General Orientation and FAQ
Dear Parents,
Over the years I have found that parents often have similar questions about the language learning of their children. As a parent of a language student myself, I am well aware that it is not always easy to quantify or concretely assess where a child is in his/her language acquisition process. New vocabulary is learned and occasionally forgotten, relearned and solidified, remembered and enjoyed. Sometimes children advance at a painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, they zoom ahead. There is always a niggling sense that there is so much more to learn; language learning is a life-long endeavor.
As your child heads down this road, please remember to keep in mind that in addition to actually acquiring a language, the process itself has a host of tangential benefits:
Recent research suggests that the study of a foreign language not only increases linguistic awareness in the mother tongue, multilingual children often also outperform monolingual children in math reasoning.
Ideally an additional language is also about making the world a better, more welcoming place. Metaphorically speaking, it is an open mind, an ambassador, a bridge, a hand extended in potential camaraderie.
As a teacher and a mother of a child learning 4 languages I regularly witness the peaks and plateaus of language learning. The language acquisition process is rarely linear. Below please find the answers to questions you may have now or feel free to come back mid-year to find answers to questions that may arise.
I very much look forward to my time with your children!
Janel
Please, please, persist!
As with any learning process there are highs and lows, successes and challenges. I work with children and
youth ranging in age from 0-18 years old. The pressures of grades, college applications, and academic stress place a great burden on the joy of language learning during the pre-teen and teen years. Children who start language learning in early childhood reap huge psychological and academic benefits later on. Their accents and intonation are better and they have a much better instinct for vocabulary acquisition, sound systems, and grammar structures. Children who are exposed to a language during early childhood (before 8-10 years old) are much more relaxed and open about language study later on in their academic careers.
Permission to have fun!
My goal is, above all, to make the process fun, light-hearted and enjoyable. If the children are laughing, open and engaged, there is no question that we will be able to move through potential obstacles and reach higher ground. Please help me to plant positive seeds by resisting the urge to pressure for progress; I want the children to believe that they can both succeed in acquiring a new language and enjoy themselves in the process.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Do You Structure the Class?
To help maximize absorption and facilitate a focused yet relaxed classroom environment, I typically structure the time in the following way:
Do You Speak Only Spanish?
My goal is always to use 100% Spanish throughout the class. Typically, the only situations in which I use English are:
Using English is always a last resort for me! I prefer the purity and continuity of a fully-immersive Spanish environment and strive to preserve that. But because the children are with me just 50 minutes a week, I have learned that using a negligible quantity of English in group classes often helps keep the Spanish immersion environment productive. At the beginning of each class, before I officially launch into Spanish it is usually most effective and efficient to set up rules and explain the target vocabulary and/or project in English. If I have a group of advanced Spanish students I speak entirely in Spanish.
Children and Language Acquisition: How much is my child learning?
Children usually develop receptive capacities before they can produce vocabulary in a target language. This process mimics the natural language development of a baby; they understand words before they can say them. Every single class we engage in many repetitions of our target vocabulary - we chant, sing, and use our bodies to learn vocabulary. The children listen to stories that incorporate numerous repetitions of the vocabulary. I bring in puppets and projects, use laughter and humor to elicit responses from the children.
How can I gain insight into what my child knows?
Look for other, more subtle signs of absorption - a sudden word in Spanish at a random moment, a mimicking of the Spanish sound system during free play at home (this will sound like a Spanish gibberish), bits and pieces of songs absent mindedly sung during moments of relaxation, quiet or alone times. You can intentionally make a mistake counting, "uno - dos - ocho - siete" - see if they laugh or jump in to correct you.
Please also keep the following in mind:
My friend's son can recall so much more than my child - why is this?
Everyone can learn an additional language and every child learns and progresses differently. Some children advance at a
painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, zoom ahead. Other children may begin using Spanish from their first class, plateau for a period of time, and resume motivation and focus later. The process is
rarely linear. Families that make a long-term commitment to language learning will see greater results and may find that their child suddenly experiences a "click" and begins to produce much more of the target language.
My child often forgets everything s/he learned in class even before s/he is home - is this normal?
Yes, this is normal. The brain takes time to process and sometimes recall is better several days after class than it is one hour after class! Please also keep in mind that forgetting vocabulary is actually an important part of later recall and mastery. Forgetting words creates mild discomfort and frustration, a feeling that fuels future motivation to seize and capture a word the next time around.
How is my child doing?
Every child learns at his or her pace and very often children recall and produce vocabulary in class and then, even as they cross the threshold of the classroom, their brain switches back to English and they cannot come up with the words. That is fine and normal!
I have many, many students and cannot always send frequent updates about your child's progress. That said, I observe each and every child carefully and typically have a good sense of what each child knows. I pay attention to what engages and what does not, what sticks and what does not for each individual in my classes. Please feel free to prompt me with an email asking about your child, I will do my best to answer in a timely and specific manner.
