My kids sat at the kitchen table, in the house we rented in Mérida, México for the summer, so excited for their first clase de español. Although my kids understand Spanish completely, we love spending the summers in Mexico to get them to practice more speaking, enrich their vocabulary, and immerse them in the culture. Other summers we have enrolled them in cursos de verano, and they love the day camp atmosphere and meeting new friends. On this trip, however, we decided to hire a teacher to give us language and culture classes.
The first class was mainly talking, letting the teacher get to know the kids and their language abilities. They played games, read stories, sang songs, and she asked them question upon question about their home, friends and school. I was so excited to hear them chattering away! At the end of class, Miss Lulu sat me down and asked me bluntly if anyone ever correct their errors: “Noté que han desarollado unos… hábitos malos en cuestión de gramática” (“I noticed that they have developed some bad habits in their grammar.”)
Uf… I was a little speechless at first. “Um, no tanto.. de vez en cuando…” Never wanting to interrupt a story or thought, and definitely trying hard not to embarrass them, I was usually so happy to hear them speak to me in Spanish that I let errors go. Maybe because we are on the go, or maybe because we are so used to hearing them- both my husband and I are not really accustomed to correcting these same mistakes that they continue to make.. But looking back to how many times they have repeated the same errors over and over, left me rethinking error correction. I had unwillingly let them burn these phrases into their little bilingual heads:
Soy más rápido de Toñito.
¿Puedo tener agua?
Yo me gusta esta quesadilla.
Voy a la baño.
I cringe as I type these, yet not a day goes by without hearing these. I hear how Miss Lulu corrects these easily in class — with no humiliation.
“En español, di ‘soy más rápido QUE Toñito,’ mi amor”.
”Repite: “¿Me das agua por favor?”
Obviously there’s a time and place for correction, and no reason to make hesitant speakers even more self-conscious. Especially for my more sensitive kids, if I were in public, I should make note and remember the lesson for later. We talked about the need to model proper Spanish — or at least give the kids exposure to different native speakers so they aren’t only getting input from me!
Another great strategy is that Miss Lulu has been singing plenty of songs, and playing lots of silly games (that I am attempting to learn!) that practice certain grammar points with endless repetition. One game, where everyone has to escape el lobo, has the kids describing what the lobo is doing in the morning.
“Me estoy bañando”.
“Me estoy vistiendo”.
She also has been using the specific phrases in context during their conversations, practicing both grammar and introducing new vocabulary at the same time. For example, we had a lesson in tropical fruits.
A mí me gusta la pitahaya.. ¿a ti te gusta?
A mí me gustan las huayas… ¿a ti te gustan?
Before this summer, correcting my kids’ mistakes in Spanish simply was not on my radar. Now that I’ve seen different strategies that work, and now that my children’s Spanish really has reached a new level of fluency, I am going to try to start breaking these habits before they are further cemented.
What are some mistakes that your kids have adopted or acquired? How have you been able to break bad language habits?
{Image courtesy of Becky Morales}
Thanks for sharing, Becky! What a great experience for you and your kids. I hope to do the same one day. As far as grammar is concerned, at times I correct (because it’s almost automatic on my part), BUT other times I just let it go because a part of me believes language is innate on many levels (especially when growing up bilingual). That is mainly Chomsky’s argument—that language/grammar is universal. I think kids will learn to use different kinds of grammar depending on in the language variety the context calls for
For example, in Merida it called for a certain kind of grammar and here in Texas it may be a different kind…so on and so forth.
Thanks Suzanne!! Do you have any suggestions on how to break some terrible habits my kids have ingrained in their usage?? Especially confusing the el/la or using yo with verbs like me gusta!!:) These are our most common mistakes….
This is a great topic, Becky! I’m language teacher myself and know that it pretty much depends on the context and the age of the children. If the children are still small (let’s say preschoolers), I recommend to model the right grammar by repeating the sentence and implicitely correcting it, but never asking the child to repeat (if they do, that’s ok though). When the children are older, i.e. distinguish already the languages they’re speaking (and maybe compare vocabulary and maybe syntactic structures) or go to school and learn about grammar, you can talk metalinguistically to them (like your teacher does: “En español, di ‘soy más rápido QUE Toñito,’ mi amor”. or asks explicitely to repeat: ”Repite: “¿Me das agua por favor?”). But all this only in “teaching” or calm situations, not during a normal conversation etc. If it bothers me that my kids use the wrong grammar in “normal life situations” then I just model the right one – it also gives them the feedback that I’m listening to what they say
We have been doing what you described in the first scenario (modeling the correct grammar) their whole lives… but now that they are 8 I think we will begin to do what you’ve described, and what their teacher was doing. Just being a bit more explicit. I have also noticed that my kids’ English grammar has some repetitive grammar mistakes that I have never bothered to correct (especially the past tense: hanged, brang, maked). I’m starting to notice more now that the teacher pointed it out!
What a great article! I wish we could have Miss Lulu come to our house and help me with MY Spanish grammar! One of her corrections that caught my attention was “¿Me das agua por favor?” instead of “¿Puedo tener agua?” When traveling abroad, I’ve actually always said “Podría tener un agua…” or “Me gustaría un agua.” Are these incorrect? I think it’s so great that your family gets to travel so often to México! I hope that our family gets the chance to do the same as our boys learn more Spanish. Thanks for sharing.
