How to prime kids to learn 3+ languages?

Hi,
We're looking for methodologies and/or materials to prime child from 3
month of age for multiple language acquisition.

I remember being exposed to multi-language priming in first grade.
However I can't find any structured materials.

Now I'm raising my own son whom we'd like to prime for these
languages:
French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese,
Portuguese, and English.

Unfortunately, we speak only 4

If anyone knows of any good sources or other materials, or systems -
please let us know.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

On Oct 1, 5:49 pm, wrote:
Hi,
We're looking for methodologies and/or materials to prime child from 3
month of age for multiple language acquisition.

I remember being exposed to multi-language priming in first grade.
However I can't find any structured materials.

Now I'm raising my own son whom we'd like to prime for these
languages:
French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese,
Portuguese, and English.

Unfortunately, we speak only 4

Doesn't matter, because the best way is for each parent to speak only
one (different) language. Then, a grandparent speak a third, and then
the school do a fourth. Each context independent of the others. You
want your boy to speak English, too, right? If he's already going on
that, just let the TV and his friends do that one. You speak French
to him (or whatever it is you speak best) and your husband speaks only
Spanish to him. Then have Grandma or whoever else you have speak
Arabic to him. You didn't say which four you have covered.

Lots of studies on this. Lots of books. Lots of examples. Try
Google scholar "Second language acquisition" or "multilingual
acquisition." People I know who speak two or more languages well had
this method. Example: a German speaking mom and a French speaking
dad (quite a few in Europe, especially Switzerland), each speaks their
own native language.




If anyone knows of any good sources or other materials, or systems -
please let us know.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Lots of my family and friends are bilingual or trilingual. That's how
it worked for us, too. You can also try changing the language for a
few months a year for total immersion in one language at a time, but
when I see how that works with kids, I cringe (lots of crying or upset
if the child feels the parents are suddenly aliens, but I see people
try it all the time). Lots of the Chinese people I know, here or
where ever, end up with children who speak both Mandarin and Cantonese
(that's like French and Spanish, to me), and French (from going to
French school) and English (from going to afterschool English program)
and Tagalog (from hiring Filipino maid). Then, when they get about
middle school age, the parents send them to language school in Japan.
So I know quite a few young adults that are five-language speakers
(amazing, huh?)

But the real ticket is that each person who speaks to the child speaks
a whole language and does it well and consistently, so the child has
to speak back in that language. Grew up with a bunch of German
immigrant kids, too, whose parents spoke German to grandma and grandpa
(who lived in the house), and all the kids had to, as well. Same with
most of the good bilingual Spanish/English kids, too.

What you don't want is something like Spanglish or Gerenglish, where
the kids don't get to high competency in any language, just half and
half all the time.

Best of luck, I like this subject.

Pili

On Oct 1, 9:16 pm, Pili wrote:
On Oct 1, 5:49 pm, wrote:

Hi,
We're looking for methodologies and/or materials to prime child from 3
month of age for multiple language acquisition.

I remember being exposed to multi-language priming in first grade.
However I can't find any structured materials.

Now I'm raising my own son whom we'd like to prime for these
languages:
French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese,
Portuguese, and English.

Unfortunately, we speak only 4

Doesn't matter, because the best way is for each parent to speak only
one (different) language. Then, a grandparent speak a third, and then
the school do a fourth. Each context independent of the others. You
want your boy to speak English, too, right? If he's already going on
that, just let the TV and his friends do that one. You speak French
to him (or whatever it is you speak best) and your husband speaks only
Spanish to him. Then have Grandma or whoever else you have speak
Arabic to him. You didn't say which four you have covered.

Lots of studies on this. Lots of books. Lots of examples. Try
Google scholar "Second language acquisition" or "multilingual
acquisition." People I know who speak two or more languages well had
this method. Example: a German speaking mom and a French speaking
dad (quite a few in Europe, especially Switzerland), each speaks their
own native language.

This is what we do, although we only have 2 true languages between us
(French and English). DH also speaks German fluently, but doesn't feel
comfortable enough with it to speak it to DD - nor does he feel a read
need to, he'd rather speak French to her and it's more important she
speaks French as a native than German (since all DH's friends and
family are French Speakers with German as a second language).

