Comments on: Why Raising a Bilingual Child is Always a Work In Progress

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By: Lilliana Gonzalez

Lilliana Gonzalez — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:41:08 +0000

Ana, so many times we as parents get frustrated with the process because it might be different from our own language acquisition. Thanks for sharing this. My daughter is in the same boat. She’ll be starting at a dual language school next august and I can’t wait to see her progress. Over all I think we just need to remember to keep at it and not get discouraged. I spoke only Spanish when I started Kindergarten and it was the only language spoken at home yet once I started school I struggled to find the words so that my Spanish was fluid. My cousins in MX used to say that speaking to me was like playing charades. I’d try to describe the things that I couldn’t find a word for in Spanish. If I think back to my learning process and realize where I am now it might make it easier to not get discouraged with my daughters learning process. Overall I think we just need to remember to keep at it and not get discouraged despite any of the many challenges we will face in this language journey.

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By: Eugenia

Eugenia — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 01:48:33 +0000

Hi Ana, thanks for your post, it’s made me think of our own experience. In our case, however, Isabel (now 5) has been attending Kindergarten in a French Immersion school. So, she’s been raised trilingual. In the last weeks I’ve been concern with “how much” she is really learning. I thought she was getting behind in reading in English (and of course Spanish) in comparison to her friends at her previous (English only) school. I understand some French but I’m not a French speaker, so for me to encourage reading in French at home is proven hard. However, the other day, she surprised me. She was watching TV and I heard some singing. I asked her who was singing and she said “DoRa” with a strong guttural R sound. At first I was like “what?” and she repeated pronouncing Dora with a French accent. Later, we were doing some color by number activity (with the colors in French) and she started coloring correctly. To my surprise, she was reading the colors in French. I didn’t know she could do that. I’ve also noticed that she is speaking more Spanish with her dad, while the 2 of us keep using mostly English (and our own Spanglish). So, I am not concern anymore. I think that her literacy abilities will increase with time and that having to deal with three languages in her everyday life is a challenge that I think she is accomplishing successfully.

By: Angelina Sáenz, M. Ed.

Angelina Sáenz, M. Ed. — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:58:59 +0000

¡Hola Ana! Long time no talk . With my own son in a 3rd grade Dual Language class, and teaching in Spanish all day in my own Kindergarten Dual Language class, I find that both of us are tired at the end of the day, and our whole family connects in English, with minimal Spanish. In the the last five years of working with Dual Language, I’ve observed that children are not inclined to produce the “target language” in contrived situations. The closest place we can get to “language immersion” without either being in the country of the target language or being in a home whose primary language is other than English, IS an immersion classroom. Parents often are concerned that their children are not producing (which is one of the LAST things we do in second-language acquisition), but I see them produce in my classroom, but only because you HAVE to. I will not speak to ANY of my students in English, so somehow, through pointing, gesturing or having a friend translate, they do communicate with me in the Target Language. Parents are often relieved because they are not seeing this at home. The Spanish-speaking families complain that their children do not speak English to them at home and are therefore concerned that their children are not learning English. Their children do not speak English to them at home because they don’t speak English! My son always surprises me when he comes across a Spanish-speaking friend or family member, because quite suddenly, he engages in conversation with them, that he has NEVER engaged in with me. When I’ve asked him why he doesn’t carry on long conversations with me in Spanish, he answers, “Because you speak English, Mom.” The primary grades seem to be the years of receptive learning, with students taking it all in. Ideally, teachers are specially trained through the primary years, but especially in the intermediate years, to create specific tasks and contexts for children to orally produce in the target language, therefore, approximating native-like fluency as they approach 5th/6th grade. Anyway. I just shared this article on our Dual Language Facebook page. You all are always an inspiration. ¡Un abrazo fuerte! Angelina

By: Olga

Olga — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:18:18 +0000

Thank you for your kind reply! Yes, Polish (me), German (husband) and Dutch (we live in the Netherlands). The way I see it I will have to work the hardest to make her speak Polish as it is the language that is not perceived well in the Netherlands, and it’s our family language. I enjoy reading this blog a lot, and will definitely come back for more updates and great articles!

By: Ana Flores

Ana Flores — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:57:34 +0000

It can definitely be done and it´s reading comments like yours that inspire me even more! Polish and German? Nice!!!

By: Olga

Olga — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:45:38 +0000

Thank you for this post! I definitely agree that raising a bilingual child is always a work in progress, and that is even more the case when more languages come into play. I always enjoy reading about your girls’s progress, and I’m so happy that you found a way to include both of the languages in her daily life. My girls grow up with three languages, and my elder chose German (our family language) as her favourite right now, even though she has phases where she picks a language and works on it. I hope this will be Polish (my native tongue) soon. Luckily, we’re spending holidays in Poland and I’m researching ways for her to hear it more. My second one has just started to speak, and I’m curious how her language development will be. And while we’re making progress, also in Polish, I feel that my work will never be done. But that’s a good thing, this way I can always challenge myself to learn new things, to be creative and to find new ways of including more Polish into our everyday life. But reading posts like yours is extremely inspiring and proves- yet again, that this can be done, and that it benefits our children, immensely!