Meet another bilingual family, this one living in rural Denmark! Karen, the mom, is American and works as a freelance English teacher to business professionals. Her husband, Niels, who is Danish, is an energy engineer. Their daughter, Christina, four years old, enjoys drawing, building with Legos or wood blocks, singing and playing instruments, biking, collecting worms, and helping her parents bake. Christina is growing up bilingual in English and Danish. Thanks for answering my questions, Karen!
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
We both speak English and Danish fluently. Niels lived in the U.S. for many years. Karen has been living in Denmark for over seven years, and completed the government-provided schooling to learn Danish, and then has worked in the Danish workforce since then.
What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Christina is exposed to Danish and English in the following ways: Karen speaks English to her. Niels speaks Danish to her. We parents speak English together, unless in the company of other Danes. This is what we've done since she was born. She has monolingual Danish-speaking grandparents, aunt, and preschool.
English is very common here, though the people in farming and smaller businesses aren't good at it. The preschool is in a small town, but nevertheless has several children of non-Danish backgrounds, many of whom are bilingual. No other bilingual Danish/English, however. Christina is proud of her English abilities, such as they are.
Why do you want your child to know more than one language?
She needs to know Danish because we live in Denmark. We want her to know English because Karen is American, and Christina has American relatives. Fortunately, English is also an extremely useful language to know, so it has appeal to most people.
How well does your child understand the different languages? How has their language use evolved as they grow?
Christina understands both languages perfectly. She speaks Danish at an age-appropriate level, and speaks “Danglish” to me (Karen). She is only recently saying sentences with more than one or two English words in them to me. I made a point of her focusing on English last year after we'd visited the U.S for a month. While there, I expected her English to develop, but there was only a little improvement. So when we got home, I started working with her in a more purposeful way.
After some initial reluctance, she became more enthusiastic about repeating after me, and saying the words or sentence she'd just said in Danish again in English. I now have stopped focusing on it so much, but praise her when she says something right in English. Her speaking fluency in English is nowhere near her speaking fluency in Danish. From what I've observed, she has dramatically cut down using English words to Danish speakers, and somewhat increased using English words with me.
How have you been able to expose your child to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
Christina is exposed to the Danish-speaking culture in her daily life, and she has been to the U.S. for a month when she was a little over 3. Her American relatives have been here to visit for 2 weeks when she was 2 ½.
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Reading books in English have been very helpful, but most especially getting English nursery rhyme and song books. She took a much greater interest in saying those rhymes than anything before, including me singing to her.
It was not useful to press her too much to speak English. She would state that her tongue was tired. When I backed off, she was more responsive.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your child with more than one language?
The challenges have been with my feelings. I was reluctant to use English in public, but after reading a couple of books about raising children in a bilingual household, I followed the advice to not make the secondary language feel like a secret, or something that's only used at home. It's proven helpful to me and to her development and confidence in it.
Do you have any advice for us?
Use whatever resources you can find to make it easy and fun. Be patient, and don't expect the child to become equally fluent in both. I've had to let go of that desire, and it's made me more relaxed about it. Be willing to be the interpreter at all times if there are others around who don't speak the second language, and don't make it seem like a burden to anyone involved.
If any of the adults in the household are non-native speakers of the language they use with the children, please tell us a little about how that works for your family.
It works well, because Niels is so fluent that there's never anything said that he wouldn't understand. Christina will sometimes compliment him on his English.
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children?
It's always an advantage to get to know another language. It makes many things easier to understand, such as cultures, lifestyles, ways of thinking and attitudes. It supposedly helps with other brain development, though I can't attest to that. It should be as inviting as possible; i.e. one language shouldn't be used solely to discipline. There should be some connection to the language, through songs or holidays, etc. As an English teacher, I feel that grammar lessons are tedious and a turn-off. Teaching by example and repetition and real-world situations tend to be far more effective, whatever the age.
Sarah here again: I love your attitude, Karen, how you're not putting pressure on Christina and yourself to make her "fluent by five" or anything like that, and how you're focusing on making English as appealing to her as Danish currently is. I wonder what it will be like for her when she starts taking English classes in school--will she realize all of a sudden how cool it is that she understands English so well? Thanks again for sharing!
Showing posts with label Scandinavian languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scandinavian languages. Show all posts
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
free books and stories and fables and poems and rhymes, all online, in so many languages!
While researching my articles on French language activities for Multilingual Living, I realized that I could probably stop buying books for Griffin entirely--both in English and in French--beause so very many books exist online already, and some on websites that can even boast animation and/or professional narrators!
(Oh, let's be honest. I'll never stop buying books.)
