lulalu Posted October 28, 2019 Share Posted October 28, 2019 How much time each week on average do you spend on your child's weaker language? Ds is 7 and does well with his 2nd language, but he still needs work on subject verb agreement, and his vocab is more around a 4 year old level. Currently he averages each week: 8 hours with a tutor for lessons (they play a lot so it doesn't feel formal), watches around 3 hours tv in language, has a 3 hour sport class, and free play with other kids is around 3 hours. Is this enough time? Do I increase time, and where? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Are you and/or your spouse able to speak the language? Is there any one in his day-to-day life that speaks the weaker language with him consistently? If you don't boost his vocab, he's going to drop the language. Kids like to be able to converse, and be understood. They don't want to sound like toddlers or be limitted to baby words. When you say he needs help with subject verb agreement, what do you mean? To what degree and in what context? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Our school day is split close to 50/50 between my kids' two first languages. Their French may be ever slightly weaker across the board, because they get more face time with me (English) than dad (French) and because French is harder to write, but the difference is not significant. Their "weak" language is German (foreign language for them) and they spend only 3-4 hours a week. I do not expect fluency in German, but I expect them to be launch-able if desired to go into a language exchange or study abroad to attain fluency by the time they are done with our homeschooling. So I guess I would say the long-term German goal is "working knowledge," which would be enough for them to opt in to a lot of options to attain fluency from there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulalu Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 On 10/30/2019 at 7:02 PM, Monica_in_Switzerland said: Our school day is split close to 50/50 between my kids' two first languages. Their French may be ever slightly weaker across the board, because they get more face time with me (English) than dad (French) and because French is harder to write, but the difference is not significant. Their "weak" language is German (foreign language for them) and they spend only 3-4 hours a week. I do not expect fluency in German, but I expect them to be launch-able if desired to go into a language exchange or study abroad to attain fluency by the time they are done with our homeschooling. So I guess I would say the long-term German goal is "working knowledge," which would be enough for them to opt in to a lot of options to attain fluency from there. Thanks that gives a good idea for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulalu Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 On 10/30/2019 at 7:56 AM, Gil said: Are you and/or your spouse able to speak the language? Is there any one in his day-to-day life that speaks the weaker language with him consistently? If you don't boost his vocab, he's going to drop the language. Kids like to be able to converse, and be understood. They don't want to sound like toddlers or be limitted to baby words. When you say he needs help with subject verb agreement, what do you mean? To what degree and in what context? Yes both of us can speak the language- Dad much better than I. Yes this is the language spoken here so anywhere we go it is spoken to him. Verbs change based on the subject of the sentence. He is still figuring out how they change and often will mess it up. People can understand as it is something almost all kids do. But he still needs work on knowing what ending to use (as do I....). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 17 hours ago, lulalu said: Yes both of us can speak the language- Dad much better than I. Yes this is the language spoken here so anywhere we go it is spoken to him. Verbs change based on the subject of the sentence. He is still figuring out how they change and often will mess it up. People can understand as it is something almost all kids do. But he still needs work on knowing what ending to use (as do I....). How old is your kid? It sounds like you and I are in a similar situation. We are living in my DH's native language, and I speak it fluently but not natively. The kids speak English with me and French with dad. It is normal for bilingual kids to have a language delay, which is why I ask how old your kid is. The language delay will disappear at some point in elementary school, and they will have a much stronger concept of language as a *thing* than monolingual kids, if that makes sense. By far, the most important thing you can do is keep the vocabulary in both languages growing at approximately the same rate. This means reading, reading, and more reading. Even if you need to choose books in the weaker language that are a year or two (or more) behind peer natives, just keep moving them forward. Pick up a "great books for kids by age" type list in the language you need more work in, and just have them always moving forward gently, as well as reinforcing with easier books that are more pleasant for them to read. My kids have a French reading list that they work through as literature, in addition to fun chapter books in French and LOTS of comic books in French (Tintin, Smurfs, etc.). The easier books allow for maximum face time with the language, the harder books push the vocabulary forward. I do the same thing with English books. I have even begun doing this for myself, in order to begin expanding my French vocabulary again, because I feel like I've stagnated since attaining fluency. