converting a roomful of non-believers?

Guess who was the guest speaker at our local hospital's "New Moms' Network" class?  Moi!  The facilitator invited me to come talk to 25 mothers and their babies about why and how to raise their children with more than one language.

"Hooray for bilingualism!" (my baby girl, almost three years ago)

I was flattered, but skeptical.  I mean, I know how valuable this group is--my fellow new moms kept me sane after Griffin was born--but I also know how sleep-deprived, stressed, and screamed-at these ladies can be!  And the last thing a new mom needs is another list of "should"s.  Until your child is sleeping through the night and you're no longer regularly covered in layers of leaking milk, baby snot, and diaper seepage, you don't want to have to worry about how to teach your kid, say, Mandarin.

We started with introductions; I asked the moms to let us know if they spoke another language and/or if they were planning on using or teaching another language to their children.  Only a handful were--one woman from eastern Europe, another mom who speaks seven (seven!) languages herself, one whose husband is a native Spanish speaker.  Another couple said that they had lived abroad or studied a language in college, but that they felt they were too rusty now to share it with their kids.

"Bilingual and proud of it!" (my baby boy, six years ago)

To my surprise, though, all of the moms listened to my (very brief) overview of the research, my story about French with my nephew and then my own children, and my suggestions of how to introduce bilingualism to their family, even if they themselves are not fluent in another language.  And then some of them said they had never thought about it before but are now intrigued enough to pursue it.

Now I want to go to every hospital and school in the area and tell all the parents that they should try it too!

Oh, crap, there's another "should." Rather, I want to tell them that it is indeed possible--and fun and rewarding!

See how happy we look?  That's bilingualism at work.

Yep, that's what I need to do.  I really should.

francais au bord des grands lacs*: 1e jour

Mme Ann Sunderland, President of the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), peering at my name badge at the exhibit hall opening reception: Have we met?  Your name sounds so familiar to me!
Me: No, I don't believe so, but I certainly recognize your name.  It's nice to meet you.
Mme Sunderland: Oh, I know!  You're from the library.  We sure don't get many librarians at this conference!
Me, to myself: And I bet that when you do, they haven't dragged their whole family along.  6:00 already? Oh, I'd better chug this wine--it's time to go feed Gwyneth!

Oui, here I am attending my first teachers' conference in a year and a half, the first national one since before Griffin was born (I'm not counting ACTFL in Denver in November, where I put in an appearance for an hour to give a last-minute presentation and then left without seeing anything else).

Since we spend Fourth of July with my extended family every year in Wisconsin, when I learned that the AATF convention would be in Chicago this year, I talked my husband into concluding our trip with a couple of days in the Windy City.  "You can take the kids to museums!  The hotel pool!  Chicago-style pizzerias!  Chicago-style, um, hot-dog-erias!  It would be sooooo helpful for my French and my efforts to teach it to our children if I could spend a few days speaking French with other grown-ups--and a whole lot easier and cheaper than taking the family to Europe!  Or even Quebec!"
After I promised not to fill up an entire suitcase with purchases from the exhibits hall, we decided to fly from Denver to Chicago, rent a car, drive to Green Bay, spend the week with my parents, and then return to Chicago, where we are now after a challenging day traveling with two little ones.

While I ended up missing the sessions this afternoon, I so enjoyed roaming the exhibits hall this evening, glass of wine in hand, looking at materials that I never even knew existed, like a board game reminiscent of Chutes and Ladders but set in Paris.  (Links to come later.)

And to my surprise (and perhaps Mme Sunderland's), I ended up meeting a man who works at a library in Queens (New York City) who is in charge of their programming for immigrants and acquisitions (purchases) in 30 languages!  Turns out that his library even offers a Reading Buddies program similar to the one I coordinate back home.

We're probably the only two library employees here, though.

I did like being able to tell people that I helped create and run our library's first French storytime!  The approval-from-strangers rate is quite high at a French teachers' conference.

I will also mention that it was a relief to be able to walk past the booths selling middle and high school textbooks or study abroad and class trips programs, things that I simply don't need to know about any more.

Vendor 1: Excuse me!  What level do you teach?
Moi: Preschoolers.  Do you have any materials for children who don't read yet?
Vendor 1: Quoi? Non!

