½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

As an Irish daddy my terrible French means that our kids must speak English to me!  Plus as we don't have a TV and just use computers instead 80 - 90% of the media our kids consume is in English.  As a result our kids (6 and 8) are fully bilingual even if they prefer speaking French

sbradley wrote:

As an Irish daddy my terrible French means that our kids must speak English to me!  Plus as we don't have a TV and just use computers instead 80 - 90% of the media our kids consume is in English.  As a result our kids (6 and 8) are fully bilingual even if they prefer speaking French

thank you for answering!!

we have already met at the 3bs, haven't we?

christ

No, I don't think so, but next meeting I will look for you!

Yes we did!  I'll miss the next few meet ups as I'm in Guinea for the next few months for work but I look forward to catching up again with everyone when I get back.

Stephen

As an educator, with a teaching career (ESL) that now spans 28 years I can tell you that children acquire their language skills through what they hear, what is spoken to them from infancy. All children, regardless of their mother tongue, have acquired oral skills long before they enter school.

If an English speaking parent's children DO NOT speak English then that is because it IS NOT being spoken to them, or at least not being spoken to them enough. This is especially true where both parents have different first languages. They will tend to naturally gravitate to using the language that they hear spoken most often, because that is the language they are most accustomed to hearing. While they may well understand the other language they may not necessarily use it because they're simply not comfortable with it. That level of comfort only comes with exposure to the language.

One need only look at the educational system in Canada to see this is true. In the Canadian provinces that traditionally are the "English speaking" provinces, parents are given the opportunity to place their children in French Immersion Schools. All of their classes are given in French only and they learn their English language skills at home.

Conversely, in the traditionally "French speaking" provinces, parents there can put their children into English Immersion Schools. The children take classes only in English and they pick up their French language skills at home.

So if the children have one parent that speaks English and the other speaks French; if they're placed in a school where classes are given in French - what language do you think those children are most likely to speak? Obviously the answer to that question is FRENCH.

The only resolution for this problem is that both parents are going to have to make a concerted effort to use only one language at home. If they want their children to speak English as well as they do French then they're both going to make English the household's FIRST LANGUAGE, otherwise the children will have great difficulty in becoming truly bilingual.

I have been living in Brazil for over 13 years now and speak English, French and Portuguese. My Brazilian wife does not speak English and expresses little interest in learning the language. As a result our household's FIRST LANGUAGE is Portuguese. While I speak to my young son (8 years old in July) in English and he does understand everything I say to him, he will more often than not reply only in Portuguese. This is because the greatest exposure to languages that he has is in Portuguese. This is not a FAILURE in any way, it is just the way things are. Without equal exposure to the two languages even having a parent who is an English teacher cannot compensate for the fact that at home and at school 3/4 of his exposure is Portuguese and only 1/4 or less is English.

Cheers,
James      Expat-blog Experts Team

Thank you James for having taken time out to pop in and share with us your experience.

christ