Showing posts with label bilingual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bilingual. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2020

FINAL UPDATE ON MARC´S PROGRESS - Mission "completed" 13 years - última actualización - Misión "cumplida" 13 años

 Review at 13 years old- Repaso a los 13 años

A continuación repaso los momentos destacados de los últimos 13 años y donde está ahora con su nivel de inglés, catalán e español. 

I thought this would be a good moment to review and give some highlights of Marc’s thirteen years. After this post I’m going to focus on bilingual families in general.

In the beginning I used to write down or record so many of his words and phrases, but as he’s got older it has been more difficult as he speaks so fast and he doesn’t make enough mistakes to point out.

However, it will wrap up this period leading up to the teenage years with a few points that parents can think about and briefly speak about the upcoming book AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE:  

THE 5 KEY STRATEGIES of SUCCESSFUL BILINGUAL FAMILIES.

1.       The important thing from the very beginning is to give as much exposure as possible. Even if you have to sacrifice some “me time”, if you are serious about your child speaking your language, you need to provide interactive input as much as possible.

2.       . Use the OPOL method, One Parent, One Language. Although some parents may ‘get lucky’, only speaking your language to your child is going to give you the biggest chance of success

3.       Make sure your child speaks back to you ONLY in ONE (your) language. 1L2U.  Don’t accept anything else!

4.       Accept that there will periods of resistance and language mixing in many cases. As long as you stay on track and keep up the exposure and OPOL – 1L2U, the chances of this happening are going to be reduced.

5.       Think of other sources of input apart from yourself. Schools, child-care, study trips abroad, and all media in your language in your home language world.

 

These are some of the key strategies. You can find out about these and much more in the book as well as strategies for non-native speakers who want to raise their children in a language that is not their first one.

Where is Marc right now with his language?

By employing the strategies above, he has always been at an average native level for his age, and now I feel that the first major stage is complete as he moves into adolescence. He is absolutely indistinguishable from a native English speaker of his age.

He spends a lot of time on YouTube (I mean hours and hours) watching gamer tutorials mostly, but all in English. I have noticed that even foreign children pick up a lot of English from this media as long as the content is comprehensible and age appropriate. He does read, but not enough, and trying to get him to do it turns into a real struggle. The important thing is to be as disciplined as possible. Firm but fair. He also needs to improve his English writing and spelling. Recently he started writing a Star Wars story in English, which will certainly help in this respect couple with the input he gets at school.

 

In September of last year, he began what was supposed to be full school year at a boarding school in England. In the end, due to the Corona Virus, he had to come back after the second term at Easter, and go back to his previous school.

 

 

Language forms

He started using ‘mate’ (tio) at the end of phrases to me, and he uses the adjective ‘decent’ all the time. “That game is pretty decent.”  He can create words like a native such as this morning when he came out with “shotgunning people in that game.”

He’ll use young people’s phrases from listening to Youtubers like “Let’s bounce” (let’s go), or “Did you know you are a ‘boomer’ Dad? (‘old person’ from Baby boomer generation ). I’ve heard many parents tell me about children using phrases they hadn’t taught them through social media and television exposure. 

Occasionally there is transference from Spanish / Catalan into English. I’ve heard him say ‘discussion’ instead of ‘argument’ for example. And sometimes he translates phrases from English into Catalan, “No es mi cosa.” “ It’s not my thing.”

Bilinguals will also have some transference, however well-balanced they are. Studies have shown that even second language learners get influenced by the language they are learning. This is a small sacrifice for being multilingual, don’t you think?

Recently, I heard him tell a Welsh PS4 gamer through the Discord app that gamers use that he thought English was his strongest language rather than Catalan.

He is becoming aware of his strengths and weaknesses in the languages he speaks. He feels that he needs to improve his Spanish since he gets little active practice. His mother, and friends all speak Catalan. He surprised me two weeks ago when he suggested I speak Spanish to him to help him improve. I reminded him that I am his only main English contact so that wouldn’t be a good idea and does not follow the One Parent One Language strategy.

