Ask my mother-in-law about U.S. Geography and she throws her hands up in defeat. In her elementary school, geography was taught in the third grade — the year she arrived from Cuba. Instead of memorizing state capitals, she was busy learning a new language, culture and city.
Academically, third grade was a bust.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that story recently as I prepare to send my youngest to a preschool. He’s a rambunctious child whose English vocabulary is limited to the Scooby Doo theme song. (And ‘shut-up,’ but nobody is claiming that one!)
The one time we left him with someone other than our regular babysitter — while on vacation in Georgia — he wailed. When we returned two hours later, we could still hear his screams from beyond the door. “He was trying to tell us something, but we couldn’t understand what he was saying,” the nice young woman, who spoke only English, said.
(Me: #motheroftheyear #winning)
I am hoping his first day at school won’t be a repeat.
Intellectually, I know kids are resilient, and pick up languages quickly. I am definitely not worried about my son falling behind on his colors and letters. Emotionally, though, I can’t help but wonder how he’ll feel in those first months at school as he battles to understand and be understood.
He is a spitfire who won’t be ignored. I don’t want trying to communicate to feel like screaming into a wind tunnel.
So I called my friend, Dr. Lisa Lopez, seeking guidance on how to best prepare him (and myself) for the weeks and months to come. Lisa, a professor at the University of South Florida, specializes in dual language learning.
Here’s her advice for kids entering a classroom dominated by a language not their own:
1) Make sure your child knows a few basic words in English: Teaching him words like “hi” and “bathroom” can help ease the transition, Lisa said. Kids in my son’s shoes go through four stages when they are in this position. First, they try to use their native language. When that doesn’t work, they enter a silent stage, as they try to assess the environment. At this point, they may act out in frustration because they can’t properly communicate, she said. It’s important to keep an open dialogue with the teacher to find the root cause of any behavior issues. Having an understanding of a few words will act as a bridge. Eventually, the students will move to mastering key phrases and then speaking more completely in the new language – which could take anywhere from a few months to a year, she said.
2) Keep pushing Spanish: Teach the few basic words, then leave the English to the school, Lisa said. At a young age, kids have a capacity for a limited number of words (for a 2-year-old, it’s 50 to 100.) The problem is, they may start increasing their English vocabulary at the expense of Spanish. To be truly bilingual, the child will need an equal input of both languages.
3) Emphasize the value of the home language: This, unfortunately, is where we have the most trouble — in demonstrating why speaking Spanish is so important. Lisa said that kids need to know it’s useful to their lives, which you can do by keeping up with Spanish-speaking family members, traveling, attending school or camp in Spanish — so that the value of the language is reinforced. “If kids are seeing that the language isn’t valued in the community, it’s going to be more fuel for the fire to not speak the language. That’s the most important piece.”
Clearly I have my homework to do.
{Photo via US Department of Education}
My daughter is older, 7, and the one thing it really put her to think and appreciate being bilingual is seen how you can help other people. I volunteer translating for Spanish only speaking gardeners in my community and some times she goes along, and seeing how you can be part of both worlds and help really peak her interest.
I actually remember being in day care (pre-k) and not knowing English,
i remember my first day i think, but i do not remember the difficulties of learning the language. (i guess a good thing, i wasn’t scarred for life??)
I think it is true that kids are resilient, it is also true that once i learned English that is all i wanted to speak! Thank goodness that my parents were strict about their “English at school, Spanish at home” rule (my 5 year old self didn’t realize how valuable this was, and would not believe it if she had been told that I would be advocating for bilingualism today!)
I think what really helped, more than the rule at home, was that we spent our summers in Ecuador, with family, and that really strengthened our language skills. We even had language tutors!
I am sure your little one will do great!
In the end, years from now when he is an adult (or earlier if he has to take HS Spanish!) he will thank you, for you are giving him a precious resource and skill!
(well… that’s what i keep telling myself as i brace for the “i don’t want to speak Spanish phase that will inevitably come!)
Good luck! i would love to hear how it goes!
Diana
Thank you so much for this post. My son is 3 years old and he just started Preschool this week. My son only speaks Spanish, and does not understand English. His preschool is English only, so I too am worried about the transition. My husband and I did as your article suggested, letting him know how to say “Hello, how are you?” and “What’s your name?” etc simple phrases like that. The second day of preschool he was singing the Clean-up song, so it made me happy to see him start adjusting. As my husband has reminded me, now the real work begins of enforcing Spanish only at home. We only speak Spanish at home now, but because of this transition we have to remind ourselves that casual conversations in English can wait until the boys to go sleep.
