Note: This expertise had to try to to with preserving Spanish for our kids however the principles are valid for anyone making an attempt to assist their youngsters speak and preserve any language and culture.
COUNTRY OF MANY PEOPLES
This country,,, (The authors raised their children in the United States however they believe that their expertise can be helpful for people in alternative non-spanish-speaking countries.) This country is created of folks from all over the world. We tend to or our parents came from Latin countries. We tend to now live here. We have a tendency to function in 2 completely different worlds, the Yank world and the world of our parents. All folks live in these 2 different worlds in several ways. Some of us were born within the countries our parents came from; others of us were born here. This makes a difference in how and the way much we live in our two worlds.
COUNTRY OF MANY LANGUAGES
The one factor that is most vital in our parents’ world is their language which is additionally ours in different ways. The Spanish language of our folks is a difficulty to all or any folks every day. We tend to might be proud to speak it well. We tend to may be ashamed at not speaking it well. A number of us may have passed through periods of trying not to speak it as a result of we tend to needed to speak English better. We tend to might solely speak it when we return across somebody who desires help in understanding English. We could only bear in mind some sayings of our grandparents or youngsters’s songs taught to us by our parents.
You will want to review (or study it for the primary time) your Spanish. We might only realize one reference for you. It’s expensive and may be a textbook, not too appealing however complete. Have a look 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 education programs asks “How does America preserve this necessary resource of folks who are proficient in alternative languages? Rather than attempting to depress the data these students return to school with, we tend to must be making an attempt to build on it.” (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. a pair of, 1994, page A15)
OUR CHILDREN AND OUR LANGUAGE
We all wish our children to speak the language of their heritage. We tend to discount the opinions of those that say that it’s higher to forget Spanish and to target speaking English well. These folks are just wrong. It does not hurt your English to talk another language; it helps. Spanish is particularly helpful to children in their learning English vocabulary. Simply nowadays I taught my daughter the difference 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 although most of us agree that it’s a sensible thing for our kids to speak Spanish, most youngsters in the US whose oldsters were born in Latin Yankee countries do not speak Spanish well.
Even if each oldsters speak Spanish at home, quite often the youngsters answer their folks in English. Go searching at your Latin friends and relatives and you’ll see that the majority offer up on teaching their kids to talk Spanish. Chicano and Puerto Rican families seem to own a very little better luck than Latinos from alternative countries with keeping Spanish alive in their barrios but even their younger generation is losing fluency in Spanish.
However, folks who wish their youngsters to speak Spanish can go against this and set the stage for their youngsters to grow old speaking Spanish. It is not easy. Most families fail in their resolve but it will be done. This report can give some hints on how to improve your chances.
REASONS FOR OUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
There are many reasons why it’s good for the youngsters to speak your language. One obvious reason is that the advantage that it would possibly be for them in the duty market. As long as we live in an exceedingly world with shrunken distances and growing international trade, somebody must be in a position to speak with folks from alternative countries.
Professor Francisco X. Alarcón of the University of California at Davis says that “currently that we tend to are moving toward a world economy, it’s O.K. to be bilingual in the U.S.” (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb.two, 1994, page A15)
Another smart reason for you to work at your children’s learning to speak Spanish is as a result of it will build you proud to hear the compliments of your friends and countrymen as a result of your children are ready to speak your language. You grow in prestige as a one that values your roots.
Your children can conjointly be in a position to speak with their relatives because of improved phone service that is entering the most remote villages of our countries. Direct dialing from the United States is economical enough to be in a position call some times a year. The thrill of being able to speak to their uncles, aunts, and cousins will get the children fascinated by keeping up their language.
They can be talking to their relatives not only by phone however will be able to visit them. The expertise of knowing another culture will place them sooner than their classmates who have no ties to their roots.
Another excuse to encourage our youngsters to talk Spanish will be gotten from the history of a previous group of Latin immigrants to the United States, the Italians.
“Some social critics were attentive to the implications of sudden assimilation. Mary McDowell, a social employee, wrote en 1904:
‘The contempt for the experiences and languages of their folks that foreign kids sometimes exhibit… is probably due in part to the overestimation which the college places upon speaking English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one amongst the foremost conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child.’ She attributed the lawlessness of some of the immigrant children to their disrespect for their parents and therefore for all authority.”
(La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian Yankee Expertise, Mangione and Morreale, p. 222)
Finally, the power to talk another language can be a great boost to a child’s self esteem. If the kid’s oldsters build it clear that they are happy with their language and of their people, the kid can feel nearer to his oldsters and to their heritage, customs, and most significantly to their values.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
Start early. Try to talk solely Spanish to the child. If only one parent speaks Spanish well, that person should forever speak Spanish with the child. Do not be fearful of “confusing” the child. Youngsters will identify with totally different speakers of different languages as they grow up.
1. Read simple stories and fairy tales to the kid in Spanish. if you can’t realize children’s literature in Spanish, then make your own translations as you go along. It’s not necessary that the translation be perfect. Make up your own stories. It is vital for your child to have the memories of hearing nursery rhymes in Spanish.
2. Leave your radio tuned de Spanish language stations. Linguists place a great 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 straightforward 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, college bookstores, or your native library. Does one bear in mind el patito or pinpón? Search for songs in Spanish.
5. Rent videos in Spanish. They are beginning to be out there – 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 kid used to hearing them in Spanish. You can do that even if you do not speak Spanish well. For example, say mejor tarde que nunca instead of “better late than never”. Very little by very little, poco a poco, you’ll feel aware of more uniquely Latin expressions. They need one thing 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 “simply moreover”. The English expression is “higher than nothing”; in several Southamerican countries, the equivalent expression is peor es nada. Realize proverbs.
8. Don’t correct their Spanish when they speak. Don’t interrupt the flow of their conversation. Don’t build their speaking Spanish to be another homework assignment. It ought to be something special, even one thing “secret” in your family. Youngsters just like the mystery and intrigue of having one thing special of their own. Their speaking Spanish ought to be a joyful, non-threatening experience. If they make mistakes in their grammar, correct their errors by using the identical expression properly a couple of minutes after. Don’t return right back at them with the proper form or they will begin to feel aware of their expression and choke off their freedom of expression.
9. Get a sensible syllabary to show them the value of the letters and how to scan in Spanish. If your kid’s first language is Spanish teach them to scan Spanish before they learn English. You may be doing them a big favor. They will learn to sound out the regular spelling of Spanish which can be a smart base on that to be told a way to browse in English. You will get the same results as those that pay cash on expensive Phonics programs.
10. The simplest method to get your children to grow in Spanish is to send them to spend a while with relatives or friends where they will only speak and hear Spanish. This works best at around 7 years recent when children play easily with each other and when Spanish can simply come naturally even to the kid who has very little exposure to the language. Another smart age for a kid to be exposed to a Spanish speaking atmosphere is at around 12 years old. At this age, the kid has greater mental development and will observe customs and situations in which bound expressions are used. At twelve years old most kids are still pre-adolescents and aren’t hampered by the embarrassment, self consciousness, and “feeling totally different” that hold back teenagers from learning a language or customs totally different from their own.
Use any of the higher than ways but start! Your efforts can communciate to your children the importance that you just give to Spanish whether or not these efforts are not continuously fully successful.
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