on youtube. One winter morning we found frost which he loved!
Another character is the ‘tooth fairy’ which is the ‘tooth mouse’ in Spain. He tries to say ‘ratoncito Perez’. This can be rephrased as ratoncito perex the tooth mouse and in this way he learns an English way of explaining it. He also knows that the tooth fairy comes to children in England not Spain.
He’s fascinated by space and planets as well as planes. For Christmas he got two DVDs. Planet 51 and Monsters and Aliens and Planet 51. This year he’s aware of Christmas time and getting presents. This gave us an opportunity to introduce words for Christmas things such as baubles for the balls on the tree and tinsel, which even his mother started to use in English!! He also liked the fairy lights which he got his mother to use as stage lights (another fixation) around a wooden box where he could perform!
We stayed in Spain this Christmas, and I was able to up the hours I spent with Marc. The second week of Christmas; first week of January I employed one of our English Nanny carers from Scotland for 4 mornings while we were working, mainly so he could get the experience of another English speaker.
Youtube videos
His favourite’s have been the Pocoyo series, which is originally Spanish but is read in English by Steven Fry. He also loves a Pink Panther episode called ‘shocking in Pink’ with a narrator who has an old fashioned PR English accent but uses American words such as ‘faucet’ (tap).
We’ve watched Shakira’s ‘Waka Waka’ many times as he enjoys the football element too.
And one by the Hoosiers : ‘Stop giving me choices’ which he sings and especially likes as his mother doesn’t!
Radio / CD
The car provides a source of input and he often asks ‘Who sings that?’
Accents
He’s able to detect and sometimes imitate American accents. I sometimes speak with different accents for fun, and he surprised me by identifying a French accent I did: ‘That’s French isn’t it? I don’t remember having taught him that although he have sung ‘Frere Jaques’.
We’ve also watched Woody Woodpecker which he loves. The possibilities on youtube or endless and it’s a great resource for showing new vocabulary. He looked at ‘conker fights’ (with horse chestnuts) to show him visually what a conker and a chestnut was.
The Sesame Street special appearance of Katy Perry singing ‘hot and cold’ with Elmo has been a favourite and he sings along with it.

Output

The most noticeable aspect of his English in this final quarter of 2010 has been his increasing fluency and ability to express things. Listening to him as he stands in front of me and with a serious face explains himself in English amazes me: “Daddy I want you to stay here ok, and I’m going to get the 3 bears and then we can play, ok?
I’m starting to take for granted his knowledge of common objects and concepts such as colours and objects around the house. If he needs a word I try and help him or he just asks me. As he does when he hears a new English word. ‘What does frost mean daddy?’
It’s interesting the way he just accepts a correction and repeats it correctly back to me or repeats new words or phrases without any protest. His pronunciation is excellent as has all the features of a native speaker of his age. Some of previous characteristics have disappeared and he even tries to pronounce some Spanish place names with an English accent!! All this is so different from an adult learner!!
Interaction with his mother and playing alone
He continues to mix English and Catalan when talking to his mother, although she very rarely says anything to him or replies to him in English. This is fine in his case in Spain, but if I’d allowed him to do this with me he probably wouldn’t be speaking any English now as most of my informal talks with parents and studies have shown. It shows that he feels happy and confident in English and he’s has continued to play on his own exclusively in English barring one or two exclamations. So, even when I’m not with him he’s getting practice. It’s a very unusual occurrence and may be down to the amount of English he is exposed to at home including the television and music and the fact that his mother understands him.

