The other day in a parent/teacher meeting a mum spoke out with this comment
"My six year old isn't speaking English. What are the teachers doing?
Dear Lady, I would ask you the same question?
What are the parents doing?
What kind of vocabulary does your child have in his own language?
By three, a child should have about 500-1100 words in their vocabulary native language or L1.
By 5-7 children should have an expressive vocabulary of 3000-5000 words.
How many words does your child have in his vocabulary?????
I have children in year 4 (9 year olds) who don't understand the most basic vocabulary in their own language and much less in English. The other day a kid asked me "Que significa escoba?" What does broom mean?
I have children at the age of 5-6 who arrive at school at 8.55 am with a bottle of milk"biberon" which is their breakfast taken in the car. Their phonomotor aparatus (mouth, tongue, teeth) completely deformed by too many years using a teat. Try to get kids like this to pronounce properly in any language.
Then we have the overprotecive parents (usually mothers) who still haven't taught kid to tie their laces, get dressed by themselves, make their bed, prepare their own breakfast, buy a loaf of bread in a shop or buy anything actually by themselves, who are not independant and confident in their day to day lives and so find any new situation especially language learning overwhelming.
This "empanada mental" does not help your childs learning process.
In their native language children take at least two to five years 24 hours a day exposed, in this case to Spanish before beginning to speak. So imagine how long this process will take in English with 6 hours a week 36 weeks a year, that's 216 hours of English input a year.
So what can YOU do to improve your childs English?
"My six year old isn't speaking English. What are the teachers doing?
Dear Lady, I would ask you the same question?
What are the parents doing?
What kind of vocabulary does your child have in his own language?
By three, a child should have about 500-1100 words in their vocabulary native language or L1.
By 5-7 children should have an expressive vocabulary of 3000-5000 words.
How many words does your child have in his vocabulary?????
I have children in year 4 (9 year olds) who don't understand the most basic vocabulary in their own language and much less in English. The other day a kid asked me "Que significa escoba?" What does broom mean?
I have children at the age of 5-6 who arrive at school at 8.55 am with a bottle of milk"biberon" which is their breakfast taken in the car. Their phonomotor aparatus (mouth, tongue, teeth) completely deformed by too many years using a teat. Try to get kids like this to pronounce properly in any language.
Then we have the overprotecive parents (usually mothers) who still haven't taught kid to tie their laces, get dressed by themselves, make their bed, prepare their own breakfast, buy a loaf of bread in a shop or buy anything actually by themselves, who are not independant and confident in their day to day lives and so find any new situation especially language learning overwhelming.
This "empanada mental" does not help your childs learning process.
In their native language children take at least two to five years 24 hours a day exposed, in this case to Spanish before beginning to speak. So imagine how long this process will take in English with 6 hours a week 36 weeks a year, that's 216 hours of English input a year.
So what can YOU do to improve your childs English?
- Talk to your child, ask about their day not only about test results please!!!!It is always a good start, using correct vocabulary in Spanish.
- Read your child at least two short stories or 15 minutes a day. Even up to 8 years old in their native language and make sure you read thing sin front of them too. Even if it's only Hola magazine.
- Teach your child common sense and basic survival skills. Ability to do basic things like make your bed or tie your laces or drink out of a cup.
- Don't do everything for him/her or get the paid help to do everything for him/her.
- Teach your child to listen and not interupt constantly.
- Put t.v on in English 10-15 minutes a day. NO MORE!!
- Take your kids to the libraray to get more books in Spanish.
- Help them organize their pencil case every Sunday night and stick all lose bits of paper in their notebooks.
- This all seems pretty basic doesn't it????
- Well you will be amazed by the the results.
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