Comments on: Two languages, many methods

By: gonorrhea

gonorrhea — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:55:10 +0000

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By: carla

carla — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:03:45 +0000

As a parent and a bilingual educator these ideas are definitely close to my heart. Both my husband and I are Spanish speakers (his first language, my second language) and were determined to bring up our daughters bilingually, and did. When the older one turned 4 and went to school in English (we opted for a public Montessori school without bilingual education but were committed to Spanish at home) she came back telling her stories in English, we stuck to Spanish. By the time the second daughter went to school (2 years later) we were starting to drift into English more and more. What we decided to do was step up the opportunities in Spanish in our home and travels, rather than feel like we were forcing something. Now my older daughter is in college and younger is a junior in HS. They are both bilingual, although the older one is less fluent (surprising to me!). We’ve tried to maintain the opportunities for them. For example, travelling only to Spanish speaking countries (Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador) and we started a “family band” that plays Venezuelan folk music, etc. It’s worked pretty well for us, I know they both have enough Spanish that if an opportunity comes in life for them to strengthen it (a bilingual job, overseas work experience) they will flourish.

In my work with low income families I have often had to explain to parents that they are in no way hurting their child by speaking exclusively in their native language to them. I guarantee them that their child will learn English in school, and will be much readier for that transition and success in school if they enter with strong native language skills. We always give them the option to do our program http://www.unt.edu/hippy in English or Spanish and it’s always painful to see a parent choose English when their own English is not strong enough to make it successful. We give them the opportunity to experience that on their own though, refer them to ESL classes and just support them in any way we can.

Thanks for the great discussion and blog!

By: Beth Ortuño

Beth Ortuño — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:34:07 +0000

Ines and Lucho, I think Amy’s post has the key. My daughter has gone to middle school and high school here in Houston, Texas where she’s had many Hispanic friends. I think there’s an incredible variety of Spanish fluency — or not. There are some who arrived in the USA when they were already school age and were exposed to zero English before then, but then at some point they stopped actually speaking Spanish, and never learned to read and write it correctly. There are others who were born in the USA but are fully bilingual and would be ready if they want to go to college in Spain and study literature. The difference from what I’ve seen was not the school or the neighborhood, but rather the family.

By: SpanglishBaby-Simple Tips for when Your Child Refuses to Use Minority Language

SpanglishBaby-Simple Tips for when Your Child Refuses to Use Minority Language — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:55:33 +0000

[...] we live in Colorado! As I’ve mentioned in the past, I helped raise my now 18-year-old stepson using the mL@H method, but we actually lived in Miami where you are truly surrounded by all things Hispanic, including [...]

By: Ask, Share, Explore at the New SpanglishBaby Forums!

Ask, Share, Explore at the New SpanglishBaby Forums! — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:28:16 +0000

[...] and share with other parents that are using the same or similar methods as your family. We all learn from each other so much..so let’s [...]

By: We Must Be Doing Something Right…

We Must Be Doing Something Right… — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:25:39 +0000

[...] than many of our SpanglishBaby’s readers. As I’ve said in the past, although we use the mL@H method, we don’t really do it in a conscious effort to teach our daughter Spanish, but because this [...]

By: SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: Does my Son Have a Speech Delay Because He's Bilingual?

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:07:41 +0000

[...] question was sent by Claudia McGlothlin who´s raising two children using the OPOL (One-parent-one-language) [...]

By: SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: Will My Children Learn English?

SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: Will My Children Learn English? — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:12:38 +0000

[...] she’ll pick up on English when she starts school? Is this ok? Should we be considering the OPOL (One Parent-One Language) approach so that they can also start to learn English? I’m [...]

By: SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: One-Parent-One-Language from Birth?

SpanglishBaby-Ask an Expert: One-Parent-One-Language from Birth? — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:23:01 +0000

[...] by doing that, each parent using their own language with the children. This approach, called the “one-parent-one-language” method, has been widely researched and it has been shown to be one of the most successful [...]

By: Ask an Expert Questions About Raising a Bilingual Child

Ask an Expert Questions About Raising a Bilingual Child — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:50:39 +0000

[...] week’s question was sent by Mary Siddall, a Peruvian mom married to an American using the mL@H method to raise their son bilingual. They live in Denver, [...]