Note: This experience had to try to to with preserving Spanish for our children however the principles are valid for anyone attempting to assist their youngsters speak and preserve any language and culture.
COUNTRY OF MANY PEOPLES
This country,,, (The authors raised their kids in the United States but they believe that their expertise will be helpful for people in different non-spanish-speaking countries.) This country is made up of people from all over the world. We or our oldsters came from Latin countries. We tend to now live here. We operate in two different worlds, the Yankee world and the planet of our parents. All people live in these two totally different worlds in different ways. A number of us were born within the countries our oldsters came from; others people were born here. This makes a distinction in how and how much we tend to live in our two worlds.
COUNTRY OF MANY LANGUAGES
The one thing that is most significant in our folks’ world is their language which is also ours in different ways. The Spanish language of our oldsters is an issue to all folks every day. We have a tendency to might be proud to talk it well. We might be ashamed at not speaking it well. A number of us might have more matured periods of attempting not to talk it as a result of we have a tendency to needed to speak English better. We have a tendency to might only speak it once we return across somebody who needs facilitate in understanding English. We have a tendency to could solely keep in mind some sayings of our grandparents or youngsters’s songs taught to us by our parents.
You’ll need to review (or study it for the first time) your Spanish. We could solely find one reference for you. It’s expensive and could be a textbook, not too appealing but complete. Take a peek at Nuevos Mundos, Spanish for Native Speakers 2nd Edition, Workbook : Curso de espanol para estudiantes bilingues”
F. Bruce Robinson, assistant director in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ division of teaching programs asks “How will America preserve this important resource of folks who are proficient in different languages? Rather than making an attempt to depress the information these students come back to high school with, we tend to should be attempting to build on it.” (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2, 1994, page A15)
OUR CHILDREN AND OUR LANGUAGE
We have a tendency to all wish our children to speak the language of their heritage. We have a tendency to discount the opinions of those who say that it is better to forget Spanish and to focus on speaking English well. These individuals are just wrong. It does not hurt your English to speak another language; it helps. Spanish is notably useful to youngsters in their learning English vocabulary. Simply today I taught my daughter the distinction between vowels and consonants. Knowing Spanish very helped with the idea of the consonants. I told her {that the} consonants haven’t any voice; they’ll solely be pronounced with the vowels. The con-sonants suenan con the vowels.
But though most of us agree that it is a smart issue for our kids to speak Spanish, most youngsters in the US whose oldsters were born in Latin American countries don’t speak Spanish well.
Even if both oldsters speak Spanish at home, very often the youngsters answer their oldsters in English. Look around at your Latin friends and relatives and you will see that most offer up on teaching their youngsters to speak Spanish. Chicano and Puerto Rican families appear to possess a little higher luck than Latinos from alternative countries with keeping Spanish alive in their barrios however even their younger generation is losing fluency in Spanish.
However, folks who want their children to speak Spanish will go against the present and set the stage for their youngsters to get older speaking Spanish. It’s not easy. Most families fail in their resolve however it can be done. This report will provide some hints on how to improve your chances.
REASONS FOR OUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
There are many reasons why it is good for the children to talk your language. One obvious reason is that the advantage that it might be for them in the duty market. So long as we tend to live in a world with shrunken distances and growing international trade, somebody must be in a position to talk with folks from alternative countries.
Professor Francisco X. Alarcón of the University of California at Davis says that “now that we tend to are moving toward a international economy, it’s O.K. to be bilingual in the U.S.” (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb.2, 1994, page A15)
Another smart reason for you to work at your children’s learning to speak Spanish is because it can create you proud to hear the compliments of your friends and countrymen as a result of your youngsters are in a position to talk your language. You grow in prestige as a one that values your roots.
Your youngsters will conjointly be able to speak with their relatives thanks to improved phone service which is entering the foremost remote villages of our countries. Direct dialing from the United States is economical enough to be able call some times a year. The thrill of having the ability to talk to their uncles, aunts, and cousins can get the children inquisitive about maintaining their language.
They can be speaking to their relatives not only by phone however will be in a position to visit them. The expertise of knowing another culture will place them prior their classmates who don’t have any ties to their roots.
