October  2011 – December 2011 Aged 4 years 5 months to 4 years 8 months

Summary / Resumen

I’m becoming more aware of making sure I spend enough time with Marc every day and find myself organizing my schedule around his school timetable. It makes me realize that if you are a working parent, especially one with a variable schedule you really have to make an effort to spend time with the child and make sure that any time spent contains quality language input.

From more real experiences and from reflecting on my own intensive system , for the first time I’m beginning to understand why many parents, especially fathers, who although they’d like their children to speak their language,  are not willing to put in sufficient time and effort to ensure this happens.

INPUT

Mornings

When he’s at school my options are a morning or an evening input session. Due to working most mornings I make use of any class cancellations to take him to school earlier and spend about an hour with him from waking to walking into the school.  Instead of putting on the TV in the morning I sit with him and we talk about everything from the cereal he’s eating to the weather, how he slept, what he dreamt about or if he’s in a bad mood it means telling him off and correctional behaviour language.  In the car during the 15 minute journey I point out the weather features, the vehicles on the road and the traffic conditions, music on the radio and go over a book we read the night before and see if we can retell it. Also, we might talk about his school day and his relationship with his classmates and teachers.

In the evenings, I try to spend at least 2 hours with him even if it means cutting short work that I’ve planned. ‘Luckily’ he tends to go to sleep around 10pm and this means that even if I get back at 8pm I can still see him. I think there was only one day I didn’t see him because he’d fallen asleep.

The main problem I have when I get home is tiredness and as I’ve said before you need to dig deep to ensure that you spend language intensive time with the child, not just sit watching TV or eating dinner or watching them play in silence. At worst, we watch the English TV together interactively, and I usually choose quiz or talent shows such as X Factor or Britain’s got Talent as films or series in the evening usually have unsuitable language or scenes.

We sometimes watch cartoons on youtube and we started using the phonics song ‘A is for Apple, a, a, Apple, etc’ in December that he also gets in school. 

School

From this term the school is officially ‘International’ , which means about 40% of content in English which in theory should help reinforce the language but it’s too early to say how good the input is and how much use given that only one other boy is native English (also born in Spain of an English mother). Interestingly they spoke to each other in English at the beginning of term but according to Marc they don’t at the moment.  Accounts of what happen in school aren’t always accurate of course.

More input

I started using the DVDs we’d bought second hand in England in the summer which included the 3 Scooby Doo feature films and the Thunderbird’s movie. I see these as a step up in his repertoire as there are more ‘complicated’ plots. Another new film he got for Christmas was ‘CARS 2’ which was the first ever film he’d seen. For my taste, it’s a little difficult for very young children due to the plot and the language used by Mater the tow truck is very regional both in expression and accent. This is also the reason I’m not keen on Spongebob.

I try to get related material to recycle the language from the films. For example, we got Marc the cars and other vehicles from the CARS 2 movie and a Scooby Doo Halloween story as well as the characters so he could act out scenes with them.

Themed seasonal occasions

Certain times of year lend themselves to specific language and give an opportunity for children to experience different cultural activities.

At Halloween we got him costumes, bought and carved a pumpkin, had pumpkin soup and rewatched the Monsters and Aliens Halloween film.

I got him a pirate book at Christmas that had a Christmas theme. He was interested in the specific pirate language and fascinated by the characters.

Readers

He’s starting to read and write as well as recognize words. We have a Ladybird Level 1 reader and we’ve started to read that. The method is the phonics method of sounding out the regular words and learning other ‘irregular’ words by sight.

With other books beyond his reading level, I pick out certain words that are repeated often for him to read. The more the better.

Holidays

At Christmas we spent 6 days in Costa Adeje, Tenerife. I choose this location and the specific hotel as it’s a destination for British holidaymakers. However, the children’s activities weren’t well run and were non-existent. So, the idea of Marc playing with other English children didn’t happen except a couple of spontaneous moment mealtimes or in the swimming pool. I’ve now heard that children’s activities are a bit hit or miss and some hotels do it better than others. So, I spent the days with Marc and he got massive input from me. By the way, the holiday was good and the winter sun excellent!

Output

Marc has continued to improve his vocabulary and complexity of his language. More of his irregular past tense verbs are correct now: e.g fall – fell -  He surprises me in the way he picks up new phrases and them uses them. Eg. ‘to get the hang of something.

He often takes these new phrases and over uses them, which is funny, before applying them correctly.

He surprised me one day when I arrived home by asking me: “How did your day go?” Something I often ask him.

He also experiments with new words, and for a while everything was ‘totally’. Totally hot or cold or delicious.

Another was ‘nearby’ and then ‘far away’. He’d ask ‘what’s far away?’ and then ‘what’s nearby? in a never ending combination: ‘Is my school nearby? Is England nearby?’ etc.

Educational themes developed

After a visit to a museum in Barcelona ‘Caixa forum’ in which I made sure I went as well, we bought him a skeleton and a torso with the vital organs. He’d been doing this in school and it was a good occasion to develop this area in English. We followed it up with the song’ Them bones, them bones ….. the knee bone is connected to the thigh bones, etc”. 

Playing on his own

He still plays in English when he’s on his own at home whether I’m there or not. I’ve also heard him singing nursery rhymes to himself. A few of his expletive expressions are Catalan or Spanish depending on what he hears at school.

Developing language

He still uses double negatives ‘I can’t do nothing’ and in question tags: “ It’s not right, isn’t it?

Also some indirect questions are not right and seem influenced by Catalan:

Do you know what is that?

Also, some question forms have Catalan influence:

e.g

Marc: Daddy, what’s that called?

Me: It’s a bumper

Marc: And that? (with Catalan intonation)

Me: Say: “and, what’s that / What about that?

First Language influence

It’ll be interesting how long it’ll be before he’ll change these forms to more English ones.

It’s obvious that if you speak two languages to a very high level there will always be some influence on the weaker one.  There is a massive influence in general on Catalan from Spanish except by those in strong catalan ‘strongholds’, and visa versa.

All English expats I know use ‘spanglish’ when they speak English, especially vocabulary and words that don’t have an equivalent, e.g ‘’gestoria´´ - accountants / labour law firms.

 So, if Marc uses Catalan influenced expressions then this is totally to be expected. What it doesn’t mean is that I shouldn’t point it out and reformulate using a correct model.  

It seems to be influencing his Catalan output and he freely uses English words with a catalan pronunciation when he doesn’t know the right word. His mother isn’t bothered about this as he lives in Catalonia with the resulting massive input!!

Awareness

He’s fully aware that he speaks English, Catalan and Spanish, and he recognizes American accents and French accents in English.

ACCENT AND PRONUNCIATION

He has a recognizable English accent and all but trained linguists would find it hard to work out that he wasn’t a monolingual English speaker. If he deviates on pronunciation I reformulate with a correct model or get him to say words with the sound in made up rhymes or songs. Some specific words sound American which might not come as a surprise as most of the TV and DVD input is American!!  As one of the English teachers pointed out at the school, it’s very unusual indeed that a child also picks up the parent’s accent, especially the father’s, mostly due to insufficient input ( and individual differences). However, as this study and that of other parents’ indicates, it IS possible and ‘simply’ requires a planned and concerted effort from the parent.

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.

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)

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.

Year 4 - From 3 years old - First 3 months

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.

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”.

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”.

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.

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’.