Hi, my name is Erin, and my husband and I are raising our almost-2-year-old bilingual, using no real method. My native language is English, my husband’s is Spanish. We decided against OPOL because I am a SAHM and I spend the most time with our son (my husband is often gone for weeks at a time for work). My native language is English, so if we did OPOL, my son would get VERY little exposure to Spanish. For the mostRead More ...
Dear Expert, My husband and I are native Chinese. My son goes to an English environment daycare/preschool since he was 18 month. Now he is 4 years old and speaks both Chinese and English. Next year we have an opportunity to go to a Spanish Immersion elementary (K-5) school. Students in the Spanish immersion school receive the majority of their instruction in Spanish. English is introduced in third grade for one hour a day. We think Spanish will be veryRead More ...
Editors Note: This post was originally published January 13,2010. Today´s question was sent by Chris Cannon: “What are the advantages/disadvantages of full immersion school versus half-immersion school? Background: We have boy/girl twins who have attended (full) Spanish immersion preschool for the last two years (totalling 4-7 hours/week of exposure). Neither my husband nor I are bilingual, though I do know some Spanish and have been improving on it and using it more“ Dear Chris: If your long-term goal is thatRead More ...
How do I build my own proficiency in my non-native language to help my daughter become bilingual? My husband and I are trying the One Parent, One Language method with our 1 year old daughter in Atlanta. I speak to her in Spanish, while he speaks to her in English. She also goes to a trilingual (Spanish, French and Mandarin) preschool three days a week in Atlanta. I consider myself a near-native Spanish speaker, having lived and gone to schoolRead More ...
I’m Albert and my couple is Claudia from Munich (Germany) and we live in Barcelona since april 2008. We have a daughter, Maria who now is six months old. I speak Catalan as mother language, Spanish 100%, English very good and no French or German. Claudia speaks German, English and French very well, and now medium-level Spanish. She doesn´t speak Catalan and no intention to learn it. We met in NYC and we spoke to each other in English untilRead More ...
Today’s Ask an Expert question was sent in by Carly, a mother whose in a difficult situation. With a daughter born in Brazil but now living in the United States, she needs to know how she can prevent her daughter from losing fluency in Portuguese. The problem? Her daughter’s father and the side of the family that spoke Portuguese to her are all back in Brazil and Carly isn’t a native speaker. Let’s see if our expert, Lori, can help!Read More ...
I have an older child now who is learning Spanish in middle-school, after French immersion in elementary, but am emailing to you as a Spanish teacher for young children. I have spent my professional career teaching Spanish to high school-aged students and older. However, now I am working with a few friends’ children; their parents want them to be exposed to Spanish and to become possibly bilingual. I know the latter is nearly impossible since none of the parents speakRead More ...
“Hola!!! I’m a Spanish mum, mother of a beautiful one-year-old girl. We live in a bilingual community, where both Spanish and Valencian (a dialect from Catalan) are spoken. At home, my husband and I speak Valencian. My family are Valencian speakers as well, and my in-laws speak only Spanish, but they can understand Valencian. So, in this environment, we are sure that our daughter will grow up being bilingual too. My question is whether I should speak English to herRead More ...
