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.

Primer trimestre / First Term 2013 5 years 9 months

The highlights of this term have been
1) Overall level
2) Reading focus
3) Materials: books and DVDs
4) Visit to state schools in England to enrol him for a month in the summer.

1). I'm very happy with his spoken level. He speaks fluently, sounds native and understands all TV programmes. Most of these are American series found on Boomerang, his favourite channel: e.g. Scooby Doo, Loony Tunes, and he's picked up some American phrases: e.g. 'Oh boy!'.
He sometimes gets lazy with question formation and I make him repeat the sentence, especially indirect questions correctly: e.g. Do you know where is that big tree we saw. As I've said before, parents shouldn't be afraid to reformulate language as the children don't get enough exposure to learn them naturally.

 2) This first quarter of the year the focus has been on Reading. As before, I've been reading books to him before bedtime as much as possible. These are books are above his reading level but I get him to read certain words, e.g the last sentence at the end of every page.

But I wanted to boost his own level of reading. I have to admit a certain level of frustration as I expected him to make faster progress. Finding the 'right' time to read is tricky, that is, when we both feel like doing it. When at home distractions and tiredness make it more difficult. Despite this, we managed to finish the introductory series (from 1-7) : JOLLY PHONICS activity books  which introduce words wiith 'regular' sounds, 'oo', 'ie', etc. The activities include linking sounds to words, cutting them out, colouring them in, writing them, etc.

We've also used the BBC series of beginner readers based on 'phonics'. e.g Pat Naps, A Trip to the Tip, Min's Song. I thought theses would be too easy but they've been useful for consolidating key sounds and letter combinations.

The main readers I've used are the "READ IT YOURSELF'  with Ladybird series in 4 levels. They are traditional stories which most children should know but carefully graded. LEVEL one went welll and he even read "The Enormous Turnip" out in class which also boosted confidence. We then moved on to LEVEL 2 and TOWN MOUSE and COUNTRY MOUSE.   This went quite well. I've tried to find equivalent Level Two books: e.g. by Puffin young readers, Star Wars The Clone Wars: the Secret Villain. This was more complicated as there are not so many repeated sentences. But the subject was interesting to him.
I also bought a book by Egmont press called Jungle School at the 'Green Banana' level, which is the easiest of the 3 levels, and this has seemed more difficult.

Finally, We started a series from the JOLLY READERS at Level 2 - Green level (it seems green normallly equates to Level 2!!).  There is far more text on each page and even the first page was hard going!!

The 'secret' is perseverance. You will suddenly find them make a leap, but getting to each stage can be hard work and frustrating at times as I've found! The aim is to get him to read more often, ass this is the only way to make progress. The school is also using the phonic method and they have covered some of the same sounds, so hopefully we'll see a jump in level soon.

3) In term of DVDs, I bought him the Spy Kids trilogy which he really enjoys and a film called Megamind, which even adults would like!! There is always new vocabulary and expressions to pick up during the films, and it gives you something to talk to them abourt interactively. During the Easter visit to England he got "The Iron Giant", which he loves and has been the subject of much follow up discussion.

4) I heard from a teacher that he had sent his daughter to an English State school in England after the Spanish term ends, as the UK year ends around the 24th July. I enquired about this, and children from any EU country have the right to attend a school (with free places) at any time. You have to go through the local council first and then contact a school with places. We did this and were given a visit to a school. We were shown 4 classes corresponding to his year, and could see some of the work the children were doing. They seemed to be writing short stories and it seemed more advanced than the work we're doing. In the end, my sister got me an interview in her shildren's school even though there are no free places, and they are going to place him for a month. This will be easier logistically for my sisiter as two of his cousins already go there and of course it will be great that he knows someone there. We'll be sent a book to judge his reading level before he arrives at the end of June so he can be given the correct attention. This is quite an exciting option for any parents who really want to see their children advance in their heritage language. I'll give further updates on this, but for now, I have a target to work on reading and especially writing by the end of next term.
 