What are you learning?
While I don't send weekly email updates I do typically send a summary at the end of each thematic block with information about our projects, vocabulary presented, and some books, songs, or Youtube resources that may be helpful for reviewing language on an ongoing basis.
How can I support my child at home?
Keep things low pressure and light hearted. Create an environment of language play and curiosity. Look at a map and identify the countries in which Spanish is spoken. Play with Google translate while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Ask nonchalant questions like, "I wonder how you say X in Spanish?" or make occasional observations: "Alma Street, El Camino Real, Los Altos, Palo Alto...I bet those are words in Spanish..." Modeling curiosity at home very often translates into increased motivation in class time. Throw in some Spanish words (if you know any) as you move about your daily routines. Make the language relevant to their lives - point out Spanish on package labels, signs, and when you hear it spoken by people out in the world.
Can you recommend any books, CDs or DVDs for extra practice?
Like the Suzuki method for music education, listening to Spanish music, books, and DVDs outside of class will prime the cerebral pump, helping children glean greater benefit from in-class time.
If your child watches some television, you can very often find favorite TV programs that are already dubbed in Spanish (I Spy by Scholastic, Bill Nye the Science Guy, for example) or major motion picture films (i.e. Cars, Horton Hears a Who, Wallace & Gromit) with Spanish language tracks. If your child is reading, turn on the Spanish subtitles to accompany their favorite English program. Below please find some audio and visual resources I have compiled to get you started:
http://www.spanishclassroom.net/spanish-resources.html
password: orientation
Other questions or concerns?
Please feel free to contact me via email: [email protected], I am always glad to discuss things with you!
Over the years I have found that parents often have similar questions about the language learning of their children. As a parent of a language student myself, I am well aware that it is not always easy to quantify or concretely assess where a child is in his/her language acquisition process. New vocabulary is learned and occasionally forgotten, relearned and solidified, remembered and enjoyed. Sometimes children advance at a painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, they zoom ahead. There is always a niggling sense that there is so much more to learn; language learning is a life-long endeavor.
As your child heads down this road, please remember to keep in mind that in addition to actually acquiring a language, the process itself has a host of tangential benefits:
- Flexible thinking;
- Increased attention;
- Expanded capacity for creativity;
- Enhanced emotional intelligence;
- A growth mindset;
- The ability to make inferences and educated guesses;
- Problem solving;
- Intellectual risk-taking;
- Executive functioning; and,
- Critical thinking skills.
Recent research suggests that the study of a foreign language not only increases linguistic awareness in the mother tongue, multilingual children often also outperform monolingual children in math reasoning.
Ideally an additional language is also about making the world a better, more welcoming place. Metaphorically speaking, it is an open mind, an ambassador, a bridge, a hand extended in potential camaraderie.
As a teacher and a mother of a child learning 4 languages I regularly witness the peaks and plateaus of language learning. The language acquisition process is rarely linear. Below please find the answers to questions you may have now or feel free to come back mid-year to find answers to questions that may arise.
I very much look forward to my time with your children!
Janel
Please, please, persist!
As with any learning process there are highs and lows, successes and challenges. I work with children and
youth ranging in age from 0-18 years old. The pressures of grades, college applications, and academic stress place a great burden on the joy of language learning during the pre-teen and teen years. Children who start language learning in early childhood reap huge psychological and academic benefits later on. Their accents and intonation are better and they have a much better instinct for vocabulary acquisition, sound systems, and grammar structures. Children who are exposed to a language during early childhood (before 8-10 years old) are much more relaxed and open about language study later on in their academic careers.
Permission to have fun!
My goal is, above all, to make the process fun, light-hearted and enjoyable. If the children are laughing, open and engaged, there is no question that we will be able to move through potential obstacles and reach higher ground. Please help me to plant positive seeds by resisting the urge to pressure for progress; I want the children to believe that they can both succeed in acquiring a new language and enjoy themselves in the process.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How Do You Structure the Class?
To help maximize absorption and facilitate a focused yet relaxed classroom environment, I typically structure the time in the following way:
- 10-15 minutes for an opening circle with stories, music,
movement, and an intentional presentation of new vocabulary; - 20-25 minutes of play, hands-on, project-based learning; and,
- 10-15 minutes for a closing circle, game, story or song.
Do You Speak Only Spanish?
My goal is always to use 100% Spanish throughout the class. Typically, the only situations in which I use English are:
- To ensure the safety of the children;
- To establish (or reestablish) rules of conduct or clear boundaries; and,
- To soothe a child in distress if I see that Spanish is increasing his/her sense of angst.
Using English is always a last resort for me! I prefer the purity and continuity of a fully-immersive Spanish environment and strive to preserve that. But because the children are with me just 50 minutes a week, I have learned that using a negligible quantity of English in group classes often helps keep the Spanish immersion environment productive. At the beginning of each class, before I officially launch into Spanish it is usually most effective and efficient to set up rules and explain the target vocabulary and/or project in English. If I have a group of advanced Spanish students I speak entirely in Spanish.