Songs and music
They say music runs in the family and through exposure children imitate their parents. I’ve been singing to him since he was born and he seems to love music and instruments. We’ve watched American Idol and X Factor (please don’t report me for child abuse!) and over the months he came out with phrases he’d heard such as ‘he didn’t sing in tune!’ She’s rubbish!
Programmes like the Tweenies have a lot of songs on them and Boogie beebies combines songs with dancing and exercise.
This is an area I’m going to develop with him in 2011.
Inventing lyrics
I sometimes change the lyrics to songs and add new words to these melodies. He commented: ‘you’re making up the words’. And on a few occasions he’s changed the lyrics to songs. E.g the ‘hot and cold’ song by Katy Perry whereby he sings them the other way round and even more difficult he pointed up and said down and down and said up, etc. which as his Dad impressed me!!
Imitating accents
One day in September spontaneously he said ‘ladybird’ with an American pronunciation shown especially on the final ‘r’. It even caught him out and we both laughed. He repeated it and laughed. I noticed previously that he’d been exaggerating the final ‘r’ in some words, and I’d be interested to know if other children in the UK do the same. He then did this pronunciation at will, and produced the south of England pronunciation.
Example language
Here are just a few of the areas that have seems salient in this quarter.
Question forms
He is using past and present questions forms correctly in general although not 100% yet.
For subject questions he adds an auxiliary: “What did happen?” I repeat ‘ you mean ‘what happened?
This making language regular is a typical feature of native children and he has regularized many past tense verbs. ‘ He breaked it’ although at some stage he has used the past forms correctly which he will do again of course!
Typical questions
What does that mean?
Question tags
He’s using ‘is it?’ with his favourite phrase: ‘That’s not right, is it? Which I’ve used a lot.
I use question tags a lot and it’ll be interesting to see when he suddenly starts using and experimenting with them
BUT
He’s been using ‘but’ a lot, and it’s funny how he forces the use:
‘I’m going to have one chocky drink, but just one ok?
The related word ‘though’ has also started to appear.
Why?
‘Why?’ appeared on New Year’s Eve out of nowhere!!! Or so it seemed. So, now we get ‘Why?’ asked for every statement. Look, there’s a cat over there. – Why? It’s cold today. Why? Etc…
I think these questions are an important part of language acquisition and learning in general and as far as I can gather are universal in world languages for this reason.
Perhaps in the same way that saying ‘no’ and using ‘negatives’ is not just a bevavioural phase but also important for using the negative in a language such as English that uses auxiliaries. Or maybe not!!It's just a theory.
Phrases
(Looking at the grey clouds) ‘The clouds are going to burst?
He’s relating words to different contexts more and more.
He sometimes uses positive phrases as a question which could have a Catalan influence but are also used by native English speakers.
Use of phrasal verbs
Daddy, I want to put this one on.
Although he’s starting to experiment and has said: 'wear this on’ and even ‘the plane is going to land up’ !!
Comparatives and superlatives
He’s getting lots of practice as he’s competitive!
I’m bigger/taller/faster or the tallest the biggest, etc.
Shape and size and similarity /difference
I cut them in half.
There’s not the same pattern. They’re not mathing. They’re odd (socks) this was a theme on the Tweenies.
Vocabulary
He’s distinguishing and using many common words correctly now.
Watch vs clock for example and even said: ‘Daddy, put it one hour back’ (when we had to put our clocks back in October).
I’ve got him to say ‘basketball’ instead of just ‘basket’.
He’s still grasping ‘beat vs win’ “ I beated /won you” and various combinations. I always correct him.
I’ve only heard him mix up adjective nouns on 2 occasions. One of them was when I discovered a phrase he’d learned ‘el jet privat’ (private jet). I said ‘oh you mean ‘private jet’. What colour was it. He replied ‘an aeroplane black’ probably still in Catalan mode. Again, gentle correction reminded him and I haven’t heard him do this again.
His special subjects
Like most children and probably like many boys he enjoys technical things and he’s been fascinated by:
Aeroplanes (for some time now) drawing pictures of them and naming the parts: propellers, jets, boarding steps, wings, tail, etc.
Tubes and pipes and where the water goes when you flush a toilet or pull a plug out of a basin.
Swimming pools. From December he’s been drawing even more detailed pictures of swimming pools. We even looked up specific vocabulary such as ‘lane dividers’ and floats, etc.
Football pitches. He enjoys drawing them and they have the same basic shape as a swimming pool.
Never underestimate the importance of the child drawing and naming the parts and getting them to describe what they are doing.

Negatives and quantity expressions
He’s mixing up and experimenting with
‘anybody’ / nobody’ ‘anything / nothing'
Which shows why it's so hard for non-native learners to grasp!
Pronunciation
As mentioned before,to all intents and purposes, he’s indistinguishable from a native English speaker of his age. He uses the schwa ‘weak’ sound always and the ‘No’ sounds very English, although it was strange in December when it started to sound Australian! Or was it me? I managed to record one instance of it. It sounded like ‘nigh ooh’ . But recently it’s disappeared again.
Around November I started to notice that he pronounced the unvoiced intervocalic ‘th’ sound as ‘s’ in some words such as ‘nothing’, ‘something’. I’ll continue to monitor this.
He makes an effort to pronounce words that also exist in Spanish in an English way, such as ‘Pocoyo’ although as mentioned he does watch this in English. When he has heard English films pronounced in Spanish he imitates this, e.g ‘Toy Story’. I always point out the English pronunciation and he uses that from then on with a few occasional slips.