We've asked her babysitter to speak to her only in Spanish, but alas I
think she gets more Spanglish than true Spanish..

If anyone knows of any good sources or other materials, or systems -
please let us know.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Lots of my family and friends are bilingual or trilingual. That's how
it worked for us, too. You can also try changing the language for a
few months a year for total immersion in one language at a time, but
when I see how that works with kids, I cringe (lots of crying or upset
if the child feels the parents are suddenly aliens, but I see people
try it all the time). Lots of the Chinese people I know, here or
where ever, end up with children who speak both Mandarin and Cantonese
(that's like French and Spanish, to me), and French (from going to
French school) and English (from going to afterschool English program)
and Tagalog (from hiring Filipino maid). Then, when they get about
middle school age, the parents send them to language school in Japan.
So I know quite a few young adults that are five-language speakers
(amazing, huh?)

The son of friends of mine is going along this track. The parents are
French and Aussie, so French and English are the two primaries,
although his first language was really Karen, due to the Karen nanny.
Then he started school at 3 - a Chinese School which tho they taught
in English, all the kids spoke Chinese so he started learning that.
And they were living in Thailand so though the other languages were
more dominant, he was also surrounded by Thai.

Be forewarned that in the early years such kids lag behind in language
development.They usually catch up then fly far above their peers, just
later.

IME, the key is to be consistent. Don't have the same person mix
languages. Each person speaks in one language to the child.

But the real ticket is that each person who speaks to the child speaks
a whole language and does it well and consistently, so the child has
to speak back in that language. Grew up with a bunch of German
immigrant kids, too, whose parents spoke German to grandma and grandpa
(who lived in the house), and all the kids had to, as well. Same with
most of the good bilingual Spanish/English kids, too.

Speaking back in the language is important! I have many friends
(myself included) who understand Spanish but can't really speak it
because they always responded to Spanish questions in English growing
up.

What you don't want is something like Spanglish or Gerenglish, where
the kids don't get to high competency in any language, just half and
half all the time.

Ugh...I am worried about this. The babysitter does speak Spanish
correctly, but around here, *everyone* speaks Spanglish. It's an ok
version in that proper words are used (as opposed to in So Cal where i
grew up where the words were so modified they didn't make sense), but
they mix the two in one sentence. I've told her I'd love for her to
speak in only Spanish to DD, but not Spanglish. Alas it is her
everyday speech, so I just gave in. We may do a Spanish immersion
program in school if by then her French is good enough (we don't have
a lot of French speakers around, so it's hard to reinforce it.
Spanish, OTOH, is all around us).

"cjra" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 1, 9:16 pm, Pili wrote:
On Oct 1, 5:49 pm, wrote:

Hi,
We're looking for methodologies and/or materials to prime child from 3
month of age for multiple language acquisition.

I remember being exposed to multi-language priming in first grade.
However I can't find any structured materials.

Now I'm raising my own son whom we'd like to prime for these
languages:
French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese,
Portuguese, and English.

Unfortunately, we speak only 4

Doesn't matter, because the best way is for each parent to speak only
one (different) language. Then, a grandparent speak a third, and then
the school do a fourth. Each context independent of the others. You
want your boy to speak English, too, right? If he's already going on
that, just let the TV and his friends do that one. You speak French
to him (or whatever it is you speak best) and your husband speaks only
Spanish to him. Then have Grandma or whoever else you have speak
Arabic to him. You didn't say which four you have covered.

Lots of studies on this. Lots of books. Lots of examples. Try
Google scholar "Second language acquisition" or "multilingual
acquisition." People I know who speak two or more languages well had
this method. Example: a German speaking mom and a French speaking
dad (quite a few in Europe, especially Switzerland), each speaks their
own native language.

This is what we do, although we only have 2 true languages between us
(French and English). DH also speaks German fluently, but doesn't feel
comfortable enough with it to speak it to DD - nor does he feel a read
need to, he'd rather speak French to her and it's more important she
speaks French as a native than German (since all DH's friends and
family are French Speakers with German as a second language).