Another reason to encourage our kids to talk Spanish can be gotten from the history of a previous group of Latin immigrants to the United States, the Italians.
“Some social critics were conscious of the results of sudden assimilation. Mary McDowell, a social employee, wrote en 1904:
‘The contempt for the experiences and languages of their oldsters which foreign youngsters sometimes exhibit… is likely due in part to the overestimation which the varsity places upon speaking English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one of the foremost conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child.’ She attributed the lawlessness of a number of the immigrant children to their disrespect for his or her parents and thus for all authority.”
(La Storia: 5 Centuries of the Italian American Experience, Mangione and Morreale, p. 222)
Finally, the flexibility to speak another language can be a nice boost to a child’s self esteem. If the child’s parents make it clear that they are proud of their language and of their individuals, the kid will feel closer to his parents and to their heritage, customs, and most significantly to their values.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
Start early. Try to speak only Spanish to the child. If only one parent speaks Spanish well, that person ought to perpetually speak Spanish with the child. Do not be terrified of “confusing” the child. Youngsters can identify with completely different speakers of different languages as they grow up.
1. Scan simple stories and fairy tales to the kid in Spanish. if you can’t find youngsters’s literature in Spanish, then make your own translations as you go along. It is not necessary that the translation be perfect. Make up your own stories. It is vital for your kid to have the reminiscences of hearing nursery rhymes in Spanish.
2. Leave your radio tuned de Spanish language stations. Linguists place a nice deal of importance on “passive listening” as half of learning a language, especially for young children.
3. In most areas there is a Spanish language TV station. Put on the Saturday morning cartoons in Spanish.
4. Teach easy nursery rhymes and simple songs to your child. If you do not keep in mind them or if you weren’t taught any from your folks’ traditions, search for them in garage sales, school bookstores, or your native library. Do you remember el patito or pinpón? Rummage around for songs in Spanish.
5. Rent videos in Spanish. They’re beginning to be offered – and not solely in cities with a big Spanish-speaking population!
6. Use proverbs and dichos in Spanish. Some expressions that you’d say in English are simply as legitimate proverbs in Spanish. Get your child used to hearing them in Spanish. You’ll be able to do this even if you don’t speak Spanish well. For instance, say mejor tarde que nunca instead of “higher late than never”. Little by little, poco a poco, you’ll feel aware of additional uniquely Latin expressions. They need something of the culture wrapped up in them. They’re stubbornly totally different from Anglo Saxon proverbs.
7. Get used to saying menos mal in preference to “just in addition”. The English expression is “higher than nothing”; in several Southamerican countries, the equivalent expression is peor es nada. Find proverbs.
8. Don’t correct their Spanish when they speak. Do not interrupt the flow of their conversation. Do not create their speaking Spanish to be another homework assignment. It should be one thing special, even one thing “secret” in your family. Children like the mystery and intrigue of having one thing special of their own. Their speaking Spanish should be a joyful, non-threatening experience. If they create mistakes in their grammar, correct their errors by using the same expression properly a couple of minutes after. Don’t come back right back at them with the correct type or they will begin to feel conscious of their expression and choke off their freedom of expression.
9. Get a sensible syllabary to show them the worth of the letters and a way to read in Spanish. If your kid’s 1st language is Spanish teach them to scan Spanish before they learn English. You may be doing them a massive favor. They can learn to sound out the regular spelling of Spanish that can be a smart base on which to find out how to read in English. You will get the identical results as those who spend money on expensive Phonics programs.
10. The most effective approach to urge your children to grow in Spanish is to send them to pay your time with relatives or friends where they can solely speak and listen to Spanish. This works best at around seven years previous when kids play simply with one another and when Spanish can simply come naturally even to the child who has terribly little exposure to the language. Another smart age for a kid to be exposed to a Spanish speaking environment is at around twelve years old. At this age, the child has greater mental development and will observe customs and things in that sure expressions are used. At twelve years old most youngsters are still pre-adolescents and aren’t hampered by the embarrassment, self consciousness, and “feeling totally different” which hold back teenagers from learning a language or customs different from their own.
Use any of the above ways but start! Your efforts will communciate to your children the importance that you just offer to Spanish even if these efforts don’t seem to be always utterly successful.
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Feb 08 2010