Anyway, here are some sites that I've explored lately. I hope you'll enjoy them too!
Tumblebooks:
I first blogged about this program three years ago; read my original post about how it works, the few aspects I don't like about it, and how you could use it in a language classroom. Briefly, you select a picture book, chapter book, or nonfiction book in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, or Russian. (Predictably, English predominates; click on the "language learning" button at the top of the page to access the books in one of the other languages.) You watch the story unfurl onscreen, with a narrator reading aloud while the lines of text are highlighted like a karaoke storytime. You can opt to have it advance automatically or manually. Many of the picture books have activities that accompany them--matching games, quiz questions, and so forth. If your public library or school doesn't subscribe to Tumblebooks, you can access it through the Lafayette Public Library's kid's stuff page.
We Give Books:
At this charitable giving site, everytime you read a book, the publisher (Penguin Books) will donate one to the nonprofit organization of your choice. You have to sign up (for free) and the selection is fairly limited (smaller than Tumblebooks), but it's hard to argue with the idea! The books, all in English, are geared to ages ten and under and include both DK nonfiction titles (which my kids in Reading Buddies love) and familiar picture books--definitely a plus. You (or your child) do have to actually read the book yourself from pages identical to those of the printed book.
Lire et RéCréer:
This site in French has short stories, fables, poems, and nursery rhymes, both classic and contemporary. The text is presented on the screen, often with simple animation and background music, but the reader is (usually) invited to pronounce it aloud (note that music will start when the site is opened).The tales are divided by genre and also by age. It doesn't have as many "bells and whistles" as Tumblebooks, but it's all in French and the selection (and variety of genres) is a lot better!
Librivox:
Like Tumblebooks, Librivox reads books to you; unlike Tumblebooks, this program focuses on books for adults, and all of the texts are recorded by volunteers from their homes, which makes the sound quality less professional. On the other hand, this means that new texts are constantly being added. (By "new," I mean "previously unrecorded." The books are limited to those in the public domain, which means nothing from the past few decades.) Librivox offers texts in just about any language you can think of, limited only by the languages that their volunteer readers around the world speak, from Catalan to Korean to Latvian to Old English to Tagalog to Urdu (click here and select a language from the drop-down menu to see what books are available in the languages of your choice). Among their choices in French, I haven't found anything appropriate for Griffin or Carl--even the fables by Jean de la Fontaine would go over their heads, at least without illustrations, and no way would I give a preschooler the original versions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales! In English, though, they have stories by Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Aesop, and Mother Goose, plus The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and with 10,000+ texts in English, many more are bound to be appropriate for kids).
Reading A-Z:
I found this one almost four years ago, before I started working as a reading enrichment program coordinator at the library; I'll be exploring it more thoroughly now to steal (er, adapt) some of their ideas for my Reading Buddies. As I stated in my original post, you must purchase a subscription ($85/year for one classroom) to access all of their materials, but they also offer a generous number of free samples. You print out the black-line books and staple them together (then the kids can color them themselves). As the site is designed for teachers of English, the vast majority of their books are in English, but they also have a selection in French and in Spanish (both translations of their original books in English). The subheading on the home page of this site claims "Everything You Need to Teach Reading," and I pretty much believe them--everything from phonics to poetry to readers' theatre to worksheets to lesson plans to assessments is here.
Enchanted Learning:
Like Reading A-Z, this subscription-based site markets itself to teachers with printable books and worksheets. Its offerings are much more limited when it comes to books, but the site provides more printable activities, games, and worksheets. You can also access all of their materials without subscribing ($20/year) if you're willing to look at ads and not have the prettiest versions of the pages when you print them. While Reading A-Z seems very educational, the Enchanted Learning stuff strikes me as more fun. Check out their materials, including short printable books, about Africa and Kwanzaa, in American Sign Language, about Canada, about China and the Chinese New Year, in Spanish and about Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos, in French, in Swedish, in Dutch, in German, in Hebrew and about Hanukkah, in Italian, about Japan and Japanese crafts, in Portuguese, in Russian, and about geography in general. Enchanted Learning's materials in English are divided into categories on the home page.
So now it's your turn! What do you think about sites like these? Do you prefer the interactive ones or the simpler text-based sites? Which are your favorites (and least favorites) (and why)? What others do you recommend?
Note: Do check out the comments, where readers have recommended many more worthy sites in the pasttwo three years!
(Oh, let's be honest. I'll never stop buying books.)