Vendor 2: Excuse me!  Are you interested in taking your students to Morocco?
Moi: Oui!
Vendor 2: Fantastique!
Moi: Do you have programs for preschoolers?
Vendor 2: Quoi? Non!

I got a few funny looks, but it's more efficient not to have to engage in small talk and then walk away with brochures that I end up toting home from the conference since there's never a place to recyle paper at hotels.

Tomorrow morning: my presentation, Francais a la maison!

*The conference theme is "French on the shores of the Great Lakes": we're in Chicago on Lake Michigan.  I'll post about the second and third days when I get a chance to catch my breath and catch up on work now that we're back home.

rendez-vous a Chicago!

Hello dear readers!  Are any of you planning to attend the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) convention in Chicago next week?  I'll be there Thursday afternoon through Saturday night, with my presentation on Friday:

S228: Français à la maison: Strategies, Challenges, and Resources

You teach French at school all day—but when you come home, do you speak English with your family? The presenter will discuss how, when, and why to share a second language with your children. We will look at concerns and challenges as well as what works and what doesn't, and the presenter will provide an annotated list of resources for parents raising kids in English and in French.

I'm a language educator in The Language Educator!

The current issue of The Language Educator (Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2012), a publication of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), has a nice long article on raising children bilingually.  Among the parents they interviewed is--moi!  Lotsa quotes, some advice, and even a picture of Griffin and me snuggling with a book.  The article, "Raising Multilingual Children" (pages 48-53), is by Patricia Koning.

In the article, I say that speaking my non-native language with my children makes me a better parent--I'm consciously choosing to be very present when I'm with them.  More about that idea here.

my ACTFL handout on language teaching at home!

love and languages for my little ones

If you're  interested, you can download the handout from my recent presentation at the ACTFL convention (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) here.  (You have to register to become a member of the ACTFL Online Community first.)

Here's the blurb:

Language Teaching at Home: Strategies, Challenges, and Resources

You teach a world language at school--but at home, do you speak English with your family? This session will explore how, when, and why to share a second language with your children, examining concerns, challenges, and recommended activities. The presenter will provide an annotated list of resources for parents.

Rather than lecturing about bilingualism to a group of language teachers who probably know more about the topic than I do, I asked the participants to introduce themselves and explain their experience with raising children with more than one language.

And what a variety of backgrounds and experiences!  Everything from a single mom speaking Spanish and Hebrew with her toddler to an American planning to move to Benin with her trilingual African husband; from parents with teens and parents with babies to future parents; from parents who are curious about teaching their kids a second language to parents who are despairing that their school-age children have turned their backs on their second languages to parents wondering whether they can use a second language with their children with learning disabilities or developmental delays.

I only wish I had all the answers!  Fortunately, websites such as Multilingual Living exist and I was able to direct people to wonderful websites and resources like those listed the sidebar on my blog.  Go visit them already!

After hearing each attendee's stories, we broke up into four smaller groups to discuss our specific situations and suggest ideas: parents beginning this bilingual adventure; non-native-speaking parents using Spanish with their families; parents with older children; and those using three or more languages in their family.

I so enjoyed being among a group of 30+ teachers who wanted to share and strategize and commiserate! I came home with a revived interest in adding more resources and reviews and advice to this blog and a determination to read more books on bilingualism, plus the support and encouragement of my peers as Griffin, Gwyneth, and I continue on en francais.

Next up, if all goes well: A similar submission for AATF (American Association of Teachers of French) in Chicago in 2012. focused just on French!

now: just hoping to make it to ACTFL to present tomorrow afternoon

Is anyone out there planning to attend the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference in Denver this week?  I'll be there working at the World of Reading booth (#8000) in the exhibits hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

Er, no.

You see, I went back to work at the library on Nov. 1--part time, several afternoons a week--and Gwyneth is having a heck of a time transitioning to day care: she keeps resisting the bottle, some days not drinking anything the entire time, screaming herself to sleep.

There's no way that I can leave her for 8-10 hours.

So I arranged for a friend to work for me at the World of Reading booth and resigned myself to not attending the conference at all. 

