Cognitively demanding questions!

We know that "why" questions are not learned early in the language development process. I have been watching Hannah as I ask her why questions in Spanish and in English. For sure, up until today, she could not answer why questions. As for Por que, Why in Spanish, at first she was able to answer the question, though with a lot of support from me. Eventually, she answered the question without too much prompting from me. She would say: por que... porque.... and then the sentence.

Today, Hannah had a playdate with her good friend Rebekah. As we were driving home, I asked her a why question: Why can't you do something...? And she said Because I have to eat lunch! I immediately gave her a high five and I think Hannah did not quite understand why I was so excited!

So one more milestone! I will keep watching my why questions!

Watching TV and Parenting

As a mother (and single mother!), I feel awful when I have to grade or work on the computer and I let Hannah watch TV. Now, she has moved from the Sprout Network to Nick Jr. What I like about Nick Jr is the fact that there is Kaitlan, who is Chinese, Diego, who speaks Spanish, and Little Billy, who is African American, but not bi-dialectical.  I let Hannah watch some of these programs, though I control how much TV she watches. And TV helps with her English language skills. And she is also learning some words in Chinese, which both she and I are excited about! The fact that she is acquiring English through TV makes me feel less guilty about her TV watching habits!

Hannah and Verbs!

Hannah will start kindergarten in the fall. Hannah's language of schooling is English. But she does a lot of code-switching. It is just great to see how flexible she is when it comes to using the two languages. I wish I could do a brain scan to see what parts of her brain get used when she switches from one language to the other. She is fluent in both languages, and it is interesting to see how, when she uses verbs in Spanish, she regularizes them. So for example a ver like "poner" (put on), the past tense if "puse" (Me puse...) but she says "ponio." Or for "hice" (de hacer), she says "hicio." Therefore, the process that she went through to learn English verbs is the same process she is going through to learn Spanish verbs. Though the process seems to be slower, which makes complete sense, given the amount of Spanish she hears.

Developing Writing Skills

Hannah has been 'writing" for some time. She knows how to write many people's names (including the members of the family, her friends, etc. However, when I started teaching her how to write, I taught her uppercase.... She is beginning to recognize lowercase letters, but I am not teaching her the difference.. Am I making a mistake?

Two-way bilingual programs

The LA Times published an excellent program on two-way immersion programs: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bilingual-20110508,0,3841220.story

Glendale has become the flagship city for two-way immersion programs. Kudos to the parents and administrators who are so invested in providing this type of education. Now, why is it that it is okay for middle class children to be bilingual, but it is not okay (by the state and the district) for working class kids to use their first language resources in the classroom? The message we are sending is: If you are a middle class kid, then we promote bilingualism; but if you come from a working class family, we want to erase your L1. What a wasted resource!

On how bilingualism is viewed in the monolingual classroom

How do some teachers perceive children who are bilingual in a monolingual classroom? Why is it that when an almost 5 year-old can't answer a "why" question with a full sentence, or can't explain himself or herself, the teacher assumes that there is a problem with the child? 

Or why is it that when a child performs a literacy task beautifully, with creative language, full sentences, etc, the teacher says "Your child did a great job, it was wonderful to see the language that she used, and she did not need any prompting..." to then add: "Well, she might need help throughout her life," as if she had special needs.... What a contradiction! What mixed messages!