Photo credit: Jetheriot

This week my daughter and I met up with a Spanish-speaking amiga and her 3 and a half year old son.  Camila and him have a preschool, platonic-love relationship and are always looking forward to their play dates.  While at the park, my friend mentioned that the only other kid her son interacted with in Spanish is my daughter.  I thought that was a little odd since my daughter is still at a stage where she is sorting out both languages and mixing them a lot.  She speaks mostly Spanish at home, but mixes in many words and phrases that are common for play and/or reinforced at preschool:  “Why?” “What happened?”  “Ready, set, go!” and so forth.

He also speaks in Spanish to me all the time; he’s already sorted out that Camila and I are Spanish-speakers and has no problem switching when he’s with us.  They use the OPOL method in his home-father speaks English, mother speaks Spanish-so his brain is already trained to recognize that different people use different languages, and he can adapt to them.  However, my friend was telling me that he has been using English a lot more when addressing her.  Her strategy has been to tell him that she doesn’t understand what he’s saying to encourage him to speak to her in Spanish.

This got me analyzing that the way I address Camila’s growing language mixing has been by acknowledging and repeating what she said, but in Spanish.  Not being sure if this was the best method for us, I delved into finding out about the most successful strategies to use when our children mix languages, and found a study done by psycholinguist Elizabeth Lanza. She clearly states that it is completely normal for children to mix languages in their early years, especially because they still don’t know all the words in either one.  However, the determining factor into how much she will language mix when she’s older, is dependent on how parents react to it. I should mention here, that language mixing is not the same as the more complex use of code-switching in adult bilinguals, which Roxana explained in much more depth in this article.

So, how should we react to our child when he mixes languages to continue supporting his bilingual learning?  Lanza proposed 5 strategies that range from 1 being the most effective to strengthening the target language skills and 5 the least.

1.  Fake it

This is basically what my friend is doing with her son-pretending as if  she does not understand what her son just said in English, since she wants  him to speak only Spanish to her.  This is a very successful strategy if used wisely and non-forcefully.  The goal is not to discourage your son to want to speak to you at all because he feels put down that he can’t express himself.  This has to be done in a loving way where the attention reverts back to the parent being the one not understanding, and not the child being unable to express himself. Revert it to the “I” instead of the “You”.  One way would be to say to him in Spanish, (or your preferred language)  “I am having a hard time understanding that in English, can you please repeat what you said in Spanish?”

2.  The Guessing Game

When you use this strategy you try to guess what your child just said in the other language.  This way, you allow a little bilingual interaction where your child “knows” you speak English, but you need her “help” with certain words/phrases.  For example, if she says, “Mami, I want to go out and play with my friend,” then you respond, “¿Me dices que quieres salir a jugar con tus amigos?” The question will usually require a yes/no answer, but that’s OK because you are establishing a preference for Spanish, or whichever your target language is.

3.  Repeat, repeat, repeat

This is the strategy I feel the most comfortable with, although I am becoming a bilingual parrot which constantly repeats and translates my daughter’s English requests.  The way it works is that whenever you child says something to you in the “wrong” language you continue with the flow of the conversation and insert the same phrase she said, but translated to your target language.  For example:  “Papá, me comí todo mi snack.” To which dad would reply, “Felicidades! Me da gusto que te hayas comido toda tu merienda.” This strategy doesn’t force her to answer back in Spanish, but does help her fill in the gaps of the words she doesn’t know in Spanish and she just needs to hear more often.

4.  No comment

The child speaks in whichever language, and the parent acknowledges him either way without comments or pushing him towards a preferred language to communicate in.  This strategy sets very little limits as to which languages you want your child to speak with you and allows language mixing and, eventually, code-switching.  I can see this being utilized more in homes where the family’s interactions are in two or more languages and, possibly, they code-switch as a norm.