(Backstory: I had submitted a session proposal to ACTFL in January, but as it wasn't accepted, I didn't think I should spend the money and take the time to attend a teachers' conference after being out of the profession for four years. But then I heard that the proprietor of World of Reading was looking for someone local to help out at her booth.   She hired me, which meant I could go after all!)

Until I realized that Gwyneth would go without eating all day if I did go to the conference.  I hate to be so close to this prestigious national conference and not actually see it, but she's my top priority right now.

Then, as I was scrolling through the conference program online to marvel at all the cool sessions that I'd be missing, a familiar name caught my eye: mine.  Me!  My proposal had been accepted after all. And no one told me!

"Carpe diem," I told myself, and scheduled Gwyneth for daycare on Friday afternoon, which would give me enough time to drive to Denver, poke around the exhibit hall, give my presentation, perhaps mingle a bit, and pick her up at 5:00, just like on a regular daycare afternoon.

In the meantime, I had met with a lactation consultant, who assured me that babies Gwyneth's age can go four to five hours without eating to no ill effect.  (Unless you consider her making up for that by nursing off and on all evening and all night afterwards less than desirable.)  (Which I kinda do.)

So these discoveries meant that I had three days to pull together my presentation.  Which is manageable even with a preschooler and a baby and a part-time job to take care of.

Except when your husband is out of town for four days.

And then the baby gets gastroenteritis and spends two days projectile vomiting.

So now, late Thursday night, punchy and sleep deprived and worried about my sweet girl, I have finally finished my nine-page handout and planned my talk--but I probably won't be able to present after all: daycare won't take sick kiddos (understandably--although I blame them for her stomach flu in the first place).

It's been a pressure-cooker of a week, I'm cranky, a sour milk cloud surrounds me, and I'm done with surprises for a while. No more.  But my husband is home from his work trip (he even skipped the morning sessions to take an earlier flight!), Gwyneth is feeling better, Griffin is asleep, and I've got a presentation ready to go for the next language teachers' conference!  

I think I'll wait until Gwyneth is weaned.

See y'all at ACTFL?

Is anyone out there planning to attend the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference in Denver this week?  I'll be there working at the World of Reading booth (#8000) in the exhibits hall on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Please drop by and introduce yourself and say hi!

My plans have changed....

come find me at CCFLT!

I know very few of you live in the Denver area, and even fewer are language teachers who might be planning on attending the CCFLT (Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers) Conference in Loveland this weekend. But hey, if you'll be there, please drop by my session on Friday at 8:00 am--I'm presenting "Second Language Teaching at Home: Strategies, Challenges, and Resources"!

panel discussion, workshop, or presentation? help!

Please help me plan a conference session! I'll be attending the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers conference in February and would like to propose a session about raising children bilingually or teaching toddlers a second language. Typically the attendees are middle, high school, and university instructors, with a handful of K-5 teachers, but there's always a National Network for Early Language Learning swapshop too.

However, I suspect that among the language teacher attendees there are bound to be parents raising their children with more than one language (or considering it), and that's the audience I want to tap into. Here are my ideas so far:

• A panel discussion with several other parents to talk about what works for us and why
• An unstructured discussion with whomever shows up
• A presentation of the research about raising children bilingually
• A "case study" presentation about what I've done with Carl and Griffin
• A presentation of French language learning activities for child (similar to the articles I'm writing for Multilingual Living)
• A presentation about organizing storytimes for young children in other languages
• A workshop about organizing storytimes for young children in the other languages

Please help! Which of the above (or combination thereof) would make a good hour-long conference session? What would you present about if it were you? What would be most useful if you were a parent or teacher attending this conference?

Krashen and the Kid

When I was working on my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language at CSU, one of my professors talked about Stephen Krashen. All. The. Time. And for good reason—he changed the way we looked at language teaching, helping the field move from the model of “Here’s a paragraph. Now translate it” to trying to recreate in the classroom how we learn our first language (lots of passive intake before we can make coherent sentences on our own). (Read an overview of his major theories here.)

My professor, Doug Flahive, who boasted of being on a first-name basis with Krashen, liked to tell us about how this language researcher guru started out as an award-winning weight-lifter and how he would wear tank tops even on airplanes. Thus I have always had this unusual image in my mind of a brilliant man testing the Monitor Hypothesis and conducting research on comprehensible input from the weight room. Ten years later, I finally get to meet him (and he’s dressed respectably)!