Pilar, great advice, I love the idea of volunteer translating. Diana, Sunocean18, love to hear your stories. My son just actually finished his first few days, it’s been rough, lots of tears, and apparently he asks every person who walks by ‘done esta mi mama?’ Crossing fingers!
I hear you about the tears…my son cried every single day this week. What’s comforting is that his teacher tells me he only cries for the first couple minutes, then adjusts well. One of the aids speaks Spanish so that makes me feel better. One thing I hadn’t exposed him to was the English words “bathroom” or “potty” so this was a great reminder for me to do so. Good luck to you, too! I am hoping the tears are just temporary once he gets used to the new routine.
This is sad. I know you mean well, but you’re just holding your son back. You should have taught him how to speak English before school started. Now he’s behind, having to play catch up. And he’s not even getting English at school because there is a Spanish speaking aide translating everything.
I have Chinese-American neighbors who do not speak Chinese to their children at all, and their four year old daughter has an English language workbook that she learns in her free time. THAT is who your son will have to compete against. But you send him out into the world unarmed, at the mercy of strangers. He doesn’t even know how to ask for the bathroom? That shows a total lack of responsibility on your part. You should want your son to be independent, not always having to rely on people to translate for him. You should want him to be ahead of everyone else, not behind, and crying and asking for his mama in Spanish when everyone else is fluent in English.
SIGH…
i would like to direct this comment to Karen’s comment above. I am sorry, but I do think you are incorrect in your statements. I am living proof (along with many other moms who are committed to raising bilingual children) that teaching a child a first language will NOT “hold a child back” or be detrimental in any way. Karen, your Chinese-Americans neighbors will wish, somewhere down the road, that they had taught their daughter Chinese… especially in today’s world. There have been numerous studies done on how babies learn languages and the positive effects this can have on learning, empathy, development, and in their ability to navigate the world, relate to different cultures, among other things.
I did not learn English until Pre-K, and guess what? i went out to speak not two languages fluently but THREE. I have used my language skills at work, in school, and Spanish was great foundation to learn French, and also to manage to get by while traveling in Portugal, Romania and Italy, thanks to their common Latin roots (by Latin i mean deriving from the Latin language, they are all Romance languages). I have a Masters in Migration Studies, I am currently getting an MPA while working full time. I do not need anyone to translate for me… by Kindergarten i understood everything the teacher said in English!
i also went to middle school in a Latin American country. I came back to the United States and entered 10th grade. After my first semester, I ranked 4 out of 104 girls. Previously I had done 3 years worth of school in Spanish, with English as a second language. i became a leader in my high school, i was on the school council, very active in Campus Ministries, and was the Yearbook Co-Editor. All this to show you that my parents’ decision to only teach me Spanish (and to continue speaking to me in Spanish throughout my life) was not detrimental but au contraire, was one of the greatest gifts they could have given me.
Marika, you are giving your child a gift. Don’t let uninformed comments discourage you!! Children are resilient and can adapt, your son will do great, especially if he has a mom that is motivated and dedicated as you are! best of luck!
I’m not opposed to being bilingual. What shocked me about sunocean 18′s story is that she is fluent in English, yet has only taught her son how to speak Spanish. Why? Why not teach the child English first, and establish a firm foundation in it, and then teach the child Spanish? You say that it’s so easy for a child to learn a second language, so then why not have them learn Spanish as a second language? English is the language the child will have to speak and write in school, and the one he will need to speak to function in this country economically. Why deny him the opportunity to learn it during his first three years of life? And while he will hear it from his classmates at school, those children don’t have the range of vocabulary than an English speaking adult has.
I know there are many bilingual people who do well, but that’s usually only if they have access to a very good school. The reality is that many bilingual Latinos sound like they speak English as a second language. They’re inarticulate and unable to respond as quickly as a native English speaker. They look like they’re translating in their heads as they speak. During the conventions they had a lot of Latinos on the cable TV networks, and it was easy to spot the ones who learned English as a second language. Why have your child sound like a non-native speaker if he doesn’t have to?
I ‘ve read a lot of the posts here, and it seems that he overriding concern is that the child fulfill the parents’s emotional needs by speaking Spanish. The parent has identity issues, wonders if she is “Latina” enough, and by God, she will fix all of that by making sure her child speaks Spanish as a first language and without any trace of an accent. That way the parent can impress abuela and the family in Latin America. The parent needs to work out her “issues” and not place them on the child. Mastery of English should be the primary goal.
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