Welcome back and thanks for reading!

I figured we’d start simple… today’s word is

palabra

(pah-LAH-brah)

which in English means, word !!

Bilingual Chiquita Update

There are many different ways to raise a child bilingual; this has always been a desire of mine, but it didn’t seem practical since neither my husband nor I are native speakers of another language, which I feel would be necessary to confidently use the OPOL (One Person, One Language) method. Another system is ML@H (Minority Language at Home) which I’m again, not quite confident in myself enough for, and plus, my husband speaks Spanish minimally.

I really got fired up about all this when I found the website, Multilingual Children’s Association (I’ll refer to them as the MCA), which is full of resources and ideas for raising kids bilingually, even when the parents are monolingual (my husband) or speak a non-native foreign language (me). I know that now’s the time to do this– I’ve studied language acquisition a little and know that Chiquita is currently in the critical period for learning a language– everyone knows how spongy little kids are!

For now, my language system is going to consist of me speaking in Spanish as much as possible (I’m starting with a few transitional weeks where I repeat words that are familiar to her in both languages– it’s helpful that she knows some sign language, which lends her to understand the concept even when I use a new word), and eventually I hope to put her in a Spanish toddler program (a couple of hours a week with native speakers), then a Spanish preschool class, and ultimately I’m going to pray that we live near and she can get into a Dual-Immersion elementary school.

According to the MCA, Chiquita should be exposed to Spanish for about 30% of her waking hours, in order to develop proficiency in both languages. For us that boils down to about 2 1/2 hours a day. My goal is to be speaking Spanish to her from the time she wakes up until lunch (when possible) and on days when that morning time is shortened, I’ll try to incorporate Spanish in the afternoon. We will continue to speak English as a family when Moondoggie is home, although as Chiquita grows up and improves, I hope we can modify that. I also plan to incorporate Spanish through music, books, DVDs eventually, and interaction with native speakers.

So, that’s my plan! I’ll try to give you a weekly update including things I learn along the way.

Any comments?

Tagged as: baby, bilingual chiquita, learning, methods, multilingualism, multilingualism, spanish, translation tuesday