We've asked her babysitter to speak to her only in Spanish, but alas I
think she gets more Spanglish than true Spanish..

If anyone knows of any good sources or other materials, or systems -
please let us know.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Lots of my family and friends are bilingual or trilingual. That's how
it worked for us, too. You can also try changing the language for a
few months a year for total immersion in one language at a time, but
when I see how that works with kids, I cringe (lots of crying or upset
if the child feels the parents are suddenly aliens, but I see people
try it all the time). Lots of the Chinese people I know, here or
where ever, end up with children who speak both Mandarin and Cantonese
(that's like French and Spanish, to me), and French (from going to
French school) and English (from going to afterschool English program)
and Tagalog (from hiring Filipino maid). Then, when they get about
middle school age, the parents send them to language school in Japan.
So I know quite a few young adults that are five-language speakers
(amazing, huh?)

The son of friends of mine is going along this track. The parents are
French and Aussie, so French and English are the two primaries,
although his first language was really Karen, due to the Karen nanny.
Then he started school at 3 - a Chinese School which tho they taught
in English, all the kids spoke Chinese so he started learning that.
And they were living in Thailand so though the other languages were
more dominant, he was also surrounded by Thai.

Be forewarned that in the early years such kids lag behind in language
development.They usually catch up then fly far above their peers, just
later.

IME, the key is to be consistent. Don't have the same person mix
languages. Each person speaks in one language to the child.

But the real ticket is that each person who speaks to the child speaks
a whole language and does it well and consistently, so the child has
to speak back in that language. Grew up with a bunch of German
immigrant kids, too, whose parents spoke German to grandma and grandpa
(who lived in the house), and all the kids had to, as well. Same with
most of the good bilingual Spanish/English kids, too.

Speaking back in the language is important! I have many friends
(myself included) who understand Spanish but can't really speak it
because they always responded to Spanish questions in English growing
up.

What you don't want is something like Spanglish or Gerenglish, where
the kids don't get to high competency in any language, just half and
half all the time.

Ugh...I am worried about this. The babysitter does speak Spanish
correctly, but around here, *everyone* speaks Spanglish. It's an ok
version in that proper words are used (as opposed to in So Cal where i
grew up where the words were so modified they didn't make sense), but
they mix the two in one sentence. I've told her I'd love for her to
speak in only Spanish to DD, but not Spanglish. Alas it is her
everyday speech, so I just gave in. We may do a Spanish immersion
program in school if by then her French is good enough (we don't have
a lot of French speakers around, so it's hard to reinforce it.
Spanish, OTOH, is all around us).

This is all such good advice.

This seems to be working in my family, but it's just Spanish and English.
I'm pretty fluent in Spanish (gotta watch not to speak spanglish tho).
Most of us speak English a lot, my husband doesn't speak Spanish. But, my
grandmas and my great-grandma speak Spanish and when we get together, my
aunts and uncles and everyone all speak Spanish. We have a lot of
get-togethers. So, on the weekends, all the little kids are immersed in
Spanish. I am worried more about English than Spanish because we want our
new baby to speak both, but be really good in English.

My nieces and nephews learned to read and write Spanish at the same time
they were learning to read and write English. They think Spanish is easier.
They can read newspapers in Spanish and we all watch Telemundo as much as we
watch English TV.

I am just thinking about whether I'd do what I see so many moms doing.
Talking Spanish to their kids in the grocery store, everywhere. I can't
imagine doing that because my husband wouldn't understand us! From what I
can tell though, my nieces and nephews have become really good bilinguals
without that. I should get some kind of test in Spanish and test them.

Jessica R




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"cjra" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 6, 12:04 pm, "Jessica R." wrote:

I am just thinking about whether I'd do what I see so many moms doing.
Talking Spanish to their kids in the grocery store, everywhere. I can't
imagine doing that because my husband wouldn't understand us! From what
I
can tell though, my nieces and nephews have become really good bilinguals
without that. I should get some kind of test in Spanish and test them.