Anyway, here are some sites that I've explored lately. I hope you'll enjoy them too!
 |
| free online children's books--because you can't always find an older cousin to read to you |
Tumblebooks:
I first blogged about this program three years ago; read my original post about how it works, the few aspects I don't like about it, and how you could use it in a language classroom. Briefly, you select a picture book, chapter book, or nonfiction book in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, or Russian. (Predictably, English predominates; click on the "language learning" button at the top of the page to access the books in one of the other languages.) You watch the story unfurl onscreen, with a narrator reading aloud while the lines of text are highlighted like a karaoke storytime. You can opt to have it advance automatically or manually. Many of the picture books have activities that accompany them--matching games, quiz questions, and so forth. If your public library or school doesn't subscribe to Tumblebooks, you can access it through the Lafayette Public Library's kid's stuff page.
We Give Books:
At this charitable giving site, everytime you read a book, the publisher (Penguin Books) will donate one to the nonprofit organization of your choice. You have to sign up (for free) and the selection is fairly limited (smaller than Tumblebooks), but it's hard to argue with the idea! The books, all in English, are geared to ages ten and under and include both DK nonfiction titles (which my kids in Reading Buddies love) and familiar picture books--definitely a plus. You (or your child) do have to actually read the book yourself from pages identical to those of the printed book.
Lire et RéCréer:
This site in French has short stories, fables, poems, and nursery rhymes, both classic and contemporary. The text is presented on the screen, often with simple animation and background music, but the reader is (usually) invited to pronounce it aloud (note that music will start when the site is opened).The tales are divided by genre and also by age. It doesn't have as many "bells and whistles" as Tumblebooks, but it's all in French and the selection (and variety of genres) is a lot better!
Librivox:
Like Tumblebooks, Librivox reads books to you; unlike Tumblebooks, this program focuses on books for adults, and all of the texts are recorded by volunteers from their homes, which makes the sound quality less professional. On the other hand, this means that new texts are constantly being added. (By "new," I mean "previously unrecorded." The books are limited to those in the public domain, which means nothing from the past few decades.) Librivox offers texts in just about any language you can think of, limited only by the languages that their volunteer readers around the world speak, from Catalan to Korean to Latvian to Old English to Tagalog to Urdu (click here and select a language from the drop-down menu to see what books are available in the languages of your choice). Among their choices in French, I haven't found anything appropriate for Griffin or Carl--even the fables by Jean de la Fontaine would go over their heads, at least without illustrations, and no way would I give a preschooler the original versions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales! In English, though, they have stories by Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Aesop, and Mother Goose, plus The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and with 10,000+ texts in English, many more are bound to be appropriate for kids).
Reading A-Z:
I found this one almost four years ago, before I started working as a reading enrichment program coordinator at the library; I'll be exploring it more thoroughly now to steal (er, adapt) some of their ideas for my Reading Buddies. As I stated in my original post, you must purchase a subscription ($85/year for one classroom) to access all of their materials, but they also offer a generous number of free samples. You print out the black-line books and staple them together (then the kids can color them themselves). As the site is designed for teachers of English, the vast majority of their books are in English, but they also have a selection in French and in Spanish (both translations of their original books in English). The subheading on the home page of this site claims "Everything You Need to Teach Reading," and I pretty much believe them--everything from phonics to poetry to readers' theatre to worksheets to lesson plans to assessments is here.
Enchanted Learning:
Like Reading A-Z, this subscription-based site markets itself to teachers with printable books and worksheets. Its offerings are much more limited when it comes to books, but the site provides more printable activities, games, and worksheets. You can also access all of their materials without subscribing ($20/year) if you're willing to look at ads and not have the prettiest versions of the pages when you print them. While Reading A-Z seems very educational, the Enchanted Learning stuff strikes me as more fun. Check out their materials, including short printable books, about Africa and Kwanzaa, in American Sign Language, about Canada, about China and the Chinese New Year, in Spanish and about Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos, in French, in Swedish, in Dutch, in German, in Hebrew and about Hanukkah, in Italian, about Japan and Japanese crafts, in Portuguese, in Russian, and about geography in general. Enchanted Learning's materials in English are divided into categories on the home page.
So now it's your turn! What do you think about sites like these? Do you prefer the interactive ones or the simpler text-based sites? Which are your favorites (and least favorites) (and why)? What others do you recommend?
Note: Do check out the comments, where readers have recommended many more worthy sites in the past
Friday, June 08, 2007
Jeanne's children learning English, German, Spanish, and Swedish in the US
Jeanne has only recently started to use other languages with all of her six children, but she reports that for the most part the kids are catching on and liking it a lot. In recent emails to me, she mentioned that her three-year-old just said his first independent word in German (in addition to his repeating words after her). And now her oldest son and daughter have started speaking to their younger siblings in German and asking for her to teach them more! You can follow along with Jeanne's family's linguistic explorations and adventures at her blog, Books and Brownies.
