You searched for: code-switching

Although I know most people would just find it funny–I mean, even I chuckled when I first heard it–the truth is I was pretty disturbed by what happened a few days ago while my daughter, Vanessa, was building a house with her pink and purple blocks. We were in the living room and she was telling me what she was doing when, all of a sudden, one of the towers she had built toppled to the ground. Her reaction wasRead More ...

When we launched SpanglishBaby almost six months ago, I wrote a post about why raise bilingual children. In the weeks and months following, we’ve tried to write about or at least mention the latest studies related to bilingualism which have given us even more reasons why it’s such a great decision to raise our children bilingual. But we’ve never really taken a closer, more detailed look at why bilingualism is one of the best gifts we can give our kids.Read More ...

The research I've read - and there isn't a lot out there - talks mostly about families using the OPOL method and it suggests that parents tend to be less strict about using the method once a sibling is born. Since this is not our case, I don't really know what happens in families using the mL@H method. I mean, we pretend to continue doing the same thing we've been doing all along, mostly because as I've explained in the past, it's what comes naturally to us. In terms of what happened at this weekend's party, I had actually expected Vanessa to use mostly English. But I was happily surprised, again! She actually did her own share of code-switching between English and Spanish and for no apparent reason. I wonder i ...

The following is a guest post by bilingual English/Spanish speech language professional, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP.  We are excited to announce that, starting next Monday, Dr. Kester joins our impressive panel of bilingual experts in our weekly series-Ask an Expert.  Click here to send her your questions regarding speech development in bilingual children.  We invite you to visit Dr. Kester’s website, Bilinguistics, to learn more about her and her team. Is bilingualism bad for your kids? Do bilinguals learnRead More ...

In most parts of the world, being bilingual is seen as an advantage. Back in Peru, my maternal grandfather sent my mother and her sisters to a bilingual (English/Spanish) school from kindergarten on. My parents sent both my sister and I to that same bilingual school. I hope to do the same for my daughter – send her to a bilingual school, that is. And, it seems like we’re not alone. According to some estimates, 75% of the world’s populationRead More ...