Tag: bilingualism
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Do Children Learn or Acquire Language?
Below is a video of our 3 year old speaking Mandarin. Her teacher sent it to us because she was very impressed with Siena’s accent in Mandarin and how natural it sounded. To be honest, I was very impressed as well even though I have no idea what she is saying. In fact, I find […]
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Spanish as a right: We do what we please with our bilingualism!
I have been speaking to my daughters in Spanish since they were in womb. I have made zero accommodations for anyone in the way I choose to navigate our bilingual lives. I have had a range of experiences in which I was asked to simply speak English in public spaces to being asked when I […]
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Sometimes Spanish does not come first!
Even before I had Sabrina I was scoping out our foreign language schools options. I got on several waiting lists and eventually got into all of them! In fact, I keep my nena on a rolling waiting list because you never know. I was so set on foreign language exposure that I did not even […]
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In search of the ideal foreign language program for your child? (a post in progress)
Where do you start? Which language do you choose? How do you know which school is the best for your child? How much should it cost? Do all the parents at that school have the same goals? Does it matter? Should there be economic and ethnic diversity? If these are questions that matter to you […]
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Co-authored a Huffington Post Article about CA’s Proposition 58- LEARN
Please help me in spreading the news about California’s Proposition 58 – (Language Education, Acquisition and Readiness). It will be on the November ballot and we must get California residents to vote YES. Voting YES means ALL students in the state of CA will have the opportunity to receive a multilingual education. This isn’t the […]
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I am Bilingual or Translanguaging Practices
If you speak to me in Spanish and I respond in English it’s not because I don’t speak Spanish well it’s because I AM BILINGUAL. If I start a sentence in Spanish and finish it in English it’s not because I don’t speak Spanish well it’s because I AM BILINGUAL. If I can’t remember a […]
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My Book Review about Translanguaging
If you are interested in a summary about what Translanguaging is, how it manifests in bilingual speech, and a little about how teachers can empower students through the use of 2 or more languages, click on the link below. http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/IMkqaHYpnNWh4VUmt6HV/full
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My Toddler’s Bilingual Development
I have been recording (mostly on Facebook) my daughters’ bilingual development. The following conversation took place when she was 1 year and 11 months old. Me: Sabrina, ven a comer los frijoles. Sabrina: No, jole! Me: Ven aquí. Sabrina: No ven Me: Si Sabrina No, si! As you can see her words are “fragmented” and […]
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Bilingualism in Ecuador
Bilingualism is highly valued in Ecuador. There is no doubt about that. That being said, I have been trying to understand how Spanish and English work here. All of the private schools I have visited promote becoming bilingual. The public schools, from what I have heard, also promote bilingualism, but at a completely different level. […]
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Speaking Spanish brings out the best in people…
The older Sabrina gets the more Spanish I speak. The more she learns to interact, the more I use Spanish—-sounds normal, right? Well the scenarios I am about to describe in the paragraphs below are beyond normal. Let me preface the stories with, when Sabrina was first born I was having a hard time (for […]
Interpretations of a Bilingual Life 