What is your language background and history?
I have always been fascinated with languages. At the age of 12, I heard a song by Menudo on the radio. It was their first English release. I liked it so much that I bought the tape, and then I wanted more of their music, so I started buying their Spanish albums. This led me to want to study Spanish, so I took 2 years in high school along with 3 years of French. When I went to college, I began to study German and continued my Spanish. I then decided to major in languages, so I majored in German and minored in Spanish. After graduation, I enrolled in graduate school and earned an MA in German. Since graduating in 1996, I have been at home with my children. I have no family connections in either Spanish or German, and my husband speaks only English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
I have six children: Robert is 17, Gabrielle is almost 11, Mary is almost 9, Ryan is 3, and Alexander and Christopher are identical twins who are a year and a half old. They are being exposed to three languages besides English to some extent, but German is the primary one.
Robert (17) is learning German at home using a high school level text called Deutsch Aktuell, and he spent a month in Germany with me when he was 5 ½. During that month, he spent the mornings at a home daycare that a German family ran. By the end of the month, he understood most of what was said to him. An elderly woman at a museum asked him several questions, which he answered with “ja” or “nein” appropriately. Later she overheard us speaking English and asked me if he was German, so she obviously had thought he was. I wish that I had been better at teaching him German through the years, but I was very lost as to what exactly to do with him. Robert is fairly good at languages and studied Latin for two years, has some Spanish, and is currently volunteering with me as an ESL assistant teacher. However, he is not anywhere near fluent in any other language. We plan to finish at least three high school years of German before he graduates, and also two official years of Spanish. I also hope to be able to get him to Germany next year somehow.
Gabrielle and Mary have taken German classes through a German group we belong to called CarolinaKinder. In addition, we have done lessons at home. We tried using Power Glide Jr., which was expensive and not at all worth it! It did not produce any noticeable German. Then, I didn’t know what to do with them, but got some inspiration from our math books. The Saxon math series does a “meeting” where the child has daily practice on things like writing the date, counting money, etc. I decided to have a German meeting with them to teach them basic vocabulary and review it every day. I used Usborne’s First 1000 Words in German sticker book as a base. Every day we reviewed numbers, colors, days of the week, seasons, months, time of day (like morning, afternoon, etc), weather, and clothing. As they learned the basic vocabulary, I added in more German. I also wrote phrases in the book so it wasn’t just vocabulary. For example, under the picture of rain, it says “der Regen” and I wrote in “Es regnet” so they would know how to say “It’s raining.” Then we added in some verbs and we had a page that we were learning. We started with pets. We would play games where they would be an animal and we had to guess what they were. For colors we would play I Spy.
I don’t know how to measure our success with this. They did learn basic vocabulary, but I spoke way too much English doing it with them. I tried to add in more German, but at the time I was not too comfortable with my spoken German, which had gotten incredibly rusty. I tried to mix the languages so the girls wouldn’t stress about what I was saying, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it that way. Eventually, they had learned the words and were getting bored with what we were doing. I then bought LinguaFun cards and we played games with them, which the girls enjoyed. We played while I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with the twins. At this point, their German mainly consists of knowing basic vocabulary and being able to answer, “What’s your name?” Now they hear me speaking it to the little ones, so that helps. I hope to get them back into German classes this fall.
In addition, Gabrielle is very motivated to learn Spanish. She is currently using a program called “Learn Spanish with Grace.” She has a very good accent. She sang in a Spanish children’s choir when she was five, the only non-Hispanic child to participate. She would love to do that again. I am going to start having a short time every day of speaking Spanish with her. Mary is not “officially” studying Spanish, but she overhears a lot of what Gabrielle does and so is learning it too (sometimes you have to be sneaky!).
Mary wants to learn Swedish. That comes from the Kirsten series in the American Girl book line. One day she came to me and asked if I had any songs in Swedish, since Gabrielle was learning Spanish songs. I actually do, because I love ABBA and they recorded several of their biggest hits in Swedish. So I gave her the CDs (which had the words thankfully) and she learned them all. It’s very interesting to have an 8 year old singing “Waterloo” to you in Swedish! I have been searching for a children’s program to use with her and so far have been unsuccessful. She doesn’t want to do it entirely on the computer. We have the Bilingual Baby video in Swedish and she learned some basic vocabulary with that, but how many times can you watch the same video? I would love to take her to the Concordia Language Villages sometime in the future. Since Swedish is kind of obscure, it’s hard to find resources. We do live near a large university, so I have been thinking of seeing if I could find a Swedish exchange student who would tutor her. That is probably the best option. I am happy to learn it with her, but I know from experience that just knowing the language doesn’t mean you know what to do to teach it.