I think we need some native Spanish speakers to step in and explain this one!:) Miss Lulu correct the kids several times a day on that one and always asked them to say “Me das agua por favor” or “Me traes agua por favor” instead of “Puedo tener agua.” Let’s see what native speakers say?
I have never heard “tener un agua”
I think it’s a literal translation from have a glass if water and in
This case it doesn’t work. It’s like when Spanish speaking people translate
“Tengo calor” with “I have hot” you just can’t say it.
I’m with Diana on this one.
Thanks Diana and Frances! “You just can’t say it.”
I say that all the time to my ESL students!!!
What a great article and how wonderful Becky that you’re able to stay the whole summer there!!
I agree with Ute that it really depends on the age of the children and we’re only now facing the correcting stage with our soon to be 8-year old who has a few bad habits in French (saying “je la téléphone” instead of je lui téléphone”). What really helps with this in my opinion is developing biliteracy. Since our preteen started to read in French her grammar has gotten great and this is our main strategy with the little sister, too.
I agree- biliteracy is so, so important!! That is such a good point. We are just starting to read and write more in Spanish. It is so exciting when I see the lightbulb go off in their heads, as they read the words they might have been saying a certain way (for example, they just realized it is “pingüino” instead of pengüino!”).
I definitely agree with Annika about biliteracy for modeling and Ute about the low-stakes grammar conversations (my husband sometimes asks our 5 yo to repeat the correct phrase, but it’s never stressful and if it were we’d stop). Remember too that children incorporate different grammar at different stages–there’s even a stage between ages 4-6ish where children make irregular verbs “regular” because they’ve incorporated the conjugation rules. I’ve seen our 5yo do this in English and Spanish and he also confuses gender pronouns in both languages. This is normal for his age, and I suspect that for bilingual children the range would be even wider (i.e. if it is normal for a monolingual 4-6 yo to misconjugate an irregular verb it would be normal for a bilingual 4-7 yo).
Most of the examples you describe seem to be the children’s translation of a phrase they commonly use in English. In those cases maybe it makes sense to “catch” those right away and suggest a variant. I think Miss Lulu does have a point about “habits”–they’re hard to break!–but I also think it would be good to stay away from labels like “bad grammar.” I teach heritage Spanish speakers at the University level and they often have very negative associations with speaking Spanish because they were told their Spanish was “bad,” or “weird-sounding” or they were the butt of family jokes. As a language teacher I try to keep the focus on communication (otherwise I tend to be a bit of a grammar nitpicker) and incorporate grammar as part of communication.
Great conversation!
Thanks Andrea- you make a really good point about the negative associations, and family jokes. I think you are right about habits being hard to break, but making judgment on the kids should definitely be avoided.
And yes- the huge majority of our errors are because they translate directly from English! I can’t tell you how many verbal phrases and prepositions we mix up (in both languages, because of influences from both languages!:)
I agree with Diana.’ Tener agua’ is totally incorrect. It is a literal translation. In Spanish we never say that. We would say: Me puedes dar agua? Miss. Lulu seems to be a great teacher
I think we always have to correct our children . It is part of their learning process.
Thanks Genoveva! I agree- Miss Lulu was awesome! And these corrections really are helping their learning process. Vivi got mad at me because Miss Lulu was telling her the right way to say something, and she looked ay me and said “You never said I was saying it wrong mommy!!!!’ I’m starting to pay more attention now…
I am from Mexico so my English is not very good, but definitely I can help you with Spanish.
The correct form for having water or asking for water could be as Becky said “Me das agua por favor” (can you give me water please) or “Me traes agua por favor” (Can you bring me water please) it is also correct depending the verb form Me puedes dar agua por favor? Me podrias dar agua por favor?
We never use the verb “have” together with food or drinks.
Lorena, your English is wonderful! Thanks for sharing the variations and possibilities- especially the last couple for adding politeness.
We don’t say “tener un café” but “tomar café”. You would ask “puedo tomar agua” for permission, “me trae agua, por favor” for request. Instead of “tener el desayuno” (have breakfast) we usually say “desayunar” although some in formal speech you may say “tomar el desayuno”, but not “tener”.
Good point- I usually say comer el desayuno, and I was just noticing how my suegra would always use “desayunar.” I am always learning!:)
Comer el desayuno is correct too. Your Spanish has always been great so I’m sure your kids will be very fluent!
Becky, I can see so much of me and my kids in this article. As a parent that is trying to raise bilingual kids, I am just happy for them saying something in Spanish. I learned English when I was in my 20s and until today there are some mistakes that I carry, I call them my limp (accent and grammar), Mistakes generally happened when I am thinking in Spanish or when I am tired or stressed. Like I say revise instead of review, or her instead of his. With my kids I spoke, read, sing, play and do some School subjects in Spanish. Since I was expecting them I drilled Spanish, BUT I live with my in laws and they do not speak Spanish. So English is the main language of the house. The question Puedo tener agua? brought a smile to my face, because one day they were being noisy. So I said Ok who ever wants to speak can do it as long as is in Spanish. So one of them said, Puedo tener agua? (CAn I have water? 1. They are thinking in English. 2) It is grammatically incorrect? No, it is not. But it is not the way Spanish speaking people say it. 3) Proficiency I believe comes with immersion, and let me tell you, you are doing the right thing . Kudos for you!
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