  I suggested that his mother speak to him in Spanish from now on, as she is a bilingual Spanish-Catalan speaker, but she doesn’t want to. We will have to see how we help him in this respect. It may seem strange to some parents that a child living in Spain doesn’t speak Spanish up to a very high level, but this can happen in bilingual areas of countries in circumstances when there is a little contact with the ‘dominant’ language. I will speak about this further in a later Blog entry.

To sum up, these first thirteen years have been hard work! But seeing the results has made it all worth-while. This next stage during the teenage years is sure to bring up many challenges, but if you plan it well, you reduce some but not all the unpredictable moments.

Let me know how you are doing.  

 

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Update / actualización March 2019 . 11y 10 months

11 years and 10 months.
This is an update that's long overdue!
I've been keeping a note of his Language,  especially native English expressions and the input sources.
Language and expressions. It used to be easy to keep track of his Language Use, but now there's so much I just jot down examples that are noteworthy.
The following are the ones that I managed to note down:
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
These brands come up with the wackiest ideas
Phoskitos . Tumbler . Barril. 
Bet you dude perfect has made a video with those those 
I can wait to sink my teeth into this chicken. 
This chicken isn't as good, not by a long shot
Gave her a run for her money.
Stop rubbing it in my face
Growley is smelling a bag like there's no tomorrow. 
How did you get on with your cousins? 
Messed up crazy baby things. 
A sights for sore eyes
Phone me, I don't keep track of time
It was sick! 
This trick is so old-school. July 
I unloaded everything single-handedly (in supermarket)
August.  I'm lolling at everything.  
What in the World was that?! ( In surprise at result in video game)
It's gonna be epic! 
I haven't got a bull's notion! (An Irish expression he remembered )
That old guy was going up and down the street like there was no tomorrow. 
I'm in quite a bit of a pickle
I'm shedding skin 
Gravity went haywire 
My Play Station is busted
Speak of the devil, I found my mobile
Language Use in general.
He speaks fluently at a bilingual native level on all topics with occasional pauses for some words.
Input has moved now to YouTube. Especially Australian gamer ones who give tips on improving skills on Fortnight or Battlefront for example.
Apart from films in general,  he watched American TV cartoon series for his age on Netflix. With me he watches Star Trek Discovery, The Orville and Elementary.  They all have scenes which are borderline appropriate . This is where we could enter into a discussion of Internet use and the appropriateness of the content.
ADVICE
As usual, it's important to plan as much time together in your schedule where you can have language rich interactions. This sounds very formal! Just talk as much as possible .
The one area needing work is writing and spelling still. And the school is trying to help in this respect.

Monday, October 28, 2013

UPDATE - 6 years old and summer 2013 in the UK

Este post habla de sus progresos desde que cumplió 6 años en mayo y su estancia en Inglaterra durante el verano cuando asistió a una escuela pública en Inglaterra. Explico como se puede entrar en las escuelas públicas si eres un ciudadano europeo.

 This post charts his progress since he was 6 in May and tells you about how to send your child to a state school in the UK if you're a European national.


Language Progress.
I'm going to point out the main features of this English since Marc turned 6 in May.

Errors or work progress
He's making the sort of progress I expect for his age while simulataneously acquiring 3 languages. He's very fluent and a bit of a chatterbox, whcih helps! He still plays in English on his own.

The errors are typical for a bilingual child, that is, directly translating phrases that seem to translate word for word. Even in Catalan he occasionally uses English phrases. for example to 'salvar un gol' (save a goal when it should be 'parar', 'stop' in Catalán), and he even said 'he cambiat de ment' , translating 'I've changed my mind', instead of "I've changed opinion" in Catalan. These and other examples are part of the process and are nothing to be alarmed about at this age. At any age and level of proficiency the odd 'mistake' will occur with bilinguals, but this is a very small sacrifice for speaking two or more languages to a very high degree. This is sometimes used as an excuse not to encourage bilingualism; a massive, misguided and very sad mistake.

I've been relaxing my 'very correct' pronunciation over the past year and have noticed Marc picking it up! "come 'ere" instead of "Come Here" for example.
He also used some American expressions: "Oh boy.." , "Man...." picked up from Scooby Doo mainly I think. Never underestimate the different inputs for adding to their language.