Children and Language Acquisition: How much is my child learning?
Children usually develop receptive capacities before they can produce vocabulary in a target language. This process mimics the natural language development of a baby; they understand words before they can say them. Every single class we engage in many repetitions of our target vocabulary - we chant, sing, and use our bodies to learn vocabulary. The children listen to stories that incorporate numerous repetitions of the vocabulary. I bring in puppets and projects, use laughter and humor to elicit responses from the children.
How can I gain insight into what my child knows?
Look for other, more subtle signs of absorption - a sudden word in Spanish at a random moment, a mimicking of the Spanish sound system during free play at home (this will sound like a Spanish gibberish), bits and pieces of songs absent mindedly sung during moments of relaxation, quiet or alone times. You can intentionally make a mistake counting, "uno - dos - ocho - siete" - see if they laugh or jump in to correct you.
Please also keep the following in mind:
- Children often know far more than they can express or demonstrate, children
are also selective about when and where they speak a language, the may resist
being asked to "show off." If you ask them direct questions like, "How do you say blue in Spanish?" they
will likely balk. Conscious recall and translation is a very different skill
than language absorption and acquisition.; - Understanding precedes speaking, and they are two very different skills, I work on both in the classes. Producing speech in a new language can be intimidating - it requires risk-taking, a willingness to make mistakes, and it goes against a natural, surivival instinct to communicate in the easiest, fastest way possible (i.e. English!)
- There is a justifiably niggling sense that there is so much more
to learn - just to read a newspaper in a target language a
student needs about 3000-4000 words. The more time your child spends
hearing, reading, speaking the language the faster you will see progress.
Language learning is time intensive, please supplement class time;
- Language learning is a life-long endeavor, all students experience peaks and
valleys. The greatest indicator of success is not giftedness or the ability to
mimic or "parrot", but rather a commitment to persevere.
My friend's son can recall so much more than my child - why is this?
Everyone can learn an additional language and every child learns and progresses differently. Some children advance at a
painstakingly slow pace and then, seemingly overnight, zoom ahead. Other children may begin using Spanish from their first class, plateau for a period of time, and resume motivation and focus later. The process is
rarely linear. Families that make a long-term commitment to language learning will see greater results and may find that their child suddenly experiences a "click" and begins to produce much more of the target language.
My child often forgets everything s/he learned in class even before s/he is home - is this normal?
Yes, this is normal. The brain takes time to process and sometimes recall is better several days after class than it is one hour after class! Please also keep in mind that forgetting vocabulary is actually an important part of later recall and mastery. Forgetting words creates mild discomfort and frustration, a feeling that fuels future motivation to seize and capture a word the next time around.
How is my child doing?
Every child learns at his or her pace and very often children recall and produce vocabulary in class and then, even as they cross the threshold of the classroom, their brain switches back to English and they cannot come up with the words. That is fine and normal!
I have many, many students and cannot always send frequent updates about your child's progress. That said, I observe each and every child carefully and typically have a good sense of what each child knows. I pay attention to what engages and what does not, what sticks and what does not for each individual in my classes. Please feel free to prompt me with an email asking about your child, I will do my best to answer in a timely and specific manner.
What are you learning?
While I don't send weekly email updates I do typically send a summary at the end of each thematic block with information about our projects, vocabulary presented, and some books, songs, or Youtube resources that may be helpful for reviewing language on an ongoing basis.
How can I support my child at home?
Keep things low pressure and light hearted. Create an environment of language play and curiosity. Look at a map and identify the countries in which Spanish is spoken. Play with Google translate while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Ask nonchalant questions like, "I wonder how you say X in Spanish?" or make occasional observations: "Alma Street, El Camino Real, Los Altos, Palo Alto...I bet those are words in Spanish..." Modeling curiosity at home very often translates into increased motivation in class time. Throw in some Spanish words (if you know any) as you move about your daily routines. Make the language relevant to their lives - point out Spanish on package labels, signs, and when you hear it spoken by people out in the world.
Can you recommend any books, CDs or DVDs for extra practice?
Like the Suzuki method for music education, listening to Spanish music, books, and DVDs outside of class will prime the cerebral pump, helping children glean greater benefit from in-class time.
If your child watches some television, you can very often find favorite TV programs that are already dubbed in Spanish (I Spy by Scholastic, Bill Nye the Science Guy, for example) or major motion picture films (i.e. Cars, Horton Hears a Who, Wallace & Gromit) with Spanish language tracks. If your child is reading, turn on the Spanish subtitles to accompany their favorite English program. Below please find some audio and visual resources I have compiled to get you started:
http://www.spanishclassroom.net/spanish-resources.html
password: orientation
Other questions or concerns?
Please feel free to contact me via email: [email protected], I am always glad to discuss things with you!