Krashen has always championed reading as the best way to learn one’s second language, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him at a library conference (Colorado Association of Libraries). During his keynote speech, he shared with the CAL attendees summaries of some current research about the benefits of free voluntary reading, both in English (first language) classes and ESL/EFL classes. In a nutshell, according to him, reading is the very best thing we can encourage students to do. Specifically, reading good old-fashioned books from public, school, classroom, and home libraries, as opposed to fancy computerized reading games for kids.

Krashen also took some time to excoriate standardized testing, pointing out that we could get nearly identical results for much less money by testing very small sample groups every couple of years (it would be considered public service for the students, much like jury duty), which would then allow us to spend huge amounts of money on books instead of testing. He also debunked eight or ten spurious studies and articles claiming that activities like playing chess and reading to birds can improve students’ reading.

From his talk, two studies stand out most in my mind. In one, a group of adult Korean women learning English were given Sweet Valley High books to read to fun. (Anyone else remember those? Elizabeth was the nice, bookish one, which her twin Jessica was the feisty troublemaker? Yes, I’ll admit I read those in 6th grade.) The series was too hard for the students, so the teacher tried them on the Sweet Valley Twins series for 4th graders, then the Sweet Valley Kids series for 2nd graders (where, presumably, Elizabeth spends her time coloring inside the lines while Jessica jumps in mud puddles). The Korean women loved the books, read through the easiest series, then the middle one, and by a year later were reading the ones at the 6th grade level with ease. Their English grammar and vocabulary had improved immensely—and they hadn’t been taking English classes during this period. Wow!

Krashen and other researchers have also looked at whether the number of books a child has access to at home is a predictor in how well they will do in school, and indeed, it is, a strong one. He cited a study which found the average number of books for children and teens in the an average Beverly Hills home—250—and also the average number in the nearby inner city—point five. As in, one book in every two houses. Wow. Yikes.

After he concluded his speech, I went up to him and introduced myself. Here’s how it went:

Sarah: I’m a former student of Doug Flahive and am so thrilled to meet you after having studied your research! Now I’m the coordinator of a Reading Buddies program, which we think is very successful, but every time I apply for funding, the grantors want quantitative proof that Reading Buddies works, and I don’t have the means to conduct studies to document that.

Krashen: You don’t have to! Let me do that for you. That’s what I do. I do the research so that people like you can run Reading Buddies. I can’t run a Reading Buddies program, but I can tell other people why it’s a good thing. Here’s what you need to do: read my book (The Power of Reading), sign up for my newsletter [on his website], and get my Twitter feed.

Sarah: Okey-dokey. I’m not on Twitter, though.

Krashen: You need to be. I share important stuff, not what I had for breakfast.

Sarah: Okay.

Krashen: You go run Reading Buddies, and let me do the research for you, kid.

Sarah, to herself: Did this long-admired scholar just call me “kid”?!

So I went home and now I’m getting started on doing everything he told me to! There’s hope for Reading Buddies if Dr. Stephen Krashen, 1977 bench-press champion of Venice Beach, California, is rooting for us, right?!

sad songs, a big basement, and a challenging conference

I'm back from CALCON and ready to write! I've been absent from this blog for a couple of weeks because of Two Very Big Projects and One Smaller But Still Time-Consuming Task:

1. Researching and writing the next installment in my series for Multilingual Living, "Learning French In and Around the Maison," which, as it focuses on music, sent me scrambling to Griffin's CD collection, YouTube, and the vast expanses of the Internet to find songs about homes and houses. I discovered a surprising number of children's songs and nursery rhymes about appalling situations in one's home: bugs, rodents, fire, famine, and willful destruction of property. Stay tuned--the article should be published on Tuesday, barring any natural disasters.

2. Emptying out our 900-square-foot basement so that our contractor and his workers can transform one large, cold, concrete room used previously only for storage and ping-pong into a space that will--in December!--house a guest room, my home office, a bathroom, and a space that I can use for French classes for kids one day.