FWIW - I don't speak French. I am trying to learn, but I understand
only about 10% of what DH says to DD. it's actually good practice for
me. He repeats things a lot for her, which helps me to learn. DH
never speaks to DD in English.

Maybe it's a good opportunity for your husband to learn Spanish.

In our case, I've been "speaking" ASL to DD since birth (I can sign while
talking pretty accurately, though-it's a skill I was taught because my
speech was so bad as a child-and I've kept it up because it seems to help my
brain get around some of the speech problems-besides, my students think it's
neat, and every now and then I have a student who actually signs and LOVES
having a class where they don't need an interpreter), and at almost 3, she's
about equal in both languages, and we didn't really see a speech delay.
She'd learn a word in both languages almost simultaneously.

For Spanish, DH wasn't comfortable doing it all the time, so we've mostly
let media do it for us. He does read books to her in Spanish and I sing
songs in Spanish (I'm nowhere near fluent enough to speak it to her-and my
Spanish is mostly Texas/New Mexico Spanglish), and we watch most TV and DVDs
in Spanish (most DVDs come with a Spanish setting, and we can get many of
the PBS programs in Spanish via local TV, albeit at odd hours of the
day/night), plus we try to arrange regular play sessons with children who
are learning Spanish at home. DD codeshifts pretty well when she needs to
speak Spanish, and often translates what she says in English (and often
signs simulateously) into Spanish. It's sort of a game to her to come up
with the words. This year, she has a Spanish-speaking assistant preschool
teacher, who, since DD is already pretty strong on the academics in English,
is really working with her on Spanish, and her Spanish has been growing in
leaps and bounds, in large part because Ms. Margerite only speaks to DD
directly in Spanish (although I notice that she talks to the other children
in English).

Where we have seen some confusion is syntax-she'll often speak English, but
with more of an ASL or Spanish word, or vice versa, and she does mix
languages, especially English and Spanish (which, admittedly, is a lot of
what she hears on the playground and casually-Spanglish isn't as common here
as it was in TX, but it's not uncommon, either).

She's also picked up words here and there in other languages quite easily.
She's picked up quite a few words in both Hindustani and Russian just due to
playing with children who speak those languages-although in both cases I'm
handicapped because I have no clue what she's saying!

On Oct 6, 12:04 pm, "Jessica R." wrote:

I am just thinking about whether I'd do what I see so many moms doing.
Talking Spanish to their kids in the grocery store, everywhere. I can't
imagine doing that because my husband wouldn't understand us! From what I
can tell though, my nieces and nephews have become really good bilinguals
without that. I should get some kind of test in Spanish and test them.

FWIW - I don't speak French. I am trying to learn, but I understand
only about 10% of what DH says to DD. it's actually good practice for
me. He repeats things a lot for her, which helps me to learn. DH
never speaks to DD in English.

Maybe it's a good opportunity for your husband to learn Spanish.

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 9, 12:36 am, Akuvikate wrote:

snip

I've also heard vaguely that after 3-4 languages, as you start
learning new ones they start to displace your weaker non-native
languages. Don't know how scientifically proven that is, but
certainly in my own experience it's true (though I was monolingual as
a kid). I'm dubious that most people who claim 5+ languages would
truly be able to comfortably follow and participate in a normal dinner-
table conversation in all of their languages.

I want my children to learn at least one other foreign language (in
the U.S. Spanish seems most practical), but I won't push them beyond
that. I know what "cat" and "dog" are in English and French, and I'm
sure that the Spanish, Germans, Italians, Russians, Chinese etc. have
equivalent words, but memorizing such trivia -- which is necessary to
learn a foreign language -- does not seem important to me.

Some kids, like my DD, though, seem to love this sort of "trivia". She
delights in telling me the names of things in all her languages, and often
brings home the "picture dictionaries" in other languages from the library.
One reason why we started moving to teaching her Spanish in a more "real"
manner was because she was showing such interest in other languages, and we
felt that she'd enjoy it. This is a child who, at 18 months, was trying to
figure out the greek letters on the fraternity houses, and who loves looking
at print in other alphabetic and non-alphabetic systems. One of her favorite
toys is a Hebrew alphabet puzzle she found at 90% off after Hanukkah last
year-and no one at home speaks Hebrew (I had to look up how to say the names
of the letters for her-and at this point, she knows them and I don't). She
loves playing with my Russian students, with the children of my husband's
Indian co-workers, and indeed seems to get along better in a lot of ways
with children her age who speak other languages than children her age who
speak just English.

