Comments on: 5 Ways to Respond When Your Child Mixes Languages

By: Is Your Bilingual Kid Mixing Languages? No Worries, It´s Okay | SpanglishBaby™

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:26:45 +0000

[...] thing is to not make a big deal about it in front of your child. You can always check out these 5 Ways To Respond When Your Child Mixes Languages and heed our expert’s advice when asked What to Do If My Child Mixes [...]

By: Video of the Week: A glimpse into a bilingual playdate | SpanglishBaby™

Video of the Week: A glimpse into a bilingual playdate | SpanglishBaby™ — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:42:25 +0000

[...] told you before how Adrián, who´s being raised with the OPOL method, knows to speak in Spanish as soon as he sees Camila and me coming. A couple of weeks ago, I took care of both at my [...]

By: Maria Babin

Maria Babin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:25:38 +0000

I use all of these methods and find that variety is the spice of life! especially when raising polyglot tots! Lots of repetition, rephrasing, asking the child to repeat words or phrases, lots of praise, and sometimes nothing at all! It depends on the context: where are you? what is your child’s current state of mind, emotional state, fatigued, excited, calm, nervous? there is no one right answer to coaxing the young polyglot tot’s desire to speak in the target language. and above all, refrain from forcing! you want to foster your child’s enthusiasm about speaking in a foreign language!

great article! thanks for sharing!

http://busyasabeeinparis.blogspot.com/p/multilingualism.html

By: Bienvenidos to SpanglishBaby! « SpanglishBaby

Bienvenidos to SpanglishBaby! « SpanglishBaby — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 19:12:59 +0000

[...] Simple Tips for when Your Child Refuses to Use the Minority Language and 5 Ways to Respond When Your Child Mixes Languages [...]

By: AnaGloria Rodriguez

AnaGloria Rodriguez — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:47:03 +0000

Great article. I think I use strategies 2 and 3. However, my children know I also speak English. From the very beginning they were aware of different languages since we started with ASL, Spanish, and English. And we use the OPOL method at home. I think it’s best that they are aware of languages and how extremely cool it is two know more than one. My children speak only Spanish to me. My oldest, 4.5, catches herself speaking English and “corrects” herself when speaking to me. Sometimes, when my 2 children are playing and speaking in English, I gently remind them that I prefer that they speak Spanish when they are in the house with me. Sometimes they remind me that they speak English AND Spanish. I tell them, “Si. Ustedes son muy afortunados de hablar mas de una idioma!” They usually switch back to Spanish.
I also want to empasize how important it is to have a social life filled with other Spanish speakers. I LOVE our playgroup for the many opportunities it has given us in expanding our circle of friends who speak Spanish.
So, Katie, your two year old has more than the cognitive ability to recognize more than one language. And he is a normally developing 2 year old. I wouldn’t “insist” that he speak one or the other language to you. I would just be matter of fact in always speaking Spanish to him no matter the situation. At 2 yrs. old they are learning so much! When my kiddos where 2 I used the “repeat, repeat, repeat’ method.
For example, my son learned to say “ball” before “pelota” and if he brought me a ball to play with I would talk to him a lot about the ball. For example, “Me trajistes una pelota! Quiers jugar con la pelota? Es una pelota azul. Te voy a aventar la pelota. Agarra la pelota! Corre detras de la pelota. Donde se fue esa pelota azul?”
Again, talk to your children A LOT–even if you were only teaching them one language.
Gracias, otra vez, for a great post.

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:19:49 +0000

I really enjoyed reading this post. My son just turned two and my approach has always been to repeat or reword in Spanish anything that he says in English. I also have had some success with asking him (particulaly with isolated words such as numbers or colors) “¿Cómo se dice…?” and he almost always answers me correctly in Spanish. It was interesting to me that the first time I asked him to do this he was only 20 months old and he seemed to instinctively understand that I was asking him to translate when I said “¿Cómo se dice?” I’ve never used the words “español” or “inglés” with him because I’m unsure whether he has the cognitive ability to recognize that he speaks and understands two different languages. I speak Spanish with him at home and my partner speaks English. I have noticed more and more recently that he makes a conscious choice to address me in Spanish, although he still mixes both languages a lot. My guess is that a lot of people reading this have more experience with all of this than I do and I am wondering if anyone knows how early children can really recognize the difference between the two languages–should I be referring to them as English and Spanish? Also, I have always assumed that there will come a point when I need to insist that he address me in Spanish only and not acknowledge him if he speaks in English, but is two too young for that? I really appreciate any feedback!

By: BethO

BethO — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:36:19 +0000

This is a very timely post for me. My son is 2 and I’ve been thinking about how to set the stage for him to understand the difference between the two languages, as his vocabulary increases. At the neighborhood playground, Spanglish reigns. And you know how it goes when you try to tell family what to do. The kids are bilingual & at various stages of learning/mixing languages. The adults tend to enthusiastically throw whatever English words they know right in with their Spanish. So my son is hearing a mash-up of both languages quite a lot of the time. Even myself, frequently with all the simultaneous conversations in the house it’s all I can do to keep myself in only one language, or the other, a sentence at a time. I’ve been trying to get everyone to speak only Spanish when around my son. My husband is the only one who is truly co-operating. So far!!! I’m not giving up. His father and I want our son to be able to really function in either language. This is a wonderful post. I’m remembering these ideas for when he’s older. I am SURE this is going to be something we’ll go through!

By: Roxana S.

Roxana S. — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:36:08 +0000

This is such an excellent article, Ana Lilian!

One thing that has been working for us whenever Vanessa, who speaks mostly Spanish to us, throws in a few words or phrases in English into the mix, is to remind her that her little brother doesn’t speak English.

Of course, repeat, repeat, repeat is still one of my favorite options and I’ll continue to use it.

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:10:35 +0000

I´m glad you found this article helpful!
It probably will be tougher for dad to adapt to making the switch to Spanish if he´s used to speaking to her in English, but it will only take him some weeks to feel comfortable with it. If she´s only 2, now is the perfect timing! She´ll benefit tremendously from it.
Thanks for visiting us!

By: Ana Lilian

Ana Lilian — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:08:47 +0000

Oh, yes! We are bilingual parrots!
Let me know how it goes with faking you don´t understand. I´ve been hesitant to use that strategy, but I might need to give it a shot