And if we can figure out the logistics, we'll have bookcases that slide to the side between my office and the playroom area, which will really open it up for those French classes (and make it very easy to, say, grab my stuffed Eiffel Tower and books and French games from my office when I want to show them to the kiddos).

3. Planning a three-hour workshop about Reading Buddies to present at the Colorado Association of Libraries conference. I called it "The Complete Works of Reading Buddies, Abridged: How to Create (or Expand!) a Reading Buddies Program at Your Library or School," and my goal was to give the attendees lots of ideas plus the materials they would need to start up their own program.

This involved a suitcase full of props, a briefcase full of handouts, my very first PowerPoint presentation created all by myself (I've been very resistant to that program so far), and five teen Reading Buddy volunteers for the panel discussion. Whew. After getting all that ready, I was pooped.

(Curious? You can access some of my handouts and materials online.)

What was really exciting about the CAL Conference, though, turned out to be meeting the keynote speaker afterwards: Dr. Stephen Krashen, a language-teaching researcher whose work I studied throughout grad school! I'll write about what exactly he was doing at a librarians' conference, what we talked about, and what he called me in my next post.

Oh, all right. I won't leave you hanging on the edge of your seat (who knows when I'll make time to write here again): he called me "kid." Kid! This language guru called me "kid"! And me 36 years old this year. Sheesh!

working on my French

As I mentioned in June, I sometimes feel like my French isn't strong enough to make Carl and Croissant fluent, idiomatic speakers. Now that I'm no longer teaching at the university, I have promised myself to make greater efforts to work on my French on my own. In fact, I later pledged to you all, my loyal and thought-provoking readers, that I would report back from time to time so that you can hold me accountable to my promise!

So here's what I've been doing since then:

• Completing "facile" level crossword puzzles (yeah, "facile" for native speakers, that is!)
• Writing occasional emails and letters in French (I could do more of that, though)
• Watching one or two French movies a week (yay Netflix)--most recently Les enfants du paradis and L'enfant
• Reading back issues of Le francais dans le monde (a magazine for French teachers that has articles on popular culture, la Francophonie, and teaching)
• Making an effort to memorize songs and nursery rhymes to sing to Carl
• Looking up words and expressions that I want to say to Carl when I can't figure out how to phrase them
• Organizing a monthly conversation group for French teachers (last month a Fulbright exchange teacher from Senegal attended!)
• Helping plan the French immersion portion of CCFLT's fall conference
• Watching the French nightly news (amazingly, even though we don't get cable, our high-definition television picks up a few random channels, one of which broadcasts news shows from around the world! It turns out that I can watch France 2's 8:00 nightly news right here in Lafayette, CO)

Notice that I haven't been reading any novels in French. I want to get back into that--even though there are so many other books I've been craving to read and want to take care of before Croissant arrives! Reading is the best way to pick up vocabulary in context. I also want to explore more of what's available online, such as podcasts in French, to work on my listening comprehension and pick up new expressions and idioms.

Any further suggestions?

not enough French

Well, we had an idyllic trip to the half-French, half-Dutch Caribbean island of St. Martin where we spent most of the time hopping in and out of the ocean when we weren't reading novels or eating decadent and/or tropical foods (see my co-authored food blog Three Tarts for pictures of the open-air market). I found a bookstore and stocked up on lots of new board books to read to my incipient francophone nephew Carl--even if he's not bored with the old ones, I am!--plus a few "facile" level French crossword books and several cooking magazines and a couple of novels by Caribbean writer Maryse Condé for me.

But here's what was most disappointing about the French-speaking island: I didn't speak much French. Or rather, I didn't have any meaningful conversations in French. Only one of our cab drivers spoke French; an American ran our hotel; the other guests there were Americans; most of the people we met on the beach were either Americans or French couples with a man in a Speedo-type swimsuit and a topless woman (conditions which made it hard to start chatting with them without staring). Yes, I spoke to waiters and shopkeepers in French, but that was only to convey what I wanted and to express thanks. I read signs in French, eavesdropped on other people's conversations, and watched French TV in the hotel, but I don't feel that linguistically I got what I wanted out of this vacation.