Since the girls have other languages they want to learn, they don’t understand why I want them to learn German too. They think one other language is enough. But I tell them that they can learn both, and they need to study German because I said so. My husband backs me up on that, so it helps. I hope to organize some activities for older children in our German group, but what I find is that the older children all speak English to each other when they are together. I know that I need to create reasons for them to learn German and get that desire back. It’s likely at some point we will go spend some time in Germany and I want them to at least be able to converse in German. They do like learning German songs and can sing about 5 or 6 children’s songs.
Now, onto the little ones! Ryan is 3 and the twins are 20 months. I decided about a month ago to begin speaking German to them consistently. This now means that I speak German at least 50% of the time. I would like it to be more, but I need to increase my child-centered vocabulary! I learned German as an adult, and didn’t know how to say things like, “Would you like to play catch?” So I sit there with my little dictionary and look up words as I need them. I just bought more children’s books in German, so I read the books to them and talk to them and play with them.
Why do you want your children to learn additional languages?
Because I just think it’s wrong that Americans believe they don’t need to learn any other language. I just read yesterday that the EU is promoting being able to speak your own language plus 2 others – in the US hardly anyone speaks just one other! I don’t think that the US can afford to be isolated anymore. I believe that studying languages is fun and interesting and that anyone can learn to some extent. I want them to learn German because it will help them with whatever they decide to do in the future, and because we may at some point go to Germany so I can study. I think it’s great that they also have another language they want to learn, and I want to support their efforts and get them to a basic level of fluency in both.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the other languages?
Robert seems to have a basic understanding of German and Spanish and can usually figure out the topic of something he is reading. He likes languages, but not as much as I do. To him they are just a means of communication! Gabrielle and Mary are very much beginners in their languages. Ryan is understanding some of what I say in German and repeating it back, but doesn’t spontaneously say things (although we did just start with the German in the last month or so).
How you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the other languages are is spoken?
Mainly through our German group. They have holiday celebrations like they would in Germany. I tell my children about Germany, show them pictures, and read books about Germany. For Spanish, there are a lot of Hispanics in our area. Our church building looks like a transplant from New Mexico. Just yesterday I was explaining to the girls that even though there are a lot of people that speak Spanish, they have different cultures, just like England, Ireland, the US, and Australia all speak English but have different cultures. I also like to listen to Latin music, so they know some of those songs. We have gotten books out of the library about Sweden for Mary, and she will tell us, “In Sweden they do such-and-such.” A couple of weeks ago, we all watched the Eurovision contest on the computer and that was a lot of fun. It inspired my daughters to have their own contest with their Barbies. They got a map of Europe and chose countries for each Barbie and made outfits and then had the contest.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children other languages?
The biggest challenge has been just not knowing exactly what to do! Another big challenge is finding good resources that don’t break the bank! And since we live out in the country, I have had to decide that it’s worth it. Yes, it’s worth it to drive an hour for a 30 minute storytime. It is a commitment of time and money and energy, but I don’t want to have my little ones grown and say, “Why didn’t I do this with them? Why didn’t I give them this gift?” like I am doing with my oldest. Another challenge is my daughters’ resistance to German. Hopefully I can overcome that. And I already mentioned how difficult it is to find Swedish resources for Mary.
What resources have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Useful: Berlitz book Help Your Child with a Foreign Language by Opal Dunn, Usborne language books, a songbook and CD set I got from Alphabet Garten [specializing in German materials], other German picture books, Sound Beginnings CD, Bilingual Baby videos, LinguaFun cards, Enchanted Learning website, Deutsch Aktuell, Learn Spanish with Grace.
Not useful: Power Glide, Rosetta Stone (and on her blog, Jeanne also explains the inadequacies of the Pimsleur program)
What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I would like to see more research about effective ways for families to learn a language together, and also for a parent to teach a non-native language to his or her own child. I really can’t believe that I let a month’s worth of German slip away from my son! I should have continued with him and maybe by now he would be fluent.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
Another thing that I would really like to do, but have been unable to figure out how, is teach other subjects in the target language. I guess I could probably find resources to do this with Spanish, but it would be hard to do it in German and even harder in Swedish. And I guess that one would have to reach a basic level in the language before anything else would make sense. Any ideas about how to do that? I really am inspired by your creativity with the games and ideas that you do with the girls you tutor and with your nephew!
Jeanne, thanks so much for answering this questionnaire with so much detail! I really like seeing how it's possible to start using a foreign language with kids of such varied ages. Thank you too for all the specific resource recommendations. Readers, do you have any questions or comments for Jeanne?