ALL ABOUT READING from the beginning. VIDEO and Examples of teaching reading

ALL ABOUT READING

 

 

 

Following on from a previous post about Reading, this time I've included some videos.
VIDEO: TRICKY WORDS
I've been trying to upload videos since the beginning of the year and finally managed to get one on it.
You can play a race against time game, with the child trying to read them all within a minute for example. See video. See the above video.

 Learning to read in English is basically learning the phonic sound rules along with memorising the irregular words that don't conform to the rules. Be perseverant!


Just to recap the first stages of Reading.
1) Before they can read, read books to them occasionally pointing out words for them to try and read.
2) Get them used to the alphabet and the sounds they make. A for a Apple, 'a' 'a'a Apple... etc. there are lots of videos with the phonic alphabet. you could start this around 4 years old or even earlier if they seem ready.
3) Start with easy readers. e.g from a Publisher like Oxford. These are graded and you can work through them. The first level is literally  one word and a picture. "Sam". "Dog" and then "Sam is a dog". The words are phonic and regular and you get them to read them as sounds not the letters of the alphabet. S - A - M etc.
4) You can complement these with books which focus on non-regular spelling words, so called 'Tricky Words". We read one called Tricky Witch (see above video).

LEARNING TO READ VIDEO EXAMPLE. In this video below Marc (5 years old)  is starting to use the phonic method to read a simplfied/graded book: The Magic Porridge Pot. It includes some irregular words.

Here's another one below from the same series and LEVEL - THE LITTLE RED HEN. Notice how we also talk about the pictures and praise him for Reading. I had already read this story to him at an earlier pre-reading age so he knew the story. At this early stage a lot of patience is required!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

SUMMER 2012 Holiday Clubs VERANO 2012 campos de verano

SUMMER'S ABROAD
One of the 'secrets' of successfully raising bilingual children seems to be sending them to the 'home' country during the summer period.  

So, taking this account we decided to send Marc to England for 5 weeks.
The first two weeks he stayed with his cousins. The first week, they were at school during the day, so he was with his 3 year-old cousin and my sister.
The second week he went to a 'Holiday Club' from 8am-1pm and stayed with his cousins again.

For the third week, he stayed with his grandmother and his mother came over to stay too.
He also went to the Holiday Club again for the week.
I arrived on the 4th week and we visited friends in London.
We went to Butlins in Minehead for the weekend and brought his 6-year old cousin with us.
They get on very well together.

The most interesting change from a language point of view was Marc's adopting of a Dorset accent and his cousin's mannerisms. This was the first time that he's spent so long with English children and up to then had only had his father as a reference, and copied his fairly standard southern English accent. The example video shows the way he's talking now. For those not familiar with a Dorset accent, the most noticeable feature is the pronunciation of words with the sound in words such as 'like'; 'fly', 'I' etc as loik, floy; 'oi'.
Another interesting point is that he  heard and participated in typical children language conversations such as name calling, rhymes, e.g. "Copy cat, copy cat, don't know what you're looking at', fun-making and boasting, such as 'my dad can run faster than your dad', yeah, well my dad can eat more than your dad, etc, on and on and on!!!!! as we found out! Great language practice of course!

Also, since he's been back in Spain, he talks more often to his mother in English. Sometimes, phrases that are more common in English are used: ' e.g 'una carrera de swimming' or 'fer un swimming race', which he'll use with his mother.  This happens as we don't correct it and it doesn't harm his Catalan since he lives in Catalunya. This is something he never does with his father as he knows that it is strictly English. As I keep repeating, a little gentle persuasion if necessary and discipline in the beginning will end up with the child speaking to you in the language you want them to. Don't accept slap-dash lazy language mixing in the minority language. It's not effective or useful. 