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulalu Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 4 hours ago, Monica_in_Switzerland said: How old is your kid? It sounds like you and I are in a similar situation. We are living in my DH's native language, and I speak it fluently but not natively. The kids speak English with me and French with dad. It is normal for bilingual kids to have a language delay, which is why I ask how old your kid is. The language delay will disappear at some point in elementary school, and they will have a much stronger concept of language as a *thing* than monolingual kids, if that makes sense. Ds is 7 years old. Thanks that was very helpful! Have you found any problems using books translated from English? Most children's books are translations as this is much more of an oral storytelling culture. And I guess I just feel cultural concepts lack sometimes when things are translated? I have asked natives to tell a story to him and made an audio tape of it to use. Which is fantastic during our quiet time. Sometimes I feel homeschool just limits the language learning time. But I don't philosophically or religiously agree with the school system here. And it really is hard to even think of putting him in a school that has such a vastly different worldview than mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted November 1, 2019 Share Posted November 1, 2019 I'm dying of curiosity as to where you live! Don't say if you'd rather not though. 🙂 At 7, I would not even bat an eye at conjugation issues. This is NORMAL, even in a first language. Repeat correctly, and move on, just as you would repeat back to a toddler a correction, but not make a toddler then repeat it back to you. "He gived me a candy!" "He gave you a candy! That's so kind of him! What flavor was it?" ------ We do use books translated from English. It is not my favorite thing, but there are just so many more children's books written in English that it is hard to avoid translations. My personal line in the sand about this is that certain classics must be read in English: Huck Finn, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, etc. etc. But if I need reading books in French, I don't hesitate to give my kids Geronimo Stilton, Magic Treehouse, The Lightning Thief, Series of Unfortunate Events.... as translations in French. These are fun and entertaining books, but they are not literary classics. Something is lost in translation, for sure, but there are enough books in the world that I can find good quality books that are translated, without needing to dip into the classics that I want us to read in English. For my oldest this year (12 years old), we are doing units where he reads an English lit book, then a French lit book with similar themes or settings, or perspective, then we'll compare/contrast. Is the local language your husband's first language? If so, make sure he speaks it as close to 100% of the time as possible. If you are both native English speakers, it can be a bit harder, but I know families where it has worked. The kids in those families are very involved in various local clubs by the time they are in late elementary or middle school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulalu Posted November 1, 2019 Author Share Posted November 1, 2019 We are both native English speakers dh just has a much easier time picking up languages than I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarineAdams Posted November 26, 2019 Share Posted November 26, 2019 (edited) On 11/1/2019 at 5:37 PM, Monica_in_Switzerland said: I'm dying of curiosity as to where you live! Don't say if you'd rather not though. 🙂 At 7, I would not even bat an eye at conjugation issues. This is NORMAL, even in a first language. Repeat correctly, and move on, just as you would repeat back to a toddler a correction, but not make a toddler then repeat it back to you. "He gived me a candy!" "He gave you a candy! That's so kind of him! What flavor was it?" We do use books translated from English. And we also do use https://write-my-essay.online/how-to-make-essay-longer.html to make our essays longer. We always get the highest marks for our essays. Englis language and essays in English are favorite. It is not my favorite thing, but there are just so many more children's books written in English that it is hard to avoid translations. My personal line in the sand about this is that certain classics must be read in English: Huck Finn, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, etc. etc. But if I need reading books in French, I don't hesitate to give my kids Geronimo Stilton, Magic Treehouse, The Lightning Thief, Series of Unfortunate Events.... as translations in French. These are fun and entertaining books, but they are not literary classics. Something is lost in translation, for sure, but there are enough books in the world that I can find good quality books that are translated, without needing to dip into the classics that I want us to read in English. For my oldest this year (12 years old), we are doing units where he reads an English lit book, then a French lit book with similar themes or settings, or perspective, then we'll compare/contrast. Is the local language your husband's first language? If so, make sure he speaks it as close to 100% of the time as possible. If you are both native English speakers, it can be a bit harder, but I know families where it has worked. The kids in those families are very involved in various local clubs by the time they are in late elementary or middle school. I am native English speaker and that is my favorite language. I know it really good. But I also have a dream to learn French. Does somebody want to practise it with me? And I will help with English. Edited November 26, 2019 by KarineAdams Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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