What is your language background and history?
I have always been fascinated with languages. At the age of 12, I heard a song by Menudo on the radio. It was their first English release. I liked it so much that I bought the tape, and then I wanted more of their music, so I started buying their Spanish albums. This led me to want to study Spanish, so I took 2 years in high school along with 3 years of French. When I went to college, I began to study German and continued my Spanish. I then decided to major in languages, so I majored in German and minored in Spanish. After graduation, I enrolled in graduate school and earned an MA in German. Since graduating in 1996, I have been at home with my children. I have no family connections in either Spanish or German, and my husband speaks only English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
I have six children: Robert is 17, Gabrielle is almost 11, Mary is almost 9, Ryan is 3, and Alexander and Christopher are identical twins who are a year and a half old. They are being exposed to three languages besides English to some extent, but German is the primary one.
Robert (17) is learning German at home using a high school level text called Deutsch Aktuell, and he spent a month in Germany with me when he was 5 ½. During that month, he spent the mornings at a home daycare that a German family ran. By the end of the month, he understood most of what was said to him. An elderly woman at a museum asked him several questions, which he answered with “ja” or “nein” appropriately. Later she overheard us speaking English and asked me if he was German, so she obviously had thought he was. I wish that I had been better at teaching him German through the years, but I was very lost as to what exactly to do with him. Robert is fairly good at languages and studied Latin for two years, has some Spanish, and is currently volunteering with me as an ESL assistant teacher. However, he is not anywhere near fluent in any other language. We plan to finish at least three high school years of German before he graduates, and also two official years of Spanish. I also hope to be able to get him to Germany next year somehow.
Gabrielle and Mary have taken German classes through a German group we belong to called CarolinaKinder. In addition, we have done lessons at home. We tried using Power Glide Jr., which was expensive and not at all worth it! It did not produce any noticeable German. Then, I didn’t know what to do with them, but got some inspiration from our math books. The Saxon math series does a “meeting” where the child has daily practice on things like writing the date, counting money, etc. I decided to have a German meeting with them to teach them basic vocabulary and review it every day. I used Usborne’s First 1000 Words in German sticker book as a base. Every day we reviewed numbers, colors, days of the week, seasons, months, time of day (like morning, afternoon, etc), weather, and clothing. As they learned the basic vocabulary, I added in more German. I also wrote phrases in the book so it wasn’t just vocabulary. For example, under the picture of rain, it says “der Regen” and I wrote in “Es regnet” so they would know how to say “It’s raining.” Then we added in some verbs and we had a page that we were learning. We started with pets. We would play games where they would be an animal and we had to guess what they were. For colors we would play I Spy.
I don’t know how to measure our success with this. They did learn basic vocabulary, but I spoke way too much English doing it with them. I tried to add in more German, but at the time I was not too comfortable with my spoken German, which had gotten incredibly rusty. I tried to mix the languages so the girls wouldn’t stress about what I was saying, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it that way. Eventually, they had learned the words and were getting bored with what we were doing. I then bought LinguaFun cards and we played games with them, which the girls enjoyed. We played while I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with the twins. At this point, their German mainly consists of knowing basic vocabulary and being able to answer, “What’s your name?” Now they hear me speaking it to the little ones, so that helps. I hope to get them back into German classes this fall.
In addition, Gabrielle is very motivated to learn Spanish. She is currently using a program called “Learn Spanish with Grace.” She has a very good accent. She sang in a Spanish children’s choir when she was five, the only non-Hispanic child to participate. She would love to do that again. I am going to start having a short time every day of speaking Spanish with her. Mary is not “officially” studying Spanish, but she overhears a lot of what Gabrielle does and so is learning it too (sometimes you have to be sneaky!).
Mary wants to learn Swedish. That comes from the Kirsten series in the American Girl book line. One day she came to me and asked if I had any songs in Swedish, since Gabrielle was learning Spanish songs. I actually do, because I love ABBA and they recorded several of their biggest hits in Swedish. So I gave her the CDs (which had the words thankfully) and she learned them all. It’s very interesting to have an 8 year old singing “Waterloo” to you in Swedish! I have been searching for a children’s program to use with her and so far have been unsuccessful. She doesn’t want to do it entirely on the computer. We have the Bilingual Baby video in Swedish and she learned some basic vocabulary with that, but how many times can you watch the same video? I would love to take her to the Concordia Language Villages sometime in the future. Since Swedish is kind of obscure, it’s hard to find resources. We do live near a large university, so I have been thinking of seeing if I could find a Swedish exchange student who would tutor her. That is probably the best option. I am happy to learn it with her, but I know from experience that just knowing the language doesn’t mean you know what to do to teach it.