So now I'm especially motivated to keep working on my French during my summer off from teaching. I'll do my crosswords, watch French movies, read more, visit websites and try to download programs to watch or listen to in French. I've also been keeping a long list of words and expressions that I want to figure out how to say in idiomatic French, many of which are toddler-related, occurring to me as I take care of Carl and realize that I don't know a simple, natural-sounding way to say--"go for a ride" (in the stroller), for example.

Therefore, I'm pledging to the loyal readers of this blog that I will continue to improve my French, both for myself and for Carl. Hold me accountable!

à la recherche du mot juste

I'm posting from Louisville, Kentucky, where I'm spending the next week scoring AP French exams. These written and oral tests determine whether high school students will receive college credit for their advanced French class. It's my first time here, and it's intimidating. I'm realizing that I've gotten used to being a fairly big fish in a smallish pond--directing plays in French, authoring a CD-ROM of interactive exercises to accompany a French textbook, leading a summer study abroad program in Grenoble, serving on the Board of the state foreign language teachers' organization, giving workshops. Here, I'm a newbie, generally clueless, apparently a too-generous grader (based on the assigned criteria--my students might disagree, though!), clearly a non-native speaker, and what's worse, a weak speaker compared to my new colleagues. I've spent a great deal of the past two days feeling incompetent, and it's painful. My accent--particularly intonation--just isn't good enough, my phrasing sometimes strikes me as English instead of French, and often I find myself resorting to mundane words because I can't find the mot juste or anything more descriptive in French.

Have I always struggled this much? Has it been too long since I've spent time in France? Do I not make enough effort to expose myself to French outside of school? Are my native and native-like colleagues too indulgent with me, letting my errors and infelicitous expressions pass by without comment or correction? And, at the core of these fears, am I jeopardizing my students? Or at least putting them at a disadvantage? What does this mean for my nephew, for whom I am pretty much the only live input he receives in French?

What's important for me this week, though, is to push through these insecurities and get the most out of this experience as I can. I'll develop skill and speed in reading and assessing these essays, I'm sure, but I also want to improve my own skills in French. To that end, I'm encouraging myself to seek out the native speakers to chat with, to swap teaching ideas, to jot down idiomatic expressions and phrases I want to make my own, to finesse my listening comprehension. Because, you know, now I have a higher goal: not just to teach my college students the grammar they need to know to take the following class, but rather to help my baby nephew acquire a comfortable, natural, colloquial, useful French so that when he's in his thirties and finds himself surrounded by French speakers, he feels just fine, unlike his Tatie Sarah right now.

PS: My roommate here is also an aunt teaching her baby nephew French!

more jobs for me!

The bad news: My school's summer study abroad program in Grenoble, France, which I was supposed to be the faculty director of this year, has been cancelled due to low enrollment (we were two short of the minimum we needed). I'm really disappointed--and if I am, imagine how the students feel! I was looking forward to showing my students around the city, seeing my friends who live there, buying books and CDs and cheese and chocolate to bring home with me--and to think that school would actually pay for my flight and hotel for such fun! Oh well.

The good news: Educational Testing Service has hired me to grade AP French exams in June. This entails seven solid days of reading essays 9-5! It'll be good for me (and my CV)--and it pays well.

The other good news: This week I started another tutoring job. This one grew out of the volunteer work I do at the Lafayette Public Library; I'll be working twice a week with a six-year-old who's having a lot of trouble with the phonics approach to reading. So while this tutoring isn't related to French, I figure it'll be worth blogging about because some of y'all are raising kids with English and another language; no doubt many of the techniques and games I try with her will be applicable to other kids.

The other other good news: The results of the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers are in: I've been elected to the Board of Directors. This means I'll serve on committees and help plan conferences and generally try to make the state a better place for foreign language teachers (and their students).

And speaking of work, the unsubstantiated gossip finally put to rest: I'm not pregnant, despite the fact that colleagues have been approaching me for a week to congratulate me on having a croissant in the oven. Turns out, one of the Spanish teachers was speaking French to a French teacher, who said something along the lines of, "I'm afraid we're going to lose Sarah sometime because she wants to start a family." What the Spanish speaker heard was, "I'm afraid we're going to lose Sarah because she is starting a family," and she then promptly told everyone else that I'm expecting. Grrrrr. No wonder people have been staring at my stomach in the copy room.