His grandmother spent the first week of September with us and this futher cemented his 'English summer'.
I really do recommend taking the effort to find opportunities for the children to spend time in the minority language country. We found that it was only this year, now that he is 5, that he was able to take full advantage of the family holiday resort, Butlins, as he is now able to take part in team sports and sessions such as fencing ( esgrima), and play with other children in the play areas. 

 In general Marc seems to pick up and remember phrases from the different sources that he's provided with: books, films, TV series, etc.. this summer he's watched an awful lot of Scooby Doo and picked up American phrases such as 'Oh Brother'or 'Oh boy'! From the olympics commentaries he's started using 'he stormed it', 'he nailed it', etc, and loves using 'It cost an absolute fortune' which he picked up from this grandmother.

As often happens he's also picked up some swear words and phrases, in most cases my fault. In the video we hear 'cocked up' (make a mistake). He does know that some phrases are not to be said.  
READING / HOME STUDY
Once children reach 4 years old, they can start learning to read. From this age on, they should be encouraged to start recognising words and learning the phonics method of reading. Check out youtube for the catchy 'phonics' songs. e.g "A is for Apple, a, a Apple, B is for Ball, b, b Ball. 
I also recommend Carole Vordeman's school books for home study. Once they are 5 years old they begin at KEY STAGE 1. I bought 3 books: ENGLISH, SCIENCE and MATHS.
They are user friendly with full notes and answers. Even if you're not a natural teacher they are quite easy to use. Bascially, the richer the input the richer than output. If the school doesn't give a lot of minority language input, you're obliged to help them at home.

LANGUAGE PROGRESS 
So, recapping, Marc's English has really been consolidated over then summer and he's indistinguable from both a native English or native Catalan boy of his age. He makes the 'usual' language errors, which normally can be summed up as regularising language: e.g. past tenses, such as 'bringed' or superlatives such as 'the goodest', and he's still mixing 'much' and 'many'. Other more complex patterns such as 'wish': I wish I had one of those,' and third conditionals, e.g I wouldn't have done that' are appearing naturally.
School
For the coming 2012-2013 school year he'll continue with approx 4 hours in English per day with a central American teacher, Dora, whom I presume will use American English.
  

BLOG MARC 5 YEARS OLD - MAY 2012  / 5 AÑOS – MAYO 2012

Coinciding with his 5th birthday I’ve included a summary in Spanish and English.

Este mes que coincide con su 5 cumpleaños el resumen es en castellano e inglés.

Es el resumen de los progresos de Marc durante los últimos 5 años.

Resumiendo seguimos viviendo en Mollet del Vallès y va a la escuela Agora de Sant Cugat (P4). Con su madre habla catalán y en la escuela  recibe clases en catalán 40%, inglés (con profesores no nativos) 40% y castellano: 20%.   Su exposición al inglés hablado viene de su padre :2 -3 horas diarias en días laborables y  4-8 horas los fines de semana. También tiene contacto con el inglés a través de visitas de amigos de habla inglesa, su abuela  (2 semanas al año en Mollet) y 2 semanas en Inglaterra además con sus 6 sobrinos allí. Recibe exposición diaria a través de la televisión británica (una media de 1,5 horas diarias) y hasta 4-5 horas los fines de semana que incluye también películas en inglés e internet. Una cosa curiosa es que sigue jugando integralmente en inglés con sus juguetes aunque yo no esté. Creo que he podido crear un ambiente ‘inglés’  en casa que actúa como estimulo lingüístico .

La forma de comunicación no ha sufrido cambios en los 5 años. Es siempre un padre, un idioma. El padre no se ha dirigido a él nunca en otro idioma que no sea inglés, aunque si le he enseñado palabras y frases en francés cuando hemos visitado a un amigo en Francia. También se ha interesado por los otros idiomas. Incluso quiso aprender unas palabras en galés por la web CBEEBIES.

