How can I Teach English to my 3 1/2 year old?

[misscometa]

Hello, my 3 year old speaks exclusivally spanish that's all :) I did the same with my ds, but I put him in school when he was 5, and learned English there. I'm not planning to do the same with my dd. Any suggestions on how I can introduce her to English little by little, before we star HS?

Thank you

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

First, where are you? in a Spanish speaking country, or an English one?

 

If you're in an English speaking one, playdates, and playing at the park should be enough for now.

[misscometa]

First, where are you? in a Spanish speaking country, or an English one?

 

If you're in an English speaking one, playdates, and playing at the park should be enough for now.

 

I'm in the United States.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Then she really doesn't need any formal teaching from you. Keep speaking Spanish to her as you did so far, but find playgroups in English or story time at the library. She's still young enough to pick up English in an informal way, just like her mother tongue.

[OlgaLA]

I really don't know what to say, but I would love to hear other recommendations. Maybe my kids are just not that linguistically inclined, but without immersion for several hours most days of the week, language acquisition is just not happening. Yes, my almost 4 year old son can answer questions like what his name is, or how old he is, but that is about it. He spends a few hours a week around English-speaking kids, his sister speaks English around him from time to time, he watches English TV (a couple of hours a week, I think), but it is just not happening. And the few phrases he does say, he says with a terrible accent. Frankly, I hoped that with his sister speaking English, he would be progressing faster. As it is, I am almost ready to put him in daycare. So, what I am trying to say is that to me so far it looks like they need a few hours a day of exposure to another language. And I have a feeling, at least in my kids' case, that they should feel the need to learn that language. I guess it is not too helpful, but it is something I have been thinking about lately. Good luck!

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

without immersion for several hours most days of the week, language acquisition is just not happening.

 

I went through the same thing. Don't worry, language acquisition is happening! I started when my kids were 4 or 5 yo. They started speaking English when they were 9. They only had a few hours per week, not daily immersion. I stressed a lot, but it did work! It's just not magic.

 

And if you think about it, a baby is in complete immersion in the mother tongue but will only really speaks at 2yo. So 2 years of complete immersion! Don't expect more for the second language.

 

Of course, if you put them in daily immersion, it will go much faster. Over here, schools regularly accept kids with no knowledge of French. By Christmas, kids can express themselves in French. But they are getting 5 days a week, 8 hours per day of immersion. (they are not getting any French as a second language help)

[OlgaLA]

I went through the same thing. Don't worry, language acquisition is happening! I started when my kids were 4 or 5 yo. They started speaking English when they were 9. They only had a few hours per week, not daily immersion. I stressed a lot, but it did work! It's just not magic.

 

 

I guess you are right :) I put my daughter in full time daycare 5 times a week when she was 3.5 (I became pregnant with my son and just couldn't take care of her at that time), and in a couple of months she was expressing herself in English quite nicely. I am probably expecting the same from my son, although it is absolutely unreasonable. I would prefer him to pretty fluent in 2 years, since he will have to go to school at 5, and I just don't want him to have an added stress of not understanding his teacher.

 

And to think that I go through this stress of him acquiring English now, when I know for sure that in 3 or 4 years I'll be stressing over him losing Russian :D

[misscometa]

I guess I'm worrying too much, because people at the Park or anywhere I go with my kids, ask me when is the 3 1/2 year old going to learn English? And, honestly, I'm not too concern about it right now, my ds speaks both English/Spanish, but I made the mistake of teaching both languages at the same time. He learned English perfectly, but I cannot say the same for Spanish. When my daughter was born, my husband and I decided to only speak Spanish to her, and it has been great, she speaks it perfectly:001_smile:

 

Thanks for the advice...

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

In our case, I made sure the kids had immersion *without me*. I don't know if it's really necessary, but it forces the kids to make an effort and function in the new language, instead of coming to mom for translation all the time.

[Storm Bay]

I learned German at 3 quite quickly with a couple hours a day immersion in Kindergarten. I spoke German fluently relatively quickly, but later forgot it when we moved back to Canada. My sister, OTOH, was under 2 when we moved there. Because she was toilet trained, she was allowed into Kindergarten as well and had no trouble at all being that young, but I didn't, either. I also learned by playing with a girl in the neighbourhood, etc. I did the immersion away from my mother, who was just learning German herself, and my dad, who was already fluent but at work all day. In fact, I used to translate for people who came to visit us (I don't remember this, but have been told.)