Guest sorkaktani Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 Hello, I'm new here and have some questions. My DH is a native Spanish speaker and we speak mostly Spanish at home. We also live in South America, so our almost 3 year old daughter speaks very good 'baby' Spanish. I try my hardest to speak English to her (I am a native speaker) but it winds up being about 50% of the time or Spanglish. What I am concerned about is that when I speak to her in English, she answers me in Spanish. It is obvious that she understands me, but will not answer me in English. I have practiced with her how she needs to reply in English and she is very dutiful and sweet in repeating after me in English, but then she switches back to Spanish. What to do???? Will she ever start answering me in English? Will she ever be able to converse in English? And the few words that she does speak in English, she speaks with an accent! We are planning to HS in English and have a ton of books that she loves reading. We also sing songs, work on verses and poems, etc. in both languages. When she is older, I want her to read and write well in Spanish, not just speak. Any ideas or suggestions for curriculum or strategies in how to educate her WELL in both? Any feedback would be welcome! Thanks, Melissa Loving life with my amazing husband and 2 sweet baby girls in Ecuador :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 I had this same problem with my son when he was 4 and attending pre-k here in Mexico. I started teaching im songs in English. ABC son, Little monkeys, and some on youtube (Eric Herman, super simple songs). He liked that a lot and it opened the flood gates. Now he speaks plenty of English. The songs were like school for him, then we progressed to other things. What you do will depend on what our plans are. I see you plan on doing hs. I suggest you start "school" now. Make it a point to do "school" in English. At first it is hard, because you are used to speaking to you dd in Spanish, but it will happen. If she answers you in Spanish, just repeat her answer in Eglish in question and have her repeat. Ex. El carro es rojo. The car is red? Yes, the car is red. Tedious, but it works. Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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