Apr. 28, 2009
Weaving Spanish lessons into your daily life
Posted in grammar and language helps
 My brother and his wife plan to raise their son trilingually, in other words, in addition to English, he is being taught Spanish and Japanese. My little nephew is being exposed to these languages through no formal curriculum, but instead through the circumstances of day to day life. The funny thing is, every time we are around them, we pick up some new Japanese vocabulary. When we snacked on mikons (clementine oranges) the word stuck with us, and to this day we will still call them mikons.
Common sense, right? Research backs this approach up. By weaving phrases and vocabulary into day to day life, it is retained more readily by your child. But here is where insecurities rear their heads for most of us. What if you don't have it exactly right? What if your pronunciation is not so great... shouldn't your child be learning from a native speaker? Here's the good news: any language learning that takes place in the natural flow of daily activities is retained better than language learning that takes place in a workbook or some other academic approach. This holds true even if the teacher is not a native speaker of the language, or if the teacher speaks the target language with an accent (for example, if you feel you are speaking Spanish with an English accent). Try to let go of your insecurities, and speak Spanish at every opportunity with your kids! Make it fun, casual, and as natural as possible. Count the stair steps as you and your child go up and down together, refer to favorite foods in Spanish, use Spanish greetings and polite expressions, etc. As you learn more vocabulary, try to include it into your daily life. Admittedly, it is a hard habit to get into! This takes more up-front self-discipline and effort on the part of the parent/teacher than just giving them a page in a workbook to do, or sitting them down to the computer with Rosetta Stone or some other program. However, once the pattern is established, it is actually easier than having Spanish as another academic subject that your kids may dread. Read more about this and other helpful ideas in The Bilingual Edge by Kendall King and Alison Mackey. |
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