Su nivel de inglés es comprable con un nivel medio de un niño nativo de su edad con la diferencia que habla catalán y el castellano bastante bien. Llos errores que hace a veces tienen que ver con influencias del catalán, por ejemplo preguntas indirectas o una palabra suelta como “mira”. Y en el catalán a veces usa palabras sueltas del inglés.  Usa menos palabras y frases españolas / catalanas que muchos ingleses que lleva tiempo viviendo aquí. Se preocupa por ‘hablar bien’ y pronunciar las palabras bien. Sobre su acento, es el mismo que su padre, del sur de Inglaterra estándar y personas de Inglaterra no notan ningún acento catalán en su inglés. A veces usa una intonación catalán en las preguntas tipo: …and the other team? Lo corrijo que una palabra “What…. “ y repite “What about the other team?” Desde que hemos hecho este tipo de corrección no se produce este tipo de ‘error’. La verdad es que me ha sorprendido los pocos niños que acaban hablando con el acento de su padre/madre ingles/a. Mi conclusión es que hay 2 factores: 1) la cantidad de exposición 2) factor genético.

En su caso hemos mantenido una exposición alta a través de mi ‘tiempo de contacto intensivo’ y los medios multimedia, pero quizás más importante es que tiene un muy bien oído. Puede imitar distintos acentos casi a la perfección. Si oye una frase en la televisión puede imitarlo, por ejemplo, escocés, del norte de Inglaterra, por ejemplo Newcastle, estados unidos, etc.   Incluso ha llegado a corregir su profesor de clase que habla inglés con un acento catalán. Esto me recuerda al hijo de un amigo que  tenía un acento nativo sin haber vivido fuera de Cataluña, y el comentario de su padre de que corregía a su madre unas palabras que decía en inglés a sus 3 o 4 años.  

Comentarios sobre los "Errores"  / desarrollo linguistico
Algunos vienen de la influencia del catalán, y en algunos casos el inglés influye en su uso del catalán. Los demás son generalizaciones/regularizaciones, por ejemplo de verbos y comparativos. Los padres no deben preocuparse por influencias del otro idioma ni de 'errores' ya que simplemente nos demuestran un desarollo normal de aprendizaje de los idiomas. No deben usarse como excusas para dejar de hablar un idioma.

En los videos que he subido en este blog se puede apreciar mis comentarios y análisis de su nivel de inglés.

Los resultados positivos han confirmado las reglas generales que he empleado desde el principio y que recomiendo para los padres en una situación similar:

1)      1 padre – 1 idioma   No  te compliques la vida. Funciona si lo acatas con disciplina. 

2)      No dejar que el niño te hable en otro idioma que no sea el tuyo. Empieza desde la primera vez que te pide agua o leche. Si ha tenido exposición suficiente no será más difícil decir ‘water’ que ‘aigua’ que’ agua’.  Hay que ser disciplinado y no confundir la ‘disciplina’ con la ‘crueldad’.  La mayoría de los padres empiezan a fallar en este punto y establecen una regla de comunicación en lo cual el niño le habla al padre en castellano y el padre le habla en su idioma. Es totalmente evitable.  Desafortunadamente hay padres que no se ven capaces a imponer esta regla.

3)      Exposición alta con una interacción intensiva y activa. Si, por razones de trabajo, vas a pasar poco tiempo con el niño, hay que aprovechar cada minuto hablando con él. En este punto, por falta de interés por parte del padre en cuestión aunque el niño acaba hablándole en inglés el nivel suele ser muy bajo y la pronunciación totalmente español.

Al final, si quieres que tu hijo hable la lengua minoritaria necesitas tener el objetivo siempre en mente, dedicarle tiempo suficiente,  esfuerzo, generosidad y disciplina. Y no hay que olvidar el apoyo de tu pareja, que a veces puede ser un factor fundamental.

Por ejemplo, si NO estás dispuesto a ‘jugar’ con el niño, leerle libros, ayudarle a escribir y pasar lo bastante tiempo con él,  no es tan extraño que el fracaso sea el resultado más frecuente.

Simplemente hablar tu idioma en plan ‘tranquilo’ no produce resultados muy satisfactorios.  Se puede resumir como ‘esfuerzo mediocre, resultados mediocres.’