Since the girls have other languages they want to learn, they don’t understand why I want them to learn German too. They think one other language is enough. But I tell them that they can learn both, and they need to study German because I said so. My husband backs me up on that, so it helps. I hope to organize some activities for older children in our German group, but what I find is that the older children all speak English to each other when they are together. I know that I need to create reasons for them to learn German and get that desire back. It’s likely at some point we will go spend some time in Germany and I want them to at least be able to converse in German. They do like learning German songs and can sing about 5 or 6 children’s songs.
Now, onto the little ones! Ryan is 3 and the twins are 20 months. I decided about a month ago to begin speaking German to them consistently. This now means that I speak German at least 50% of the time. I would like it to be more, but I need to increase my child-centered vocabulary! I learned German as an adult, and didn’t know how to say things like, “Would you like to play catch?” So I sit there with my little dictionary and look up words as I need them. I just bought more children’s books in German, so I read the books to them and talk to them and play with them.
Why do you want your children to learn additional languages?
Because I just think it’s wrong that Americans believe they don’t need to learn any other language. I just read yesterday that the EU is promoting being able to speak your own language plus 2 others – in the US hardly anyone speaks just one other! I don’t think that the US can afford to be isolated anymore. I believe that studying languages is fun and interesting and that anyone can learn to some extent. I want them to learn German because it will help them with whatever they decide to do in the future, and because we may at some point go to Germany so I can study. I think it’s great that they also have another language they want to learn, and I want to support their efforts and get them to a basic level of fluency in both.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the other languages?
Robert seems to have a basic understanding of German and Spanish and can usually figure out the topic of something he is reading. He likes languages, but not as much as I do. To him they are just a means of communication! Gabrielle and Mary are very much beginners in their languages. Ryan is understanding some of what I say in German and repeating it back, but doesn’t spontaneously say things (although we did just start with the German in the last month or so).
How you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the other languages are is spoken?
Mainly through our German group. They have holiday celebrations like they would in Germany. I tell my children about Germany, show them pictures, and read books about Germany. For Spanish, there are a lot of Hispanics in our area. Our church building looks like a transplant from New Mexico. Just yesterday I was explaining to the girls that even though there are a lot of people that speak Spanish, they have different cultures, just like England, Ireland, the US, and Australia all speak English but have different cultures. I also like to listen to Latin music, so they know some of those songs. We have gotten books out of the library about Sweden for Mary, and she will tell us, “In Sweden they do such-and-such.” A couple of weeks ago, we all watched the Eurovision contest on the computer and that was a lot of fun. It inspired my daughters to have their own contest with their Barbies. They got a map of Europe and chose countries for each Barbie and made outfits and then had the contest.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children other languages?
The biggest challenge has been just not knowing exactly what to do! Another big challenge is finding good resources that don’t break the bank! And since we live out in the country, I have had to decide that it’s worth it. Yes, it’s worth it to drive an hour for a 30 minute storytime. It is a commitment of time and money and energy, but I don’t want to have my little ones grown and say, “Why didn’t I do this with them? Why didn’t I give them this gift?” like I am doing with my oldest. Another challenge is my daughters’ resistance to German. Hopefully I can overcome that. And I already mentioned how difficult it is to find Swedish resources for Mary.
What resources have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Useful: Berlitz book Help Your Child with a Foreign Language by Opal Dunn, Usborne language books, a songbook and CD set I got from Alphabet Garten [specializing in German materials], other German picture books, Sound Beginnings CD, Bilingual Baby videos, LinguaFun cards, Enchanted Learning website, Deutsch Aktuell, Learn Spanish with Grace.
Not useful: Power Glide, Rosetta Stone (and on her blog, Jeanne also explains the inadequacies of the Pimsleur program)
What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I would like to see more research about effective ways for families to learn a language together, and also for a parent to teach a non-native language to his or her own child. I really can’t believe that I let a month’s worth of German slip away from my son! I should have continued with him and maybe by now he would be fluent.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
Another thing that I would really like to do, but have been unable to figure out how, is teach other subjects in the target language. I guess I could probably find resources to do this with Spanish, but it would be hard to do it in German and even harder in Swedish. And I guess that one would have to reach a basic level in the language before anything else would make sense. Any ideas about how to do that? I really am inspired by your creativity with the games and ideas that you do with the girls you tutor and with your nephew!
Jeanne, thanks so much for answering this questionnaire with so much detail! I really like seeing how it's possible to start using a foreign language with kids of such varied ages. Thank you too for all the specific resource recommendations. Readers, do you have any questions or comments for Jeanne?