I'm seriously considering sending her to the Chinese Language classes that
some of my Chinese-American students attend starting at age 4, not because I
expect her to become fluent in Chinese, but because I think she'd enjoy it.

I think to her, at least right now, vocabulary in other languages is kind of
like music for me. Something she enjoys, is good at-and that if it has
practical applications, well, that's good too. She may not continue this,
but for now, I don't think her having a half dozen ways to say "Dog" is
doing any harm.

On Oct 1, 5:49 pm, wrote:
Hi,
We're looking for methodologies and/or materials to prime child from 3
month of age for multiple language acquisition.

I remember being exposed to multi-language priming in first grade.
However I can't find any structured materials.

Now I'm raising my own son whom we'd like to prime for these
languages:
French, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, German, Russian, Japanese,
Portuguese, and English.

Unfortunately, we speak only 4

If anyone knows of any good sources or other materials, or systems -
please let us know.

Any feedback is highly appreciated.

Fortunately you need no special methodologies or materials -- kids are
born primed to learn as many languages as they need to in order to
communicate. This is especially true in the first few years of life.
Whatever your son is consistently exposed to he will learn to
understand, and whatever he needs to speak in order to communicate he
will learn to speak.

The key is consistent exposure and needing to speak it -- if you speak
4 languages it's not very realistic to expect him to learn 9. I would
encourage you to focus on exposing him intensively and consistently to
2 or 3 languages and perhaps look for opportunities in future for him
to learn others. As many people here have mentioned, one of the best
methods to assure multi-language acquisition is to have each parent
speak to the child only in one language, and respond to the child only
in one language. If you each speak to the child in one of your
languages which is not the dominant language of your area, then he
should grow up eventually fairly comfortably trilingual in each
parental language and the dominant language.

I'll warn you that if this requires that one of you speak to him in
your non-native language that it's darned hard. The Bug had a Spanish-
speaking babysitter from age 1-2 and by the end I'd say her Spanish
skills were about 4 months behind her English skills. I tried to
continue speaking to her in Spanish as best I could, but despite being
fairly comfortably fluent in the language I just couldn't keep it up.
Also she hated it when I did that. Use it or lose it -- she lost it.
But she's only 4, and by hook or by crook I'm going to make sure she
learns another language while she's still young.

I've also heard vaguely that after 3-4 languages, as you start
learning new ones they start to displace your weaker non-native
languages. Don't know how scientifically proven that is, but
certainly in my own experience it's true (though I was monolingual as
a kid). I'm dubious that most people who claim 5+ languages would
truly be able to comfortably follow and participate in a normal dinner-
table conversation in all of their languages.

Best of luck!

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel and wannabe linguist
and the Bug, 4y/o rabid English-only proponent
and something brewing 4/08

Kate, ignorant foot soldier of the medical cartel and wannabe linguist
and the Bug, 4y/o rabid English-only proponent
and something brewing 4/08


Kate!! Congrats!!

JennP.

On Oct 9, 12:36 am, Akuvikate wrote:

snip

I've also heard vaguely that after 3-4 languages, as you start
learning new ones they start to displace your weaker non-native
languages. Don't know how scientifically proven that is, but
certainly in my own experience it's true (though I was monolingual as
a kid). I'm dubious that most people who claim 5+ languages would
truly be able to comfortably follow and participate in a normal dinner-
table conversation in all of their languages.

I want my children to learn at least one other foreign language (in
the U.S. Spanish seems most practical), but I won't push them beyond
that. I know what "cat" and "dog" are in English and French, and I'm
sure that the Spanish, Germans, Italians, Russians, Chinese etc. have
equivalent words, but memorizing such trivia -- which is necessary to
learn a foreign language -- does not seem important to me.