 His vocabulary has been increasing due to the main input he's been receiving (see below):

TV. Boomerang channel and others: Scooby Doo, Garfield, Scare School, Horrid Henry, Kick Butt Butowski (very American!). There's also the continual input from the advertisements. He loves Tom and Jerry and Mr Bean but from a language point of view they're not very rich!!
We also watch sports together: football, F1, MotoGP and talent shows: X Factor, Britain's Got talent and documentaries and any shows or programmes of interest that are suitable for a 6 year-old.

Videos and films
I've bought him some DVDs. Jack the Giant Slayer being the latest one. We compared this to Jack and Beanstalk and he's been Reading this book, that I used to read to him. I only watch films in English with him to maintain the link between myself and English. We go to Icaria Yelmo in Barcelona and the last one we saw was Epic. Quite recommeded. 6 was probably the mínimum age for this film.

Music
Children seem to be sponges when learning words to songs. He often corrects me. We listen to mainstream pop and rock: eg. Katy Perry, Pink, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, etc... I put them on a pendrive and we listen to them in the car.

BOOKS
He's working his way through the Oxford series of books for children and we're now starting Grade 7. Sometimes, I go back to lower levels to give him confidence. I'm also getting him to write some of the words. Writing is one of the areas I want use to work on.  finding the time to read, espcecially when they are in the mood in difficult. If I take him to school, I get there early and we read in the car for 20 minutes. Otherwise, after breakfast before other activities seems the best time.

INTERNET and   FILMON.COM
 There are so many things you can get on internet that it has made getting material so much easier. Short videos on any subject are available on YouTube, and you can watch your popstars plus the interviews anytime you want.
Also, if you want British or American TV, www.filmon.com gives you the chance to watch all the usual channels for free and streamed live, as well as 9 hours free recording time. Before the end of 2013, freeview through a satellite is due to end when new satellites are put into orbit and will send a spotbeam to the UK only. So, this gives you another option. Providers can also give you IPTV, which is a more stable version of TV through the internet.

PRIMARY SCHOOL
Marc started first year of Primary school in September. Agora is now an "international school". It includes subjects taught through the medium of English as well as Catalan and Spanish. This year in English he gets Art, Computers and Science as well as the English class. Having this extra input really does help and we speak about what he learned in the classes.

Talking and interaction and planning your time with them
As I've said all along, there is no substitute for exposure to the language, and if you are the only
source for  most of the time you have to make sure you spend as much time as possible with them.
I've been working long hours in September and October so I've had to plan my days around being with Marc anytime I could, making sure I got back in time before bedtime and spending all that time with him and taking him to school and having breakfast with him in the morning. Weekends are the time to make up for lower weekly hours. If you can only spend a few hours with them, amke sure they are intense as possible and full of language. This is where you have to dig deep, especially if you are very tired,  and this has been my situation recently!!

UK VISIT
STATE SCHOOL
We found out by accident that EU nationals can go to state schools. For Spanish children, the final term ends around the 24th June, while the English one ends around the 24th July. The problem in Ireland is that the school holidays are similar to Spain.
To get a place, you apply to the local council of the town where you want them to go to school.
They will then give you a number of schools with places. You arrange to visit these and if the school agrees and you like the school, you get the council to write a letter to the school with the date you want your child to start.

We went through this process and found a school that we like in the borough of Poole. In the end, my sister managed to get him into the school that two of children are going to. He joined the class with his cousin, despite his cousin being more than a year older. It worked out very well. He enjoyed his time at the school. The first day I don't think he was integrated properly, so I spoke to the teacher and told her that he would be able to take in the lessons without any problems. After that he took part in the lessons in the same as any other child. It was an enriching experience from both a cultural and linguistic viewpoint, as well as educational in itself.

The hardest part is finding accommodation if you don't have family in the UK. Renting temporary accommodation may be the cheapest option. At the same time, there are also the problems of combining this with your working schedule. My wife stayed for the first week and was there for the last 3 days of term. For the two weeks in the middle he stayed with my sister's family. I was only able to be there for the first two days to make sure he settled in ok and to sort out any problems.