A algunos padres, les vale un resultado mediocre ya que es lo que esperaban desde el principio; el hipótesis que se cumple por las acciones basado en las creencias equívocas. Tal y como hemos visto, un resultado positivo se puede cumplir sin problemas.

 Es triste ver la cantidad de padres perplejos que no entienden por qué el niño no le habla en su idioma. Siguiendo las 3 reglas arriba la probabilidad de éxito es muy alta.

 Espero que este blog haya servido y sirva como motivación por los padres interesados

PLANES

Para este verano vamos a dejar Marc con su abuela y 6 primos en Inglaterra durante un mes e irá a un ‘Holiday club’ por las mañanas. El objetico es aumentar su contacto con el inglés en un contexto nativo jugando con niños ingleses.

Tipos de input

En estos momentos lo hacemos casi todo sobre la marcha aunque el libro a la hora de dormir sigue siendo lo más habitual.  También juego deportes con él casi todos los días además de ver programas en la televisión británica como concursos de talentos y documentales. The Cube, Britain/America’s got talent ; X Factor…

Quiero que impongamos una rutina más planificada de inputs: por ejemplo. Tal hora a tal hora: televisión con dibujos en inglés; los martes y jueves aprender a escribir; sábado por la mañana. Debido de muchas horas de trabajo a veces es difícil, pero es la intención lo que cuenta y al final sí que le voy dedicando las horas que tengo libres.

Summary of Marc’s language progress over the his first 5 years

To sum up, we are still living in Mollet del Vallés and he goes to Agora Sant Cugat (year P4). He speaks Catalan with his mother and at school the classes are taught 40% in catalan; 40% in English (with non-native teachers) and 20% in Spanish. His exposure to English is nearly totally through his father: 2-3 hours per day during the week and at least 4-8 hours at the weekend. He also gets contact in English through friends’ visits and 2 weeks a years from his English grandmother coming to Mollet and 2 weeks when we visit her in the summer. He also get contact through his 6 cousins who live near his grandmother. He also gets daily exposure to British Television and age appropriate programmes (average 1.5 hours per day) and up to 4-5 hours including films and internet. An interesting point is that he still plays with his toys totally in English even when the father is not present. We’ve succeeded in setting up an English home environment that acts as a language trigger.

The communication method hasn’t changed over the 5 years. It’s always one parent, one language. The father has never spoken any other language to him or accepted catalan or Spanish. However, the father has taught him phrases and words in French coinciding with a trip to see a friend in France. He also wanted to learn some words in Welsh on a mini language awareness course on the CBEEBIES website.

His English level is on a par with an average native speaker child living in England with the difference of course that he is also a native catalán speaker who also has a good level in Spanish. Any deviations in his English apart from those because of his age are influences from catalan, for example the use of indirect questions: “I want to know who is that man?” or the very occasional intrusion of words such as ‘mira’ (look). In fact he uses far fewer ‘spanglish’ phrases than many adult expat English speakers who’ve been living in Spain for a long time.  He seems to take care of the language he uses and his pronunciation.  Regarding his accent, he speaks with a standard southern English accent and native English speakers  are unable to detect a Spanish/catalan accent when he speaks English.  Sometimes his intonation and word order in certain questions such as “….and the other team?”  show a catalan influence. When I say ‘What about…? “  he reformulates and repeats; “and what about the other team?” This support and reformulation is fundamental and shouldn’t be confused with overt and constant correction.

One thing that has surprised me a lot is the low percentage of children that speak with their parent’s accent. My conclusion is that there are two main factors:

1)      The amount of exposure

2)      A genetic factor: natural gift for imitating sounds

In Marc’s case, the father has always tried to maintain a high level of  exposure through quality ‘intensive language contact time’ and multimedia. But perhaps the most important factor has been his ear for language. He is able to imitate a variety of accents that he hears: e.g Scottish, north of England,, such as Newcastle, American, etc. He’s even corrected the his non-native  English teacher’s pronunciation.