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Profile: Nicole's kids learning English and Norwegian in Norway
In Bringing up Baby Bilingual's first profile from Scandinavia, Nicole tells us about her two children's acquisition of their parents' mother tongues. She also points out that in Norway, her children will have to learn English in school regardless, so she's giving them a leg up. She concurs with many of the other families I've profiled that contact with native speakers of the minority language is important, but that books are an equally valuable resource. And, again like many of my profilees, she admits that consistently using the minority language is sometimes difficult. Thanks for sharing, Nicole!
What is your language background and history?
I am a native American English speaker. I learned Spanish as an exchange student in Honduras and promptly forgot most of it when I moved to Oslo, Norway in 1998. I am now fluent in Norwegian
What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Our children (7 years and 2 ½) are exposed to Norwegian and English. The seven-year-old is completely fluent in both, but living in Norway gives Norwegian an advantage in the reading/writing department, which is starting now that she is in the first grade. The two-and-a-half-year-old speaks a mixture, just as his sister did at that age. I try to speak mostly English, but slip into Norwegian. My husband tries to speak mostly Norwegian but slips into English….We have three-week-visits twice a year from my parents who only speak English, we travel to the US once a year, and I have two other bilingual families who meet at least twice a month for dinner and play group. I only read English books to my kids and we have three times as many English children’s books as we do Norwegian.
Why do you want your children to learn a second language?
My parents would kill me if they couldn’t communicate with their grandchildren! And they will learn English in school regardless…what a gift to speak it as a native.
How well do your children understand and speak the second language? What do they think about it?
My daughter loves that she knows English. She helps the teacher in school. She has never refused to speak a language or to only speak a specific language with specific individuals. My son is still too young.
How have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken?
My daughter has had several extended stays (4-6 weeks) in the US. She has friends there with whom she communicates through telephone calls and cards in the mail. We travel home at least once a year and she is very comfortable in that culture. We also have children’s videos that she watches in English that provide cultural information without her realizing it!
What challenges have occurred as you teach your child a second language?
I am not diligent enough in sticking to English, especially with my second child. I need to work on not using Norwegian with them.
What resources have been most useful to you?
Friends, family, videos, DVDs, and books.
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children?
I don’t believe that there are any negatives. Children have no limits to what they can learn when it comes to language. There is no filter in their minds that tells them there is only one word for every object. It makes it incredibly easy to teach them multiple languages. Learning several doesn’t mean the child will speak later or be confused and unable to express herself. Children will always learn to speak at different ages. The key is to not compare, try not to be competitive and to stick to whatever program you have set up for language exposure.
What is your language background and history?
I am a native American English speaker. I learned Spanish as an exchange student in Honduras and promptly forgot most of it when I moved to Oslo, Norway in 1998. I am now fluent in Norwegian
What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Our children (7 years and 2 ½) are exposed to Norwegian and English. The seven-year-old is completely fluent in both, but living in Norway gives Norwegian an advantage in the reading/writing department, which is starting now that she is in the first grade. The two-and-a-half-year-old speaks a mixture, just as his sister did at that age. I try to speak mostly English, but slip into Norwegian. My husband tries to speak mostly Norwegian but slips into English….We have three-week-visits twice a year from my parents who only speak English, we travel to the US once a year, and I have two other bilingual families who meet at least twice a month for dinner and play group. I only read English books to my kids and we have three times as many English children’s books as we do Norwegian.
Why do you want your children to learn a second language?
My parents would kill me if they couldn’t communicate with their grandchildren! And they will learn English in school regardless…what a gift to speak it as a native.
How well do your children understand and speak the second language? What do they think about it?
My daughter loves that she knows English. She helps the teacher in school. She has never refused to speak a language or to only speak a specific language with specific individuals. My son is still too young.
How have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken?
My daughter has had several extended stays (4-6 weeks) in the US. She has friends there with whom she communicates through telephone calls and cards in the mail. We travel home at least once a year and she is very comfortable in that culture. We also have children’s videos that she watches in English that provide cultural information without her realizing it!
What challenges have occurred as you teach your child a second language?
I am not diligent enough in sticking to English, especially with my second child. I need to work on not using Norwegian with them.
What resources have been most useful to you?
Friends, family, videos, DVDs, and books.
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children?
I don’t believe that there are any negatives. Children have no limits to what they can learn when it comes to language. There is no filter in their minds that tells them there is only one word for every object. It makes it incredibly easy to teach them multiple languages. Learning several doesn’t mean the child will speak later or be confused and unable to express herself. Children will always learn to speak at different ages. The key is to not compare, try not to be competitive and to stick to whatever program you have set up for language exposure.
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