HOLIDAY CLUB
 If you can't do this,  another option is the HOLIDAY CLUB, that we tried last year and liked. This is for working families when the school year ends, so from the last week of July. This is for children up to about 12 years, that is until they can 'look after themselves'. These are private childcare centres normally attached to schools and you will have to pay up to 15 pounds a day or more. You can choose part of a day or a whole day, so it's flexible. It may coincide with your holiday period and again, the 'only' difficulty is your accommodation.

Both options can't be beaten for language input, as they will be playing with English children. We are definitely going to repeat the experience next year.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Progress (Reading) September- December 2012



The entries from now on will be in English with a summary in Spanish. 
Apartir de ahora, las entradas serán en inglés con resumenes en castellano.
 

Getting them to Read - HOW TO DO IT    Empezando a leer  - COMO HACERLO
Since the summer the focus has changed to getting Marc to read in English.
 At school he's being taught to read in Catalan with a focus on the sounds. Like Spanish, the language is very phonic and is far easier than English. While he goes through pages of discrete sounds in Catalan, in English the initial pace is much slower, and the number of sounds are  fewer in English.
I feel that he’s mastered spoken English to a native level for his age, his accent now sounding south of England with some Dorset influences. The amount of expressions he remembers and the expressions he picks up from TV and songs amazes me,a nd the use of these media should never be underestimated.   His language shows some intrusions from Catalan. “put me some milk”. And interestingly, there are some English intrusions in his Catalan, especially vocabulary that he just uses but changes to a Catalan pronunciation! He doesn’t do this in English as I haven’t permitted it. In Catalan, since he lives here, this won’t be a problem. In both Catalan and English the mistakes are mostly overgeneralization, e.g he fighted me, and many previous irregular verbs are beginning to be said correctly. It’s a matter of time but also the discipline to provide the correct model: Marc: Daddy,  the boat sinked.   Me:  Right, so the boat SANK, did it? Marc: yes, it sank.  
As always, quality language input in, quality language out. They are worth it!
HOW TO GET THEM TO READ
You can start getting children to recognise words in brand names and logos, e.g the food they're eating, company names on buildings or makes and model logos and badges on cars and motorbikes. If you take the trouble you'll see how quickly they pick them up. 
From about age 4, the place to start is with the alphabet (try Sesame Street for famous singers doing it), and then the sounds the letter make. Search youtube for songs such as "A is for apple, a a apple, B is for ball, b, b ball, etc... There are at least two versions. He started the same at school when he was four. Whether they do it or not at school doesn't matter, if they don't, you MUST help them, if they do, then the complementary work will really help them make faster progress. 
Remember, DON'T treat this as WORK! Kids normally find the reading and sounds practice fun, depending on how you do it and what books you use. 
As Marc got nearer to five I used to pick out words for him when I was reading the bedtime stories. 
READ THEM A STORY EVERY DAY! 
One day inevitably I brought out the Level One book for him to read. While the books you read to them should be getting more and more complex, you suddenly begin with books that start. "This is Tom. This is a dog." Luckily, the books have been graded and then words carefully chosen so they begin with 'phonic' words, that obey the rules, and include just a few 'irregular' or tricky words that don't obey the rules, but are very common: e.g. 'the', 'was', 'come', i bought him a Tricky word book and we ended up doing a race to see how fast he could read the words. (see video). 
Marc has resisted a bit to reading, as it can seem like a chore at first, but you MUST PERSEVERE. They WILL begin to pick up the rules and learn the irregular words. Right now, he's still at Level One (Ladybird books), but should be moving to Level 2 in the near future, progress permitting.
IDEAS FOR THINGS TO BUY
There are an awful lot of books on the market, but here are some ideas that have worked: 
1) The ladybird series of graded readers 
2) Jolly phonics series of 7 books. Marc is about to start book 7. They make them as interesting as possible with funny characters, stickers, pictures to paint, matching games, board games, etc.
3) Leapfrog products. The activities are loaded from the website onto a special tag reader pen and it recognizes the books you’ve bought which you download onto the pen.
There’s a tag reader series of books, I’ve bought Toy Story 3 and Tangled. Each page comes with further activities. You can buy bundles of readers. The Leap pad tablet has been given mixed reviews, especially as the price of books you upload are expensive.
There’s also a Leapfrog discovery activities series. I’ve just added the human body to the Planet Earth and a Space one. They are very instructive and well thought out. Recommended. They use mostly British and American English at the same time and Australian on the Planet Earth one that deals with countries and culture. 
4) TABLETS. There are now dedicated tablets for children with Apps already loaded. the ipad seems to have a lot of apps. They add an extra dimension too learning.    I've just bought a Samsung Galaxy tab 2. and I'll review the usefulness of this for language learning in my next blog entry. 
IMPORTANT POINTS
1) I find that the time of day and the mood is important. If they're tired or distracted, you're almost wasting your time. 
2) Be patient and don't be too strict. At first you'll need to 'give them' the words and get them to repeat them. Being the authoritarian strict parent is counterproductive. If you find your own patience waning, it's probably better to change activities, because it's a problem for me when I'm tired or stressed!! 
3) Use a reward system and challenges. I use a reward ladder with 10 boxes we fill in with gold stars when he reads a book and let him put the stars on the ladder. at the end he gets a prize. Also, we do things like: "try and read these sounds / words as quick as you can. It makes it more fun. Or you can cut up the words and pictures in some books and get them to match them. The more fun it is, the better. 
4) Get them to write the words as well as read them, and try and make rhymes or sentences with them, the sillier the better! Many books give you this option.  See my recommendations above.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!     