He reminds me of the son of a teacher I know who reported that his son corrected his mother’s pronunciation when she tried to speak to him in English when he was only 3 or 4. He had a perfect English accent when I met him when he was 13, and he’d been born and brought up in Barcelona. An important factor was also that he spent every summer in the UK.  Another teacher whose daughters were born in Spain reported that he attributed their English accents to summers spent in the UK and high exposure to audio books and interest in Harry Potter in general.  Things to take into account.

Remarks on Language 'errors' / Language development
some of the deviations from standard can be attributed to influences from catalan. In other cases the main cause is generalisation / regularisation, for example of irregular verbs (buyed / shaked)) and comparatives (goodest). Parents should not be alarmed by these so called 'errors' as they as far from being negative. They simply show the child's normal language development. And, they certainly shouldn't be used as an excuse to justify giving up one of the langages.

The videos I’ve uploaded to this blog should give good examples of his English progress.

I attribute the positive results to the general rules that I’ve always followed and which I’d strongly recommend to parents in a similar situation:

1)      One parent – One language. Don’t complícate your life. It works if you follow it strictly. 

2)        DON’T LET THE CHILD SPEAK TO YOU IN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE EXCEPT YOUR OWN. It starts from the first time the child speaks to you, normally just a word. If the child has has enough exposure, it won’t be any more difficult to say ‘water’ than aigua’ than ‘agua’. Most parents fall at this first hurdle. But it’s totally avoidable with perseverance and discipline. Unfortunately, some parents are unable to bring themselves to enforce this rule and also confuse simple parent ‘discipline’ with ‘cruelty’.  Some parents use the excuse of, ‘yeah, but they know I understand Spanish.’ Yes, maybe , but they also know you speak and understand English. It’s up to you. Don’t let yourself or your child down.

3)      Language Contact Time (LCT) Exposure and intensive and active interaction .  If you find that you are unable to spend enough time with your child then every minute your are with them should be made use of to the max. It’s here that you often find that even when the child does speak to the parent in English, their language level is poor and their accent when speaking English exhibits a strong Spanish influence.

In the end, if you want your child to speak the minority language you need to keep this
ob jective in mind all the time, devote enough time and effort and be generous and disciplined. And you should remember the importance of  your partner’s input, which in some cases will be the difference between success and failure.  

For example, if you are NOT willing to play with your child, read them books, help them to write and in general spend enough time with them then it’s not surprising that failure or poor quality is the most likely result.

Many parents have quite a blasé attitude towards bringing the child up to speak English thinking that just casually speaking to them will be enough. This almost always gives unsatisfactory results. This can be summed up as : a mediocre effort gives a mediocre result.”  Another point is that some parents seem happy with a mediocre level, and this may be based on the expectations that ‘this is normal’, which we’ve seen doesn’t have to be the case.

And it’s sad to see the number of parents who are genuinely perplexed as to why their child doesn’t end up speaking their language. Following the three main rules above will stack the odds in your favour and bring a sense of satisfaction to you and an amazing gift to your child

I hope this blog helps achieve your goals and acts as an inspiration.

PLANS

This summer Marc is going to spend a month in England with his grandmother and cousins. We’re planning to send him to a holiday Club in the mornings with the goal of him getting exposure in a natural environment and being able to play with native children.

Types of Input

At the moment, we play everything by ear, rarely planning the language input, although I always ensure to make use of every moment  I’m with him to give him maximum  language exposure.  We play sports together nearly every evening and watch British TV: sports, documentaries and talent shows: The Cube, Britain/America’s got talent ; X Factor…

What I’d like to do is to impose a more structured and planned approach to language input such as having a Schedule for certain TV watching times and programmes, having different days for different activities:  learning t read or write, etc.  due to long hours working it makes it difficult to do. But the intention is there and I do devote a lot of my free time to being with him and maintain language exposure.