5.  Follow their lead

The parent decides to follow the child’s lead and code-switch to whichever language she was using.  If the child responds in English, so will the mom. She then responds in Spanish, so will the mom.  The mom is basically saying that any language is okay and allows for a bilingual conversation to naturally occur.

For more on the topic of language mixing, I recommend  you also read Dr. Simona Montanari’s Ask an Expert entry titled:  What to do if My Child Mixes Languages.

Do you identify with any of these strategies? If so, which one and how do you use it?

Photo credit: pulihora

“Mami todavía no vamos a ir a home porque estamos buscando un treasure.”

This is what my almost 4-year-old said to me last week as we were heading back from our regular afternoon stroll to the duck pond by our house. I was floored. I know this is totally normal in the journey of those becoming bilingual. I’ve researched and read enough to know there’s nothing to worry about, but I can’t deny I was pretty surprised. I mean, I’ve heard her sprinkle her sentences with an English word once in a blue moon, but lately she’s been doing it a lot more. The thing is that I have never really spoken to Vanessa in English. The English she knows, she’s learning in preschool. In other words, she’s not even going to school on a daily basis and I still have lots of control in terms of the amount of exposure she gets to her first language, and yet we’re already seeing the influence of the majority language.

Over the weekend, while chatting with some of the moms from our bilingual playgroup, I mentioned what I had started noticing in Vanessa’s language development. At least one mom said she’d seen the same thing happen with her daughters. The main difference is that in their particular case, they use the OPOL method, so in my head, it actually makes a bit more sense that her daughters are demonstrating this way of speaking. In other words, they are exposed to both languages at home, whereas in our case, Vanessa is only exposed to Spanish at home. I guess what I’m trying to say is that more and more I see how unfounded my doubts about her learning English on her own were and how real the worries about English taking over really are.

Now, as you can imagine, my daughter obviously knows the word casa. I mean that one in particular has been part of her vocabulary from very early on. So she definitely didn’t use the English equivalent because she didn’t know how to say it in Spanish. It seems to me, and to the moms I was talking to this weekend, that in this type of situation it’s more of an automatic thing. I think it has to do using the first word that comes to mind regardless of whether it’s in English or Spanish. At the end of the day, let’s not forget that her young brain is processing two languages at the same time!

In terms of the word tesoro, I’m pretty convinced the usage of its English counterpart has to do with the fact that she probably didn’t know the word in Spanish. Although I’m sure we’ve used it in the past, we probably haven’t done it enough for it to stick. Meanwhile, she just spent a whole week learning about pirates and treasures in preschool.

So, what to do?

There’s a Difference between Correcting and Modeling

My initial reaction when I heard Vanessa say that was to tell her: “Así no se dice.” But I’ve read enough about this topic to know this would do no good. I used to tell her I didn’t understand because I spoke no English, but she’s almost four and she’s caught on. She now knows that’s a lie. Instead, I just agreed with her comment and repeated it emphasizing the words “casa” and “tesoro.”

Teach Them the “Right” Words

In an effort to make sure Vanessa learns and remembers the word tesoro, I’ve made sure to incorporate it in as many conversations and as often as possible. From stories about the tesoro we’re going to bury for her upcoming pirate-themed birthday party to a fun conversation about the awesome stuff to be found inside one. Remember, tesoro is the one word I’m convinced she used in English because she didn’t necessarily know it in Spanish. Or if she did, she just hadn’t used it enough to remember it.

Keep at It

Although it’s probably easier to just ignore it, try to make it a point not to. In my daughter’s case, I think the issue is still kind of mild, just a few words sprinkled here and there, but I know there will be a lot more mixing as her exposure to English increases, i.e. when she starts school.

Don’t Sweat It

Having said all this, I do want to emphasize that you try not to worry too much about it. Try to remember that mixing languages is part of the bilingual process. There is nothing wrong with your child if he does it. You’re not doing anything wrong. Just follow the steps I just mentioned and just make sure that speaking the minority language continues to be fun!

Has this happened with your children yet? What do you do?