RESUMEN EN CASTELLANO
Aunque voy dando consejos a padres extranjeros que viven en España, podrás extrapolar mis experiencias a un niño español que viva en Inglaterra, o un niño catalán que viva en Andalusia o incluso hay ideas que ayudan a cualquier niño que quiera aprender a escribir y leer.
Marc ha llegado a tener un nivel nativo en inglés para su edad: 5 años 7 meses con algunas influencias del catalán, y en su catalán se percata influencias del inglés. En ningún momento hay que preocuparse ya que es parte de un proceso normal. Aunque en casa los idiomas son inglés y catalán va aprendiendo el castellano de sus compañeros de clase, y cuando detecta un niño que no parece no hablar el catalán, le habla en castellano. También en tiendas y bares se dirige a las personas en castellano según el idioma que hablen. A mi, solo me habla en inglés, en cambio, a su madre a veces le habla en inglés en broma o para molestarla!
Su habilidad es su capacidad de imitar acentos. Ya habla con un accento inglés del sur de Inglaterra con rasgos del condado donde viven su primos (Dorset), y sabe imitar a americanos, australianos y el acento del norte de Inglaterra. Es muy poco frecuente que los niños pillen el acento del padre extranjero. Es debido a 2 razones.
1)      Principalmente la exposición al idioma y el ayuda a pronunciar ciertos sonidos.
2)      La habilidad natural de cada niño.
APRENDER A LEER
En Agora, ya tienen una inmersión en inglés y aprenden a leer y escribir en inglés, aunque a un ritmo algo más lento que en el Reino Unido por ejemplo, que es de esperar.  
Por eso a partir de los 4 años empezamos a enfocar la lectura en destacar una palabras para que las leyera. A partir de las 5 años ya es hora de empezar la lectura usando libros para este propósito. Me gustan el editorial Ladybird, y aunque al principio les es difícil leer, sobre todo en inglés hay que perseverar. Poco a poco tanto tus esfuerzos como las de ellos se verán recompensas.  Hay que elegir momentos en los cuales no están ni cansados ni distraídos. Y, no veas la lectura y la escritura como ‘trabajo’. Según como lo hagas puede ser divertido. Hoy día tanto los libros como los Apps en los tablets hacen que el trabajo del padre que le interese la educación de sus niños en casa sea más fácil.Acabo de comprar en Samsung Galxy Tab2.Haré una crítca de su uso para aprender idiomas en la siguiente entrada.
En la sección en inglés verás unas recomendaciones para aprender a leer y escribir en inglés.
  ¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!       BON ANY NOU!