Susan O. Stephan is a credentialed Spanish Teacher in the state of California who earned her Master’s degree in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught in Spain, Japan and the United States. She teaches Spanish at a 7-12 public school in southern California, she also uses her teaching skills with her sons and in her Spanish speaking play groups.
Using Comics To Teach Older Kids Spanish
Students from seventh through twelfth grade at the school where I teach are interested in comics. Actually, I have recently learned that the correct term for these books is graphic novels. I see them reading during lunch, on the school bus, and sometimes they even try to sneak reading them during class. I love when I see the kids so excited to read. Learning Spanish can be challenging and tedious for teenagers. Older students often have to struggle to acquireRead More ...
When Bilingualism is Confused with a Speech Disorder
At my son’s preschool, they periodically do developmental screenings. I have never given much thought to these assessments since, having been a teacher for almost 20 years, I felt pretty confident that a learning disability or developmental delay would be obvious to me. Imagine my surprise when I learned that he had failed the speech and language screening. While discussing the evaluation with his teacher, I was shocked to learn that all of the children who spoke Spanish had failed.Read More ...
Tips for a Successful Family Immersion Trip Overseas
Editor’s note: To go along with our SpanglishBaby Live Google+ Hangout about immersion travel, we’ve prepared a whole week of posts about this topic. Our first one is by Susan, one of our regular contributors, whom we would’ve loved to have as a guest on the Hangout, but who’s unable to join us because of her job as a Spanish teacher. Susan, her husband and her two trilingual kids will go on their third immersion trip — their secondRead More ...
Can Bilingualism Cause Alienation?
We moved into a new house last May. I was so excited since I knew that there were a lot of children in the neighborhood. There were boys the same ages as my sons living on either side of us. I envisioned my children having many fun afternoons playing with the other children in the community. Unfortunately, my visions of our new life in the neighborhood never came about. Things started out well. The day that the moving truck officiallyRead More ...
My New Year’s Language Learning Resolution
I take my boys to a weekly Spanish class. The majority of the children have had some exposure to the language, which makes this the ideal class for us. My sons always use Spanish with me, and it is the language that they use with each other. During the art session of this class, one of the mothers started to ask me what I have done to get my kids to be so fluent in Spanish. I rattled off theRead More ...
Kinder Kalendars for Bilingual Kids {Giveaway}
When I opened the box from KinderKalendars I was trilled with the bilingual calendar that I found. During this time of year, my boys get excited to open a new window on the Advent calendar as we count down the days until Christmas. They have so much fun looking for the number that corresponds with the date. We will often talk about the day of the week and the month. It has been a wonderful learning experience that I hope toRead More ...